Just found these articles--haven't seen them posted here as of yet.

British Government Warns Over Y2K April 1 Mini-Bug

23 Mar 1999, 3:21 PM CST By Steve Gold, Newsbytes. LONDON, ENGLAND,

The British government has warned companies that the Y2K issue may cause problems for business computer users as soon as April 1 of this year, because many firms in the UK start their new financial year on that date.

In a written reply issued late yesterday by House of Commons leader Margaret Beckett, she warned that April 1 is one of the key dates that the government's Action 2000 agency investigations had identified as placing businesses most at risk.

Beckett, who is masterminding the Action 2000 agency's policy decisions, said businesses need to know the Y2K problem is not just confined to the end of the year.

"All companies should be aware of the key dates when the Year 2000 will first hit their systems," she said in a House of Commons written reply. For many, Beckett said, April 1, 1999 is one of those dates.

According to Beckett, the government had already instructed its departments and agencies over the April 1 date issue. "The preferred dates which should be used for testing are included in the relevant British Standards Institution advice," she noted.

In a speech given in London at the IT Business Trends conference, Taskforce 2000 executive director Robin Guenier said big business in the UK is still falling behind in its efforts to fix the Y2K problem.

Taskforce 2000 is the industry-funded agency responsible for the Y2K issue. Although Guenier's agency was originally sponsored by the British government, Guenier fell from grace last year when the government apparently felt his warnings over Y2K issues were too stark.

Since then, the Action 2000 agency has been set up by the British government, and Guenier has gained cachet as his predictions over the intensity of the Y2K problem have proved correct.

According to Guenier, large businesses are lagging behind when it comes to tackling the Y2K issue.

"For example, most large businesses said in 1996 that the job would be complete," he said. "There were, they said, good reasons for this -- not least, the need to run their new systems in the real world throughout 1999 so as to go into 2000 with complete confidence that they were fully robust."

Guenier also said he doesn't know of any large business finding themselves in that situation.

"Indeed, most of those that are making good progress tell me that the job is considerably more difficult and is taking much longer than they expected," he explained, adding the question as to where does that leave any businesses that are not making good progress?

Guenier said Taskforce 2000, along with the law firm Dibb Lupton Alsop, commissioned a study of the progress being made by the top 1,000 Dunn & Bradstreet-listed companies, to determine the reality of Y2K preparedness. Results from the study made for some appalling reading, Guenier said.

"For example, 16 percent of respondents had not completed their central IT inventory (which was worse for embedded software)," he said. "And 69 percent had yet to complete the initial remediation of their central IT systems -- a job many experts agree should have been done in 1998 to meet the deadline."

Reported by Newsbytes News Network, http://www.newsbytes.com .

Major Y2K failures expected in July this year

Wed, 24 Mar 1999 10:53:48 GMT John Madden, PC Week Online Latest News Index Similar story search

The gulf between companies and countries ready for the year 2000 and those that lag behind continues to widen, according to Gartner Group's latest Y2K research.

During a press conference here at Gartner Group's Spring Symposium/ITxpo, Lou Marcoccio, Gartner's director of Y2K research, saidless-developed countries have made little progress in remediation and testing in the past year. Those countries deemed by Gartner at high risk include Russia, Afghanistan, and several South American and African nations.

The World Bank recently testified to Congress that although it has raised awareness on Y2K worldwide, it has made only modest progress on motivating less-developed nations to do something about it.

Marcoccio also identified industries where little progress has been made, including segments of the transportation industry, health care, agriculture, small and midsize retail companies, government services in many countries and local town governments. The U.S. and Canada combined are 50 percent more prepared than all other governments in the world, he said.

Many utilities such as large power and gas companies are in good shape, while those utilities owned by cities or municipalities are behind in their remediation, he said. Areas where major progress has been made since last year include Mexican and Hong Kong banks, the largest Japanese and French companies, and pharmaceutical and food-processing companies.

Spending on Y2K has also increased from 5 percent of all IT budget spending in 1997 to between 15 and 30 percent last year. Marcoccio said 81 percent of all packaged software applications are still not compliant, compared to 88 percent two quarters ago. He also said 6 percent of installed software that has been deemed Y2K compliant has problems in newer versions.

The Y2K issue continues to make an impact in court. More than 80 cases nationwide in the US, many class action lawsuits, have been filed as of this month, Marcoccio said, with almost 800 in a prefiling stage.

Marcoccio, who recently testified before Congress on the Y2K issue, said it is a misconception that all failures will occur on and around Jan. 1. He said only 8 to 10 percent of all failures related to Y2K will occur within two weeks of Jan. 1. Five percent of failures have already occurred and many will start this July as companies enter their next fiscal year. Marcoccio said 25 percent of all failures will occur in the second half of this year, 55 percent will occur throughout 2000 and 15 percent through 2001.

"Most companies in their contingency planning are not planning on those dates," he said. "This is not a Jan. 1 event."

-- maji (majiWI@yahoo.com), March 24, 1999

Answers

The hidden assumption is, we will get to that at 15% + some portion of the 55%. If we go off the cliff, we will never see those problems occur. Even without TEOTWAWKI, many systems will be abandoned as will many conpanies, so many errors will go with us into the void.

-- curtis schalek (schale1@ibm.net), March 24, 1999.

Don't plan on 1 April showing much to us. These will be, by and large, internal difficulties, some may be severe, but NONE will see the light of day, if AT ALL possible. Unless of course, some whistle blower decides to go to jail for revealing company confidential information.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (reinzoo@en.com), March 25, 1999.