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A third of Australia's organizations may not make the deadline, calling into question 47% of the systems.
The governments are far, far behind.
This appeared in THE AUSTRALIAN (Dec. 31).
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Research published in the past few months indicates that around a third of Australian organisations might not be ready on December 31, 1999. This means that as many as 47 per cent of time-sensitive computer systems could begin 2000 by closing down, with ramifications as mild as a voice-mail service malfunctioning or as grave as a hospital's life-support systems shutting off. . . .
Damian Chown, the chief executive of Australian Business Foresight, says small and medium-sized businesses remain frighteningly unaware.
"And even if owners have heard about it, most haven't really put in any plan to address it," he says. "I think a lot of them have underestimated the extent to which it might affect them." . . .
Governments are also struggling with the bug, with an auditor- general's report last week finding just 3 per cent of the agencies surveyed were "reasonably prepared". . . .
Bill Benham, project co-ordinator at Brisbane-based Computer Outlook 2000, says the West Australian State Government seems to be the best prepared, followed by NSW and the Northern Territory.
"The rest haven't even left the starting gate ... and the Federal Government is as badly off as any of them," he says.
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