Year 2000 Wire/GartnerGroup Year 2000 World Status Fact Sheet

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Year 2000 Wire/GartnerGroup Year 2000 World Status Fact Sheet

BUSINESS WIRE

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 17, 1999--

GartnerGroup Year 2000 World Status

August 17, 1999

Fact Sheet

GartnerGroup research is normally available only to GartnerGroup clients, but this fact sheet is provided as a public service.

GartnerGroup is recognized as the world's leading authority on year 2000 compliance efforts by enterprises, governments and other organizations throughout the world. With 800 analysts in 80 locations around the globe, GartnerGroup has a year 2000 knowledge base that spans thousands of clients and client projects. GartnerGroup's firsthand knowledge, coupled with extensive surveys and analysis, has consistently enabled it to provide the most comprehensive high-level view of how the world is managing year 2000 efforts.

This is the last published World Status report that GartnerGroup will provide. A final World Status update will be presented at the October 1999 GartnerGroup Symposium, but no published report will be made available.

Significant Trend:

In 1998, enterprises were planning to finish their year 2000 fixes by mid-1999, at which time they planned to invest in e-business. As of this World Status, year 2000 compliance efforts are lasting through the fourth quarter of 1999. Enterprises are postponing some e- business spending, thus creating additional pent-up demand for e- business implementations globally. As year 2000 spending wanes, GartnerGroup projects that e-business will become the main driver of IT spending.

The World Status was previously updated on March 5, 1999, when Lou Marcoccio, GartnerGroup Year 2000 Research Director, testified before the United States Senate. The most significant information in the August 17, 1999, update to the World Status is about:

1) Progress made by countries and industries 2) Progress made by less- developed countries 3) Results of a new type of risk analysis for industries and countries 4) Analysis of when failures will occur 5) Analysis of the impact embedded systems will contribute to failures

Highlights of World Status by Country:

These are selected highlights, and detailed information can be found in GartnerGroup's Strategic Analysis Report "Year 2000 World Status, 2Q99: The Final Countdown."

The following countries have made significant progress with year 2000 compliance:

Argentina Australia Belgium Brazil China France Germany India Ireland Israel Japan Mexico Russia South Africa Switzerland United Kingdom United States

Remarkably, no longer are there any countries that have made no remediation at all. Every government covered in the report has made some compliance effort.

Highlights of World Status by Industry:

These are selected highlights, and detailed information and be found in GartnerGroup's Strategic Analysis Report "Year 2000 World Status, 2Q99: The Final Countdown."

The following sectors have made significant progress worldwide with year 2000 compliance:

Food Processing Government Services Heavy Equipment Manufacturing Hospitality Insurance Investment Services Medical Instruments Retail Semiconductor Software

Recommended actions for CEOs and CIOs:

- Enterprises should create event plans, i.e., contingency and

disaster recovery, that are synchronized with the proper timing

of predicted failures.

- Each enterprise business group should undertake its own risk

analysis. Do not use world status data as the only means of

attaining specific research into key business sectors or

geographic regions.

- Specific decisions should be made using explicit data; high- level

data should not be the driver of final assessments.

Failures in 1999 will be due to:

- Defects in remediated lines of code, even after testing.

GartnerGroup estimates that 5 percent to 9 per cent of defective

lines of code will remain after remediation and testing have been

completed.

- A large number of transactions use date-forward calculations

(using "00" dates) to the next calendar year in the fourth

quarter of any given year (800 percent more than other quarters).

- Some enterprises entering fiscal year 2000 process more "00"

dates.

Failures in 2000 will be due to:

- Business transactions running defective code.

- Frozen applications running for the first time in 2000.

- Noncompliant packaged software released to the market.

- Running noncompliant archived data on compliant systems and

running code that has been inadequately tested. A complete cycle

covering most transactions will take most of one full year to

complete, so it will take one full year to uncover most code and

data defects.

About GartnerGroup

As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis and consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community serving Fortune 1000 companies from 80 locations worldwide. GartnerGroup's unique capabilities and resources help bring clarity to the direction of the world's hottest and most volatile industry. Additional information about the company is available on the World Wide Web at www.gartner.com.

(Copyright 1999)

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 18, 1999.

Wow! 17 nations have made "significant progress". It we assume that they will be 100% ready (which they won't), that only leaves 150+ who won't be nearly as ready...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 18, 1999.