We found 12 percent of large companies were verifying their business partners' Y2K readiness by conducting on-site visits. Mr. Chairman, Y2K readiness is not a topic to be relegated to the level of informal conversations. They cannot verify their trading partners' readiness. I am concerned that large corporations are not taking the danger of supplier failure seriously enough. Too many businesses appear to be relying heavily on trust.
Companies are more rigorous when it comes to preparing routine legal contracts.
In this case, we are talking about the potential for serious repercussions. Globally speaking, supply chain readiness poses its own set of problems. Often national governments operate these services and there are few, if any, alternate commercial providers. Again, we are talking about mission-critical systems. Some large companies, providing anything from utilities to consumer products, may not be able to provide people with the necessities they rely on like food, water and electricity.