In reaction to the perception that small to medium businesses are unprepared for the onset of the Y2K bug network developer 3Com Australia have initiated a program that aims to ensure that networks are comprehensively safeguarded against the millennium virus.
The program consists of Y2K resource centres that hope to offer advice to businesses via a Web site and white papers.
Resellers are specifically signalled out as vulnerable to Y2K problems. Consequently, 3Com is presenting a Reseller Support Program that includes a kit with FAQ, a Y2K checklist and Y2K case studies.
Also available is an "Online Hotline" that provides information on the status of 3Com products in terms of Y2K compliance and other queries that nervous businesses might have.
These operations are specifically aimed for the SME market as, according to 3Com's Australian and New Zealand managing director Gerhard Rumpff, large corporations and governments have the money and the resources to ensure Y2K compliance.
Smaller businesses have neither and often have little idea where to even begin in attempting to defend the business before the looming deadline arrives.
This could have dire consequences not only for the business directly concerned but for other organisations linked through economic or technological considerations.
"Since all organisations are now inextricably linked through global data networks, our economic resistance to the millennium bug is only as strong as the weakest link in the supply chain," claimed Rumpff.