UK public sector bodies are struggling to meet the 2005 IP migration deadline set by bank-owned payments processor Bacs.
All UK councils must migrate to the Bacstel-IP payment system, which utilises Internet Protocol and public key infrastructure (PKI), by 2005.
At the recent Institute of Rates, Revenues & Valuations (IRRV) annual conference and exhibition, financial software vendor Bottomline Technologies says many delegates were unaware of the Bacs migration issue and those that did were worried they didn't have time and budget allocated for the change.
Mike Hutchinson, marketing manager at Bacs, says councils need to accelerate plans to move to Basctel-IP and avoid the inevitable rush to migrate in 2005.
The clearing house recently urged the 50,000 British companies that use its payments network to begin liaising with banks and software suppliers and allocate budgets for move to the new platform.