Upgrade hitch puts councils behind

By ADAM GIFFORD

Local authorities say not being able to get upgrades in hardware and software is a big reason their Y2K projects will take longer to complete than they thought a few months ago.

The admission came in an August survey of councils conducted by Local Government New Zealand and the Y2K Readiness Commission.

The survey found councils had surged ahead of large businesses in assessing and fixing their Y2K problems.

About 86 per cent said they had assessed the problem and 62 per cent said they had fixed any problems in their computer systems and other equipment essential to their business continuity.

Only 69 per cent of large businesses have completed assessment and 53 per cent fixed all serious problems.

About a third of councils have completed testing of their own systems, but only a quarter have completed testing electronic links with other organisations. Many rural councils do not believe they need to do such tests.

Rural councils are also more confident they will meet their original completion dates, but 78 per cent of metropolitan councils say completion will be later than they thought in June.

Y2K Readiness Commission technical adviser John Good said the amount of slippage being experienced "is not enough to push things seriously into next year. There's still a bit of a cushion there."

He said the majority of councils seemed to have done the bulk of the work, and were waiting on a few things which were hard to complete, like managing supply chains and business continuity.

He said there appeared to be three main reasons for equipment or software not being there when it was needed.

"People are modifying their readiness statements, and some are delivering upgrades later than they promised. This is a worry for people who are cutting it fine," Mr Good said.

There are also estimates from research firm the Gartner Group that about 6 per cent of the software upgrades are reverting to non-compliant code in the version following the upgrade the manufacturers say is Y2K ready.

"Testing also takes longer than you think it will, and there may be things to fix, requiring more retesting."

Mr Good said the overall message from the survey was positive, particularly when set against the lack of preparation the commission found in the local government sector last year.