Others think they can throw a year 2000 fix into their regular remediation efforts. One year 2000 analyst and speaker is not surprised at the news. We've been saying it for years, and no one was listening. We've been accused of hype and not telling the truth. The insurance industry was the first to get started on a year 2000 remediation effort and is the furthest along, de Jager said.
Banking is probably next in terms of progress.
At the bottom end of the scale is manufacturing and automated systems with embedded processors that use date stamps. A large number of people may not be able to get into the parking garage at work on Jan. 2, 2000. Some companies are trying to replace their defective systems with year 2000 compliant systems, particularly ERP systems from SAP and Baan. The problem is ERP is hard to implement, SAP in particular. By his own research, de Jager estimates no more than 25 percent of major corporations have a project plan, where they ve identified every application that needs repair, how many people work will on it, and when it will be delivered.