Technology Managers in Charge of Year 2000 Fixes Fear Flying on December 31, 1999PRNewswire While confident about their ability to solve their own company's year 2000 (y2k) problems, technology managers aren't sure they'd risk flying over New Year's weekend, according to a new InformationWeek Research study. Exactly half of the y2k experts surveyed by InformationWeek, the leading information technology (IT) publication, say they wouldn't feel comfortable flying in a commercial airliner between December 30 and January 2. "That's certainly surprising given the fact that virtually every IT manager insists they'll finish all their own y2k projects by the year-end deadline," says John Eckhouse, senior editor of research at InformationWeek. "Their confidence evidently doesn't extend beyond their own organization." The year 2000 problem may cause computers to crash and fail after midnight on December 31 because many old software programs were not written to properly recognize dates after 1999. Fixing the problem requires inspecting and repairing millions of lines of arcane code in everything from mainframe computers to silicon chips embedded in cars. Other interesting findings from the just completed research survey of 250 IT managers in charge of their organization's year 2000 projects: -- On average, IT organizations have completed 84% of their total y2k
remediation and testing. Larger companies have finished a higher
percentage than smaller ones.
-- IT managers are extremely confident that they'll finish all their y2k
work by year's end. A third of those surveyed say 100% of the necessary
software fixes already have been completed. Just nine of the 250 IT
managers surveyed acknowledged that they won't be totally finished with
everything - major and minor - by December 31.
-- Most companies got a rather late start on their y2k work. Only one in
four began addressing the problem before 1997.
-- The computer age may end - temporarily - on December 31. That's because
IT managers say that if they run into unexpected y2k problems, the main
weapon in their contingency plan calls for using manual processes to
temporarily replace automated operations.
-- Just in case something drastic happens, y2k managers plan to have 69%
of their entire IT staff on call and 34% actually on site during the
weekend that begins Friday December 31. But only 49% say their highest
ranking IT executive, generally the Chief Information Officer, will be
there that weekend.
The survey results and accompanying charts appear in this week's InformationWeek and on the magazine's Web site (http://www.informationweek.com/reports). InformationWeek Research is the premier source of statistical and interpretive analysis about the nexus of IT and business trends, issues and technologies. InformationWeek magazine is one of the most active publishers of primary editorial research, both quantitative and qualitative, of any magazine in America today. InformationWeek continually surveys its 400,000 subscribers. InformationWeek delivers news, strategies, analysis, product and technology information to people who manage technology in business. In addition to the weekly magazine, InformationWeek provides a system of information solutions for people who manage technology in business, including InformationWeek Online (http://www.informationweek.com/), the annual InformationWeek Conference for business and technology executives and InformationWeek Daily, an e-mail news service. CMP Media Inc. is the leading high-tech media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers, and users of technology worldwide. With its portfolio of newspapers, magazines, custom publishing, Internet products, research, consulting and conferences, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. On-line editions of the company's print publications, along with products and services created exclusively for the Internet, can be found on CMPnet at http://www.cmpnet.com/. SOURCE: CMP Media Inc. Contact: John Eckhouse of CMP Media Inc., 510-654-1975, Website: http://www.cmpnet.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/181993.html or fax, |