The chief executive officer of the Australian Government’s Industry Strategy for the Year 2000, Graeme Inchley, has warned the country’s distribution channel that it is letting down its IT customers by ignoring the Y2K problems in small to medium businesses. Inchley told a press conference that resellers and integrators needed to clear up their in-house Y2K problems and, in turn, educate their customers. The reseller channel has an enormous role to play, he said, They should stop trying to sell new product. It’s a huge opportunity for the channel – resellers and integrators. Inchley went on to refer to research which he claimed demonstrates that 360,000 jobs in Australia could potentially come under threat from computer crashes associated with Year 2000 problems. Inchley is spearheading a Federal government Y2K education campaign that is specifically targeting SMEs.
