Euro conversion more expensive than Y2K??

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Centrist of me, I suppose, but I find the concept hard to imagine. Makes me think Europe doesn't have a clue about the depth of Y2K remediation. (This item came out a day or two ago)

http://webserv.vnunet.com/www_user/plsql/pkg_vnu_news.right_frame?p_story=76719

Euro three times the cost of Y2K

by Linda Leung

The cost of converting to the euro is three times more expensive than Year 2000 (Y2K) work, with many UK organisations prepared to stick their heads in the sand.

A third of the 1,003 IT officials polled by consultancy, Neaman Bond Associates, admitted they viewed the euro as a distraction and plan to do "the minimum". This contrasts with another 30 per cent who will embrace it as an opportunity to "do all they can".

Said Graham Brown, director of Neaman Bond Associates, "This is a surprise given Europe's attitude and enthusiam towards the euro. Businesses are still working out what their responses should be towards the euro."

A third of UK firms said they expect to carry out some euro transactions as soon as the first quarter of this year, but this is significantly different to shifting their base currency to the euro. Most countries have taken 2001 as the deadline, while many larger organisations want to convert to the euro as soon as possible, continued Brown.

The cost of conversion is some much higher than for Y2K because of the hidden implications. Rather than digging out all the digits that represent dates, euro conversion requires firms to locate every display that shows currency.

"This is big bang implementation," said Brown.

Firms may not realise the training implications - changes in currency affect every level of the organisation, such as call centre agents, continued Brown. Unlike Y2K work, there are no standard courses or software to help here.

According to the research, Germany and Ireland are devoting more resources to Euro testing than other European countries. UK companies are dedicating twice as many resources to Y2K testing as to euro testing.

) 1999 VNU Business Publications Ltd

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 25, 1999

Answers

Brooks - I noticed this article too. It seemed somewhat bizarre to me. However, not having a clue about such things I didn't know what to think and so can't really comment.

I'll be interested to see what the responses are from those more in the know about these things.

-- Anon (anon@abc.com), February 25, 1999.


One possibility ( I have seen it used often in the Corp world) is that work done under Budget A includes a lot of work that would actuall be done under Budget B. For strange and wonderfull reasons managment type shift these things around.

Not saying that is necessarly the case here. Euro conversion was probably enough of a load by itself. But some other things are often done while you have the hood up.

- Greybear

- Got Wrenches?

-- Greybear (gereybear@home.com), February 25, 1999.


I question whether more than banks and other financial operations were quizzed on this poll. These results sound like US corporate Y2K efforts before the question was asked about more than the "Enterprise" computing systems. Look at how the US Y2K bill as mushroomed since people started looking at embedded systems and stand-alone computers used in all the places besides the corporate "Info Technologies Empires".

Our friends in Europe have a harsh Y2K lesson with a very steep learning curve to overcome between now and 01/01/2000.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 25, 1999.


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