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Wednesday, 19th November, 1997: Martyn Thomas
Computer Laboratory > Research > TSG > Logic and Semantics Seminar > Wednesday, 19th November, 1997: Martyn Thomas

Speaker: Martyn Thomas, Praxis
Title: The Most Expensive Error
Time: Wednesday, 19th November, 1997, 16:15
Abstract:

Most directors and managers have heard about the "millennium time-bomb". Most believe that it is mainly a problem for older data-processing systems that could fail at the end of the century when the two-digit year moves from 99 to 00. They are wrong. Year 2000 problems span the entire business, from the factory floor to the executive washroom and from the supply chain to product liability. Many systems will fail long before the end of the century. For most organisations, resolving their year 2000 issues will either be the largest project they have ever undertaken successfully, or the last they have the opportunity to attempt. The problems are compounded by decades of poor software engineering, so that repairing systems is unnecessarily expensive, time-consuming and error-prone.

There have been predictions that 10% of companies will go out of business, and that unemployment will rise to 6 million in the UK, with similar economic impact in other countries. Local authorities and emergency services are starting to make plans to avoid civil disorder. No-one knows how bad the disruption will be or how long it will last, but the uncertainty itself could depress the capital markets and cause economic damage.

Martyn Thomas has worked with major companies around the world on their Year 2000 programmes. In this talk he describes what he has seen, and attempts to draw some conclusions.