Survey Finds Firms Unprepared For Y2K

A recent survey of information technology directors and managers of 144 major U.S. corporations found that less than half of the participants expect all of their critical systems to be prepared for the upcoming century date change. The survey was conducted by Rubin Systems Inc. for Cap Gemini America Inc. Eighteen percent of companies expect that 75% or less of their critical systems will be "completely tested and compliant" by Dec. 31, 1999. Thirty-six percent expect between 76% and 99% of their applications to be ready for next year, and 2% anticipate completing work on 50% or less of their systems. Seventy-five percent of respondents already have experienced a year 2000 failure. The most frequent failures involved "financial miscalculation or loss" (92%), followed by "processing disruptions" (84%), "customer-service problems" (38%), and "logistics/supply-chain problems" (34%). Ninety-nine percent of respondents anticipate an increase in system failures into the remainder of 1999 and beyond.