Computers Not Ready For Euro Rollout
(02/16/98; 1:26 p.m. EST)
By Andrew Craig, TechWeb LONDON -- The majority of businesses in key
European countries have not prepared their computer systems for the
introduction of the single European currency, to be introduced in 1999,
according to a report published Monday.
The new European Monetary Union currency, called EMU or the Euro, will
be rolled out over three years beginning Jan. 1, 1999 for non-cash
transactions, and will include coins and bank notes by 2002. EMU is
expected to become the only valid currency in participating countries
during 2002.
On average, 11 percent of small to medium-sized businesses in the
European Union have acted on the IT implications of the new European
currency, said the report by the U.K. branch of accounting firm Grant
Thornton. The introduction of the European-wide currency, which is
expected to replace existing currencies in participating countries by
the year 2003, will require reprogramming of most companies' financial
computer systems.
The effects of new currency will be greater than the combined effects of
decimalization, value-added tax and the millennium, said Stephen Dexter,
spokesman at Grant Thornton. "Small to medium-sized companies are only
now beginning to wake up to the implications," Dexter said. "It is no
good waiting to see what happens because it will be too late to act," he
said.
Least prepared is Germany, where 51 percent of small to medium-sized
businesses said they do not know what impact the new currency will have
on their computer systems, said the report. Moreover 16 percent of
German companies said they felt positive about the introduction of the
currency -- compared with the European average of 29 percent.
The U.K., Spain and Denmark rank with Germany among nations whose
commercial information systems are ill prepared to handle the new
currency, said the report. In the U.K. and Denmark, only 6 percent of
companies have acted on the problem, while in Austria and Beligium,
roughly one-quarter of businesses have already started preparation, the
report said.
However, some analysts said that European governments should delay the
introduction of the currency for at least two years so businesses can
concentrate on dealing with the millennium software glitch that will
have computers continuing their transactions in the year 2000 as if it
were 1900.
"There is absolutely categorically no way that EMU can happen
coincindentaly with the year 2000," said Karl Feilder, chief executive
officer at year 2000 consultancy Greenwich Mean Time, in London.
"We have tried to tell European ministers this, but so far the message
from the computer industry has fallen on deaf ears," Feilder said. "We
cannot move the date that Jesus Christ was born, but we sure as hell can
move EMU," he said. |
