The Euro was supposed to have been a disaster.

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

Among the "missed or fizzled" y2k trigger dates, one that I've not seen much update on is the (partial) introduction of the Euro last January. This was supposed, by some alarmist commentators, to have been a complete software nightmare. However, it seemed to come and go with no problems, though a few months later a ripple appeared about some lost accounts or something along those lines. As a massive software project with the famous and rare "immovable deadline" property, the Euro thing indeed has superficial commonalities with Y2K. Anybody have an update on whether the Euro intro ever did end up seriously biting anybody's butt ?

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), October 24, 1999

Answers

Hopefully some Europeans or programmers who worked on that transition can give us a better idea, but I only noticed a few problems in the news. From my "non-codehead" perspective I just don't see how that project could be anywhere near as pervasive and extensive as Y2K. It is primarily an exchange rate problem, just like converting dollars to pesos or yen. If you take the software problems with the Euro and multiply it by 10 million, that is more in line with Y2K, then on top of that of course you've got major infrastructure vulnerabilities.

-- @ (@@@.@), October 24, 1999.

As I understand it,they did expect that the euro thing would cause more problems than it has (or that have been admitted to) the major problem was that y2k didn't receive the attention that is required in a timely fashion because of the euro change over.

-- Lumber Jack (johnsellis@webtv.net), October 25, 1999.

Euro so witty! ;)

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), October 25, 1999.

Yes there was a few small problems with the Euro. It seems that there were at least two major banking institutions that 'got bit real good'. I personally would not call losing the interest on 11 billion Euros for over three weeks 'little' but maybe these banks would. Seems that the transfer of funds between banks never took place or were never recorded (this last was between 19 different banks). The part about the transfers ended up being the banks that were transferring the money out to meet their obligations did not receive credit and had to pay interest on the time they 'held' the money.....even though they didn't know they had it. Since they owed the money to two major German banks (Hello, Mr. Yardeni), they had to take the beating or pay dearly in the future. The transfers on account involving the 19 banks was settled by saying that this would be listed as a 'late' transaction. Again, two major German banks were involved....this time on the losing side. I wonder what would have been the outcome should those two be on the other side of the coin.

The article for this is in the archive under banking, I believe. I'd research it but it's 1 am and I DO have to work sometime. Gotta go try to sleep.

Tick...Tick....Tick (Thanks, Sysman. nice touch)

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), October 25, 1999.


Here are three informative links about the Euro changeover:

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/~wsapi/investor/reply-9546755

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/12/overdraft.idg/

http://www.wbn.com/y2ktimebomb/International/pobeirne9904.htm

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), October 25, 1999.



Well, let's take a look at the Euro programming task for a minute.

We want a new currency that will be tracked in conjunction with other currencies. We want to post exchange rates, and be able to do a few other calculations.

We're already working with at least a dozen other currencies everyday including:

British Pound, Italian Lira, Spanish Peseta, Greek Drachma, Swiss Franc, French Franc, US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, German Mark, etc. etc.

Lately, we've had to add the Polish, Hungarian, Czech Republic, Romanian, Turkish, Russian, and Latvian currencies. We had to remove the Czechoslovakian currency, after its "Velvet Revolution" made that country cease to exist.

So I've built software that EASILY adds and subtracts new currencies. It only makes sense. It's just another line in the printout or screen.

As a software engineer, I was not at ALL surprised that nothing happened with the Euro.

The hype surrounding the Euro addition is very similar to the hype surrounding the GPS rollover. Each has very little in common with Y2K.

To be specific with GPS- it's only been around since the late '80's. 99% of the software written for it was written in the middle to late '90's. Software metrics and coding was far more advanced than the '70's and '80's. The specification documents from the Navy prominently mentioned that there was a specific number of time periods before the counter reset. Coding that into the software is trivial. When a programmer has a fixed specification, the code practically writes itself.

Most of the problems *I* am worried about are ancient mainframes maintained by federal and state agencies. THESE have the oldest hardware and software. And the software is more complex than necessary since it has to take into consideration the vagaries of politicians & special interests' requirements.

Since I'm here, I'll make a small prediction:

No Federal agency will be done with their Y2K remediation before 1/1/2000. None, zip, nada, zilch. Absolutely none.

And yes, I don't believe Jane Garvey (FAA), nor the SSA people.

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), October 25, 1999.


Excellent information Jollyprez. That sounds about right for the gubmint... ancient and slow. Any other major players you're aware of that are stupid enough to still be using the old mainframes?

-- @ (@@@.@), October 25, 1999.

Jolly -- sounds right. Another row or column. And, I don't think there would be any different date dependencies than they already had for the other currencies. So the euro deal would be much less problem than Y2K.

Now if/when Y2K bites them on the butt re DM, Yen, or whatever transactions, the euro modules will be bit also.

For a simple example of gold, silver .. prices changed frequently in different currencies, see
http://www.e-gold.com/currentexchange.html
(Note that prices posted are the e-gold bid-ask, not the kitco or other spot listed prices.)

-- A (A@AisA.com), October 25, 1999.


"Any other major players you're aware of that are stupid enough to still be using the old mainframes?"

Since you ask, yes, VISA for starters :)

And 50,000 other entities worldwide using IBM Big (Rusty IMHO) Iron...

Should be "fun"...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 25, 1999.


Wednesday October 20, 11:29 AM

Euro threat looms larger than Y2K

Fifty per cent of UK businesses think euro compliance could be even more complicated than beating the millennium bug, according to the latest report from Benchmark Research. The report, conducted by Benchmark on behalf of Bull Information Systems, found concern is greatest in the financial, utilities and telecoms industries - a stark contrast to manufacturing, where only 8 per cent think the threat is greater than Y2K.

Despite having no deadline for UK entry into EMU, most companies think there will be strong demand to deal in euros by 2003. But according to Bull, only 14 per cent of businesses are currently ready to handle such demand.

Lynda Chambers, marketing manager for systems integration at Bull, said the reluctance to start conversion projects is dangerous. "The euro shouldn't be seen as a Y2K issue, because what it does is present an opportunity - or a threat - depending on how a company recognises its importance in its future business strategy."

According to the survey, companies are most concerned about the sales function of the business, with specific IT functions like wages or accounting further down the priority list.

Dennis Keeling, chief executive of the Business & Accounting Software Development Association, said businesses are facing a major problem. "The organisations that have started conversion projects have found that the work is significantly more difficult than Y2K - up to five times more difficult.

"In Y2K you are looking for a specific date field, but for euro conversions you are looking for every occurrence of a monetary field. And they can be quite hard to find," Keeling warned.

The report found that 74 per cent of UK companies have suppliers, and 69 per cent have customers, in countries that are on target for full Euro-membership by 2002. Benchmark warns: "UK industry cannot therefore be viewed in isolation from Europe."

The survey also found that despite the apparent lack of planning most firms are confident they will be ready in time.

Information on how to tackle the euro can be found at http://www.basda.org .

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 20, 1999

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 25, 1999.



I engaged in a debate with soom guy on another forum about this subject. His argument was "any company who wants to do business next year would never be stupid enough to let their systems fail"

Many companies simply don't have the money, and/or technical resources to take on such a problem. I saw it at my last job, and I'm sure its a common problem. I would wager that "wait and see" is the most popular Y2K solution there is.

-- Cory Hill (coryh@strategic-services.net), October 25, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ