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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Stocks: An Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David C Mapes who wrote (9167)	1/25/1998 10:11:00 AM
From: BM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13949

"Canada gets bad Y2K report" Article from the February issue of Silicon Valley North - Ottawa edition. Less than half of all Canadian companies are prepared for the problems that may occur when the new millennium hits, according to recent StatCan preliminary findings. The survey, Preparedness of firms for the Year 2000, was conducted for the Task Force Year 2000 and shows that there is a lot yet to be done by Canadian companies to ready themselves for the coming of the new millennium. Jean Monty, president and CEO of BCE Inc. and chair of the task force, says the initial findings are well below what he had expected. "I was hoping that 40% to 50% of companies had formal action plans in place," he says. The results show that there is a polarization in the millennium bug solution game. While 10% of all companies polled aren't even aware there is a potential problem, there are only 10% that have a formal action plan in place. More alarming, only 15% of financial and insurance institutions have formal action plans, another 50% have informal plans and 34% are aware of the problem, but aren't doing anything about it. Large financial and insurance institutions are leading the way toward a solution, with 65% having an action plan, either formal or informal, in place. In general, large firms are getting the job done with almost 50% having formal action plans in place. In contrast, some 51% of small enterprises and 30% of medium sized businesses haven't even addressed the problem. Medium sized enterprises are waking up to the problem: 20% have addressed the problem formally. The survey estimates that it will cost Canadian companies about $12 billion to fix the problem. Patricia Trepanier, a StatCan spokesperson, says there isn't much confidence in this figure, because of the varying cost levels companies believe it will take to fix the problem. She adds that of the 45% of companies who have some sort of action plan, only 40% could estimate how much it would cost to fix the problem. Monty says there is a twofold explanation to the findings. The human resources shortage combined with the lack of funds available play a major role in how a company approaches the problem. He says he is very worried about the future competitiveness of Canada in the global economy if things don't change in the near future. Even though the federally appointed task force shows great concern over the general unpreparedness of Canadian companies, major players in the microelectronics industry are showing less concern over the issue. The whole problem revolves around software and how the chips are programmed, says Doug Smeaton, president and CEO of Semiconductor Insights Inc. "lt's a question of how time is tracked, which means does the chip depend on the date to track time or is time measured in duration?' The mandate of the private sector task force is to evaluate and assess the current situation of Canadian companies and come up with an action plan to confront the year 2000 issue. It still has to study the StatCan findings more thoroughly and will release its final 'results by the beginning of February 98, a full two months ahead of the Initial deadline of May. Perry Hoffman perryh@silvan.com