Use of Year 2000 Service Providers to Continue After the
Millennium Project, According to IDC
Almost 70% of Companies Currently Using External Service Providers for Their
Y2K Projects Will Continue or Increase Their Use of These Organizations
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies that formerly did
not use external service providers are using them for Year 2000 (Y2K)
services. The breadth of the Y2K problem has led to more widespread use of
external services. According to a new report from International Data
Corporation's (IDC) Systems Integration research program, of those companies
using external organizations for their Y2K projects, 37% are new users.
Retail/wholesale and manufacturing companies whose revenues range from
$100 million to $500 million have the largest number of new users of service
organizations.
Most Y2K service providers can count on maintaining or even increasing
their services to their Y2K clients after 2000 for application development or
application maintenance work. Providers servicing the medium- and large-sized
companies in the retail/wholesale and manufacturing sectors will have the
greatest potential for expansion of services after the turn of the millennium.
IDC's Year 2000 Survey was conducted in December 1997 and January 1998.
Four hundred companies in 17 SIC codes were included, which gives IDC a margin
of error of +/-5% for the total results. The survey answers the question:
viewing all companies with revenues from below $10 million to more than
$1 billion, what is their status regarding the Y2K date-coding problem at the
beginning of 1998? Project priorities for eight functional areas were
reviewed, including the strategy being adopted for each application area and
the use of outside services. IDC also queried respondents on the bottlenecks
being experienced in meeting the Y2K challenge. These eight areas are analyzed
for the progress in their projects.
This new IDC report, "The Year 2000 Problem: Status and Opportunities for
IT Service Providers" (IDC #16476), identifies spending levels on the
Y2K problem and breaks them out by internal expenses, outside services,
software, and hardware for both average-sized and large companies. Actual
spending for 1997 is compared with 1998 budgets and 1999 plans, and a total
project cost estimate is given. The second half of the report is dedicated to
looking at the use of outside services. The extent of use of service
providers in the overall Y2K project in general and in the testing phase is
analyzed. The types of services being used by industry and company size are
also examined. The market share of and client satisfaction with Y2K service
providers is explored, and the ramifications of the Y2K problem for the
services market after the millennium change are discussed.
This report is available for purchase by contacting Cheryl Toffel at
508-935-4389 or by e-mail at ctoffel@idc.com. For additional information on
IDC's Systems Integration research program, please contact Kara Murphy,
Group Marketing Manager, at 508-935-4136.
About IDC
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., International Data Corporation
provides IT market research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology
customers around the world. With a global network of 375 analysts in more
than 40 countries, IDC is the industry's most comprehensive resource on
worldwide IT markets, products, vendors, and geographies.
IDC/LINK, an IDC subsidiary, researches and analyzes the home computing
market, leading-edge technologies in telecommunications and new media, and the
convergence of computing and consumer electronics.
IDC's World Wide Web site (http://www.idc.com) contains additional company
information and recent news releases, and offers full-text searching of recent
research.
IDC is a division of International Data Group, the world's leading
IT media, research and exposition company.
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
SOURCE International Data Corporation
Web Site: idc.com
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