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Better safe than sorry

Source: The Malay Mail Publication date: 2000-06-27

REMEMBER Y2K and the fear it created about not being Y2K- compliant? With the widespread use of computers, many private corporations, public organisations and individuals too were wondering what might happen should the Y2K bug wipe out data or at least cause it to become garbled.

At the end of the day, it was impossible for anyone to say for sure what would happen, as such a situation had never been faced before.

However, it was the responsibility of organisations to at least make the effort to be Y2K-compliant, as a safeguard, as this resulted in an estimated RM2.4 billion spent on rectifying the Y2K bug problem.

"The issue is not whether it was money well-spent," said a participant at the forum on "Business Continuity - Post-Y2K".

"There was too much at stake not to have done something to prepare for the event, and the bottom-line is that it is better to be safe than sorry. Otherwise in the event of an actual crisis, you may not have a second chance."

BCS chairman Praba Thiagarajah said business continuity planning is like taking up insurance - you prepare for something you hope will not happen.

He also said that organisations prepared for Y2K by setting up individual command centres to monitor the situation.

"However, countries with active and involved Business Continuity Societies will not only be able to enjoy the sharing of knowledge and even resources like the command centres," said Thiagarajah.

"That kind of cooperation is what we should be striving towards, as it makes the response not only more cost-effective but also time- sensitive.

"In future, we would like to see more cooperation and collaboration not only among business competitors but the various countries as well."

http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp?story_id=11572834&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Telecommunications

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 27, 2000