Telco Is Greatest Y2K Vulnerability in Companies

According to a new study from Cutter Consortium, 28% of companies surveyed said that telecommunications has the greatest Year 2000 vulnerability in their organization.

Factory operations — including robotics, quality assurance, shipping and receiving, process control, and sensors/actuators — came in second with 18%.

Ed Yourdon, Chairman of Cutter Consortium comments, "The issue of embedded systems has long been recognized as one of the potentially dangerous aspects of Year 2000, and one that deserves careful attention on the part of Year 2000 project teams ... One of the most interesting results from our study is that two areas: vehicles (cars, trucks, planes, etc.) and security/access systems have proven to be the least problematic areas thus far. Telecommunications systems and factory systems appear to be the most problematic, followed by office equipment and building-related systems."

Cutter Consortium’s Year 2000 study consists of responses from 96 organizations, with an average annual IT budget of $38.2 million, and an average IT staff of 816 people. Approximately 86% of respondents were senior managers, IT managers, Year 2000 project managers or quality assurance managers. This study was conducted in late summer 1999.

For more information, visit the Cutter Web site at www.cutter.com/consortium.

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