ICL Plc, the UK-based systems and services company owned by Fujitsu, is auditing and upgrading 80,000 BT desktops for the year 2000 compliance in a contract worth approximately 15m pounds. ICL will provide 100 engineers to audit each BT PC and, where necessary, upgrade them up to the required Pentium PC, running at 133MHz, using Windows 95. Replacement hardware, usually Compaq equipment, will be supplied by ComputaCenter, a spokesperson said. ICL currently has 450 engineers, although this number fluctuates, working on 120 projects worth approximately 100m pounds. ICL has not set an upper limit on the amount of Y2K work that it undertakes and it has yet to turn down a project, although it is examining its resources to complete any new work. Orders have jumped 300% in the last six months, although few companies are willing to make announcements. The reason appears to be due to fears of legal complications if a system does fail and the companies have made previous announcements of satisfaction with the work.
