Caribbean facing shortage
of Y2K professionals
Dealing with the Y2K problem requires world class project management skills and this is weak or in short supply in the Caribbean.
According to Information Technology specialist and university lecturer, Dr Terrence Farrell, up to the end of 1998, preparation for the Y2K bug was progressing much too slowly in the region and there are still areas of serious vulnerability, particularly for bankers.
There is a lack of awareness of the implications of not dealing
with the bug at the senior executive and board level of many large
companies including Government institutions and some banks, he
adds.
Farrell said as a result, many corporations do not understand
the scope of the problem and have allocated inadequate budgets
and resources to deal with the issue. On the other hand, when
executives do acknowledge the problem, there is a lackluster approach
and little attention to detail or rigorous testing to ensure that
the system will work on January 1, 2000.
The Y2K bug refers to the software and hardware problems many
computer systems will face at the turn of the century. This problem
originated when designers of older computers and software applications
used only two digitrs to represent the year. The strategy saved
on valuable computer memory and processing power but made it impossible
for the system to differentiate between the year 1900 and 2000.
This bug will make it difficult or impossible for some computer
systems to perform time sensitive calculations and other functions
when the new millennium begins.
"Failure to establish and enforce best practice procedures
in conversion, data management, change management and configuration
management can seriously affect a firms ability to service the
needs of their clients," says Farrell.
For the banking sector, the impact of this can be disastrous.
Although individual banks in some islands may be Y2K ready, there
may still be some disruption if major customers, other banks or
the rest of the local banking system is not ready.
If customers are not Y2K compliant they may default on loans,
or their computer system may not be able to accept or record deposits
to their accounts, he said.
"Vendors and IT technicians need to make their applications
and equipment compliant by the third quarter 1998 to allow banks
sufficient time for testing. Failure to meet this time-frame will
compromise the ability of the regional banking system to confidently
meet the year 2000 deadline.
"Banks who do not take the issue seriously enough risk losing
the confidence of their customers - and no bank will survive without
the confidence of its customers," asserts Farrell.
The banking system and Government agencies will be vulnerable
to major disasters if the problem does not get the attention it
deserves. This includes a miscalculation of pay-cheques, pension
payments and tax liabilities. In more extreme situations, businesses
and governmental agencies may be unable to access their systems
or they may experience a mal-function of their security system.
For service providers there may be a miscalculation of invoice
payments or data bases may become corrupted and unusable. In the
banking sector, users may not have access to bank vaults as time
locks may malfunction. Older banking machines may also malfunction
and may either shut down or inaccurately dispense cash.
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