UK businesses ill-prepared for new phone numbers

NEWS Calls for a 'national data cleaning day' are growing following research published yesterday which shows that thousands of businesses aren't prepared for the Big Number changes, which come into force on 22 April. A survey of IT professionals by software company Number Master found that only 20 per cent of businesses are fully prepared for the new codes. As a result, Dun and Bradstreet has backed calls for a data cleaning day, claiming that the government's awareness campaign is failing to get the message through. Although local changes take affect on 22 April, the national cut-off date for each of the five affected UK cities (London, Cardiff, Coventry, Portsmouth and Southampton) and the whole of Northern Ireland will be staggered from 5 August through September. Jonathan Symons, managing director of Number Master, said: "Companies are worried it will hit their bottom line. But the timetable for the national cut off date is even less well known than the April 22 date." Both Number Master and Dun and Bradstreet claim that a national data cleaning day would provide a focus for companies to make the necessary changes to their computer systems. David Harrington, director general of the Telecommunications Managers Association, said he was concerned with the findings of the survey. "If you cast your mind back to when a new numbering scheme was introduced for the first time there were a significant number of companies, particularly in the small and medium class, that just weren't prepared and they did suffer as a result. I'm afraid that we're going to see the same thing again. I fear the focus for these companies is on their primary business." However, the TMA believes that those companies that haven't taken action already will do so in their own time, and claims a national day would be futile. The body responsible for creating awareness - the National Code and Number change organisation - claims awareness within the cities being affected has improved, and is due to announce up-to-date figures on Thursday 20 April. However, it admitted it hasn't conducted research on how many companies have actually made any changes. The technical issues businesses face include call logging systems, ISDN equipment and numbers stored within databases.