Re: Euro Problem

The following is a part of an article I got from one of my friends.

-Vg

The introduction of the euro will have a profound impact on IT systems
of European businesses and those dealing with them. It would necessitate
major modifications in accounting/reporting and treasury operations.
Billing and pricing mechanisms of business will have to change. Key
information systems which are affected by the introduction of the euro
include accounts, financial planning and budgeting software, enterprise
resource planning (ERP) systems, conversion of historic data, systems
not supporting sufficient number of decimal places for their national
currencies will have to be modified for the euro, displaying of two
currencies, ascertainment of exchange profit/loss, handling of threshold
limits specified for selective requirements of data/reports,
re-designing of input/output screens and reports in a multi-currency
environment, preparation of trial balance/financial statements in
multiple currencies and issues related to maintenance of parallel
databases/parallel reporting/reconciliations.

 One of the major beneficiaries will be the software industry,
It will have tremendous business to do in the form of impact analysis,
 conversion, testing and
related business re- engineering services. The Gartner group estimates a
whopping US $ 200-bln Euro conversion market. Most of the European
enterprises have IT budgets worth millions of dollars for euro
conversion. Considering the size and volume of the business, the
software players have a great opportunity on their hands. The market
will also expand as and when new countries participate in the single
currency. Approximately 54 nations are members of the European Council
and considering the expansion of the European Union, we can safely
estimate that the market for euro is bound to stay for long.

However, the road ahead will not be smooth.
Very few software companies, have an
understanding of the euro and its political, economic, legal and
technological aspects.  It will be a great challenge for the
companies to tackle issues like European languages, tradition and
culture. Procuring visas is a highly tedious affair. The software
industry will face tough competition from the Russians, Israelis and
Irishmen who also boast of a strong and cheap technical workforce. Their
major advantage is that they understand at least one of the European languages.

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