THE United States-based Gartner Group, an internationally recognised Y2K certifying authority, researches, analyses and conducts surveys for governments, enterprises and other organisations on the level of Year 2000 preparedness of their computer-related systems.
In a recently published world report that was presented to the U.S. Congress, the Gartner Group states that India has made significant progress in becoming Y2K compliant.
The Gartner scale, called COMPARE (COMpliance Progress And REadiness), is used in some areas in India to quantify the level of Y2K preparedness of industries.
The COMPARE scale has five levels of preparedness:
Level 1: Begin - Enterprises begin preliminary activity of deciding how and when to begin.
Level 2: Problem determination - At this level, enterprises will have taken a complete inventory of technology and business processes and determined preliminary costs.
Level 3: Plan complete and resources committed - At this level, mission-critical systems will have been identified, remedial strategies will have been drawn up and needed resources committed.
Level 4: Operational sustainability - At this level, mission-critical technology has been remediated from Year 2000 risks.
Level 5: Fully compliant: At this level, all technology within the enterprise and within the business partners will have been made complaint.
According to the Gartner Group, not one industry at the global level has reached Level 5. Banking, telecommunications, insurance, aviation are among those sectors that have attained Level 4 compliance.
In India, the NASSCOM has adopted a similar rating scale. According to it, Level 2 indicates that extent of Y2K preparation is good, but that challenges remain. Level 3 indicates "sufficient awareness, but with risk of business disruption". Levels 1, 4 a nd 5 on NASSCOM's rating are similar to Gartner's.
According to NASSCOM, India is at Level 2 along with Brazil, Japan and Singapore.
