Year 2000 skills warning

Demand for year 2000 skills and resources will outstrip supply by next April, leading to one in 10 organisations failing to meet the deadline for compliancy. The warning comes in a fresh report on the century date change problem published last week by consultancy Cap Gemini Sogeti. Many of those missing the deadline will be large organisations, representing 29% of the UK's GDP. The number of failures will increase to one in four firms if the timetable to fix the bug slips by just three months. The total cost of ensuring compliancy will cost UK companies #23 billion. This figure is made up of #200,000 for small organisations with fewer than 150 employees; #400,000 for medium-sized companies employing up to 500 staff; and #2 million for firms with more than 500 employees. The consultancy also calculated the time it would take for these companies to resolve the problem. It would take small organisations one and a half years to fix the bug; two years for medium-sized firms; and two and a half years for large companies. "With 13% of large organisations having not yet started work, it is likely that a significant number will fail to meet the deadline," according to the report. CGS also offered a new set of recommendations which include: encouraging industry sectors, such as hospitals, to group together to create powerful lobbying groups; to set up a national independent helpline; to encourage project managers to regularly meet and share experiences with their counterparts in other firms; for chief executives to spell out compliancy programmes in annual company reports; and to ensure industry regulatory bodies have the power to demand compliancy.

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