Big companies getting serious about Y2K

Details of the latest study of Britain's Top 1000 companies, released Monday, reveal that virtually all - 98% - believe it is necessary to take action to protect their business from things that might go wrong as a result of the millennium bug.

This study, commissioned by Taskforce 2000 and business continuity advisor Adam Associates, reveals that great majority of companies believe problems are most likely to arise from outside their own organisations, specifically through failure in power or telecoms infrastructure, in the financial services, or through disruption at suppliers or customers.

Two factors seem to be contributing to increased concern at large companies. One-third report having already experienced Y2K failures within their organisations. In addition, says Taskforce 2000 director Robin Guenier, "Big business is clearly not convinced by government reassurances about infrastructure readiness." Guenier has long been critical of the Action 2000 'traffic light' rating system, which he says is not precise enough. He also suggests that the FSA ratings of key financial institutions have grown increasingly vague.

The measures that large companies are actually taking include:

• developing 'workaround' programmes (94%)
• developing alternative systems (83%).
• finding alternative suppliers (68%)
• stockpiling (49%)
• sourcing alternative premises (46%).

Interestingly, 30% of those companies questioned expect their competitors to be hurt by Y2K. Twice that number are so confident in their own continuity plans that they count them as a competitive advantage.

So, the good news is that most big UK companies have business continuity plans in place. The bad news is that 20% have not tested their plans - and even more worrying - 40% have not told staff what they will need to do if the plans are actually put into operation.

"There is no point in having a continuity plan if you don't test it," observes Richard Pursey, chief executive at Adams Associates. "The results overall are very positive, but there is clearly more work to be done."

Elliott Chase