With the changeover to the euro on 1 January 1999, enterprices face a triple challenge. A technical challenge: most accounting and management software is affected. An economic challenge: no sector and no enterprice will be spared, no matter what size it may be. And finally a world challenge: not only Europeans are affected; their trading partners will also have to adapt to the new situation. The turn of the century will be a busy time for the computing world which has to simultaneously cope with two major changes. The first is the transition to the year 2000. There are already affordable programmes, services and technologies on the market to help businesses to adapt their computer system.

The second change is the introduction of the single currency- the euro. This will involve changing all budgetary, accounting and fiscal system in compains and, above all, pubblic administrations. The latter have to serve as an example and provide support, anticipating and testing their own system well in advance in order to be up and running smoothly on the first day. Salaries, prices social security contributions, VAT payments, calculating charges, benefits and dividens… there is not a single aspect of management which will not have to be closely examined.

Technically, the operation is similar to the job to be carried out for the new millennium with the analysis of milions of lines of programme code, to identify those that need to be changed. This requires special diagnostic programmes apable of detecting and selecting the parts of the programme that need to be modified. Work is in progress to create such instruments, notably as part of the European research programme ESPRIT (European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technology). This has resulted in the development of efficient tools which are already on the market to seek out, identify, modify and test the data in question. According to the experts, the systematic and careful use of special tools will not only help entrepreneurs in this task but also reduce costs by around 30%. The main challenge remains the efficient use of skilled human resources given that salary costs will probably represent 50% of the overall effort.

 A Helping Hand From the Commission

 The European Commission is involved in this process: firstly, by contributing to research programmes within the framework of Esprit, and to the development of methodological tools and essential technologies; secondly, by organising meetings with technology suppliers in order to jointly identify and define the products and services which they will be in a position to supply; finally, by bringing together major users, such as governments, with suppliers to discuss their specific needs and problems in working groups.

Public administrations and large enterprices are generally already well on their way to the euro, investing substantial financial and human resources in preparations. This leaves small and medium- sized enterprises, which are more flexible and capable of taking rapid decisions, but which are also more vulnerable and have fewer resources at their disposal.

The Commission is preparing a special procedure for them, essentially comprising a range of tools combined with management advice. On 2 October 1996, the Commission held a computing conference for bringing together computer service and engineering compaines and SMEs in order to address the needs and availability of services and technologies. The final strand of Community action is public information. The Commission believes that it is vital to make the business world aware of the real issues at stake, as well as the timetable. An information compaign has therefore been launched, targeted at all parties concerned, both corporate and individual, whilst the Commission maintains close contacts with the business world, in order to promote the exchange of information, as well as with national coordinators who disseminate information at local level.

 Giovanni Marco Cirino