With a little more than five months for the changeover from the Maltese lira to the euro on January 1, 2008. Maltese business organisations should be busy preparing their computer systems to handle the changeover successfully.
"From direct meetings between the National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC) technical preparations unit and many of Malta's larger organisations (e.g. hotels, casinos, chains, insurance companies, supply chain and corporate retail/wholesale), all signs indicate that this category of business is well prepared, with a critical focus on the conversion of their IT systems for January," reassures Alex Wells, manager for technical preparations at NECC.
"The key area of concern is always how to migrate all systems to euro, with the minimum disruption to business operations, especially for those businesses that will be peak trading throughout the night of December 31. It is more difficult to gauge the state of preparations of the smaller businesses, as there are so many, but, from meetings with the local IT application vendors, it is apparent that a lot of effort is being made to ensure that 'off the shelf' packages will be able to support the euro currency. Each business is strongly urged to contact their local IT application vendor, to ensure their migration is as smooth as possible."
The impact of the euro changeover on ICT systems was the theme of a conference organised by Shireburn Software Ltd and attended by around 350 participants who were all ears to what Mr Wells and other speakers had to say.
During the event Shireburn launched its Euro Toolkit which enables users of the company's widely adopted financial, inventory and payroll/HR solutions to easily convert their data to euro.
ICT systems that store and use monetary values are most affected by the changeover. This inevitably means that the core financial and trading systems will require most adaptation. Even so, other applications, such as HR, sales/marketing and, of course, websites will also require adaptation.
While many generic euro information meetings have been held by many bodies, Shireburn's event delved into the fine detail such as reconciling converted transaction values, converting opening entries from previous years which may have already been audited, and the special circumstances around converting values which were originally transacted in euros at different rates of exchange to the current rate.
The common message delivered was that Maltese businesses are not too late to prepare their ICT systems for January 1 but they have to act now and plan carefully.
"The longer an organisation leaves it to work out what needs to be done, the more chance there is, that indeed they won't have enough time to complete the adaptations without impacting their operations in January," warns Mr Wells.
"Bearing in mind that Malta has a very finite IT skills base, it is imperative that businesses secure the committed services of IT professionals to migrate their systems to euro. It may transpire that a business critical IT application cannot be migrated to euro (for example, a legacy system, which is no longer supported). In such cases, the business may need to procure and adapt a new system! This takes time and money.
"Another pitfall is to think that this is all about adapting IT systems. IT adaptations are a big part, but one must not forget the importance of staff training, customer care, the business implications of being a member of the euro area, obtaining euro cash for January and of course operational implications during the period of dual circulation."
i-Tech asked Mr Wells if there are any similarities between the euro changeover and the famous Y2K problem we faced before the year 2000.
"The only similarity is that both situations require a thorough impact assessment of IT systems. The fundamental difference, is that euro changeover adaptations require real changes that need to be made (across the entire IT provision in a company), whereas the Y2K project was all about looking for potential adaptations that, if omitted, could result in operational issues."
Mr Wells endorsed Shireburn's euro conversion toolkit and described it as a "good example of a 'press of a button' complete solution". The Shireburn Euro Toolkit fully automates the conversion of Shireburn's financial, inventory, retail POS, payroll and freight software systems. Up to two years' worth of data is converted with all exchange and conversion differences being accounted for in a fully audited manner.
"The process should take 15-30 minutes for an average-sized organisation allowing companies to focus on their business at the start of 2008 rather than being distracted by issues related to implementation of the euro," explains John de Giorgio, managing director at Shireburn.
"Because the toolkit can be run over and over again, this allows an organisation to run trial conversions in the months leading to €-day and to assess the impact on their pricing, conversion differences, timings etc. When €-day approaches, the process will not be new to them due to a high level of preparation and confidence." i-Tech also sought the views of people on the front-line who have the responsibility to see their organisation through the changeover without problems.
"If there is someone out there who believes that the process is simply waking up in the morning on January 1 and start trading in euros, then think twice," warns Michael Diacono, financial controller at Andrews Feeds, whose company has been planning for the changeover since last October. "We happen to be one of those companies that do not have a year end that coincides with the euro changeover date. This adds to the problem of addressing the accounting issues simply because the financial year will be spread across two local currencies. Having said this, the Shireburn toolkit seems to have addressed the accounting issues."
Francis Cuschieri, financial controller of the Forestals Group, thinks that "In terms of hardware one has to ensure that the system can cope well to cater for double the amount of resources. There is also the issue of the back-up for both systems (Lm and euro). In terms of software I do not see an issue. Everything has been tackled in one way or another and I do not think that we should have any surprises." In conclusion, NECC reiterates its support to Maltese organisations.
"From a technical perspective, while not professing to be experts of any given 'flavour' of IT system, the technical preparations unit acts as a point of reference for best-practice regarding the migration of data and software. We are happy to review any migration plans businesses present to us, ensuring that such plans will conform to the legal regulations concerned," reassures Mr Wells.
More information on the changeover is available from www.euro.gov.mt and more information on the Shireburn Euro Toolkit at www.shireburn.com
"From direct meetings between the National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC) technical preparations unit and many of Malta's larger organisations (e.g. hotels, casinos, chains, insurance companies, supply chain and corporate retail/wholesale), all signs indicate that this category of business is well prepared, with a critical focus on the conversion of their IT systems for January," reassures Alex Wells, manager for technical preparations at NECC.
"The key area of concern is always how to migrate all systems to euro, with the minimum disruption to business operations, especially for those businesses that will be peak trading throughout the night of December 31. It is more difficult to gauge the state of preparations of the smaller businesses, as there are so many, but, from meetings with the local IT application vendors, it is apparent that a lot of effort is being made to ensure that 'off the shelf' packages will be able to support the euro currency. Each business is strongly urged to contact their local IT application vendor, to ensure their migration is as smooth as possible."
The impact of the euro changeover on ICT systems was the theme of a conference organised by Shireburn Software Ltd and attended by around 350 participants who were all ears to what Mr Wells and other speakers had to say.
During the event Shireburn launched its Euro Toolkit which enables users of the company's widely adopted financial, inventory and payroll/HR solutions to easily convert their data to euro.
ICT systems that store and use monetary values are most affected by the changeover. This inevitably means that the core financial and trading systems will require most adaptation. Even so, other applications, such as HR, sales/marketing and, of course, websites will also require adaptation.
While many generic euro information meetings have been held by many bodies, Shireburn's event delved into the fine detail such as reconciling converted transaction values, converting opening entries from previous years which may have already been audited, and the special circumstances around converting values which were originally transacted in euros at different rates of exchange to the current rate.
The common message delivered was that Maltese businesses are not too late to prepare their ICT systems for January 1 but they have to act now and plan carefully.
"The longer an organisation leaves it to work out what needs to be done, the more chance there is, that indeed they won't have enough time to complete the adaptations without impacting their operations in January," warns Mr Wells.
"Bearing in mind that Malta has a very finite IT skills base, it is imperative that businesses secure the committed services of IT professionals to migrate their systems to euro. It may transpire that a business critical IT application cannot be migrated to euro (for example, a legacy system, which is no longer supported). In such cases, the business may need to procure and adapt a new system! This takes time and money.
"Another pitfall is to think that this is all about adapting IT systems. IT adaptations are a big part, but one must not forget the importance of staff training, customer care, the business implications of being a member of the euro area, obtaining euro cash for January and of course operational implications during the period of dual circulation."
i-Tech asked Mr Wells if there are any similarities between the euro changeover and the famous Y2K problem we faced before the year 2000.
"The only similarity is that both situations require a thorough impact assessment of IT systems. The fundamental difference, is that euro changeover adaptations require real changes that need to be made (across the entire IT provision in a company), whereas the Y2K project was all about looking for potential adaptations that, if omitted, could result in operational issues."
Mr Wells endorsed Shireburn's euro conversion toolkit and described it as a "good example of a 'press of a button' complete solution". The Shireburn Euro Toolkit fully automates the conversion of Shireburn's financial, inventory, retail POS, payroll and freight software systems. Up to two years' worth of data is converted with all exchange and conversion differences being accounted for in a fully audited manner.
"The process should take 15-30 minutes for an average-sized organisation allowing companies to focus on their business at the start of 2008 rather than being distracted by issues related to implementation of the euro," explains John de Giorgio, managing director at Shireburn.
"Because the toolkit can be run over and over again, this allows an organisation to run trial conversions in the months leading to €-day and to assess the impact on their pricing, conversion differences, timings etc. When €-day approaches, the process will not be new to them due to a high level of preparation and confidence." i-Tech also sought the views of people on the front-line who have the responsibility to see their organisation through the changeover without problems.
"If there is someone out there who believes that the process is simply waking up in the morning on January 1 and start trading in euros, then think twice," warns Michael Diacono, financial controller at Andrews Feeds, whose company has been planning for the changeover since last October. "We happen to be one of those companies that do not have a year end that coincides with the euro changeover date. This adds to the problem of addressing the accounting issues simply because the financial year will be spread across two local currencies. Having said this, the Shireburn toolkit seems to have addressed the accounting issues."
Francis Cuschieri, financial controller of the Forestals Group, thinks that "In terms of hardware one has to ensure that the system can cope well to cater for double the amount of resources. There is also the issue of the back-up for both systems (Lm and euro). In terms of software I do not see an issue. Everything has been tackled in one way or another and I do not think that we should have any surprises." In conclusion, NECC reiterates its support to Maltese organisations.
"From a technical perspective, while not professing to be experts of any given 'flavour' of IT system, the technical preparations unit acts as a point of reference for best-practice regarding the migration of data and software. We are happy to review any migration plans businesses present to us, ensuring that such plans will conform to the legal regulations concerned," reassures Mr Wells.
More information on the changeover is available from www.euro.gov.mt and more information on the Shireburn Euro Toolkit at www.shireburn.com