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A survey of over 1,000 firms in Europe reported that they plan to buy no special y2k software tools. So much for silver bullets.
If they refuse to buy tools that speed up remediation work, they are in effect saying, "This is not a major problem. Normal operations can deal with it." This is suicidal.
Meanwhile, the Eurpoean Commission plans to issue a paper later this year on how to deal with y2k. A paper. Sometime. It will discuss coordination.
The answer of every bureaucracy to every problem is simple: (1) more study, (2) more money, (3) more coordination.
This was reported in Reuters (Jan. 8).
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It said the European Commission, the EU executive, could help disseminate the information so that countries could share "best practice."
The Commission has so far taken a low-key approach to the millennium bug; for example, setting up a Year 2000 Web site and sponsoring workshops to consult industry and government officials.
It plans to issue a paper in the next few months, however, on ways the EU can address the problem, with one recommendation likely to be fostering cross-border "networking" between governments and industry associations, a Commission official said. . . .
The message is sinking in only slowly in Europe, according to a survey of 1,050 companies last autumn cofunded by the Commission.
Ninety percent said they had a strategy to address Year 2000 problems, but less than 50 percent said they were working with their customers and suppliers and about 60 percent had no plans to buy new hardware or software tools.
"These findings cast substantial doubt on the quality of understanding of the problem and on the companies' strategies," said a summary of the survey.
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