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7 steps to success

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Seven steps to Euro success

A company euro checklist

  1. Have a senior manager assume responsibility for the project.
    Form a working group from each functional area (Sales, Accounts, etc)
  2. Start the working group members collecting information from:
    1. Parent companies, subsidiaries, partners, customers, suppliers, bank(s)
    2. Official publications from Euro information Centres and Forfás
    3. Trade/Industry association Codes of Practice and case studies
    4. Media sources, web sites and mail lists, conferences, seminars, user groups
    5. Professional advisors: accountants, auditors, legal consultants
    6. Software suppliers and training providers
  3. Review findings to analyse scope and impact on your business.
    1. Use Forfás checklists and planning tools for more help
    2. Think through (visualise) transition scenarios
    3. Look along the supply chain for second-order ("ripple") effects - e.g. in distributors
  4. Plan how to assist customers
    1. Are some customers dominant and how does that affect your changeover?
    2. List for both home and export markets the products, threats, and opportunities
    3. Consider sales, contracts, customer service, PR, advertising, corporate image
    4. What are equipment, cash handling, and security implications of cash changeover?
    5. What is the effect of price transparency on buying and selling, pricing policy?
    6. Will you change packaging, translation, document design, promotional literature?
    7. What changes will you have to make to price lists and price points?
    8. Do you need dual display of prices and when will the euro be dominant?
    9. Do you know what your competitors are doing about the euro?
  5. Plan how to deal with suppliers
    1. Are any suppliers dominant in the market?
    2. Do suppliers set prices for you (e.g. RRP)?
    3. Will the eurozone offer you potential new suppliers of materials and services?
  6. Identify functional / operational implications of change
  7. Accounts

    1. Speak to your accountants and note what needs to be done by whom and when.
    2. Consider PAYE, PRSI, VAT returns and filing annual accounts
    3. Bank

    4. Talk to your bank to learn what euro services are they offering and at what charges
    5. Will you be opening a separate euro account?
    6. When will you change your Púnt account to euro?
    7. Information Technology

    8. Hardware inventory (computers, cash registers, scanners, and credit card terminals)
    9. Software inventory (accounts, order processing, stock control, payroll, specialised)
    10. What warranty and evidence do vendors provide of how their software handles both púnt and euro in databases, transactions and accounts?
  8. Set up the project organisation with tasks and work plans for the changeover
    1. Track the work closely by schedule, lead-times, priorities, conversion dates
    2. Provide a budget; this could be 1-2% of turnover.
    3. Develop a contingency plan for risks
    4. Employees may need training for new functionality
    5. Manual currency conversions are notorious for causing clerical errors.
    6. Design, rehearse, test, and implement changes and take corrective action as required
    7. Communicate progress, achievements, and benefits to all!

Patrick O'Beirne is a software quality consultant with a special interest in the Year 2000 and euro currency changeover. His book "Managing the Euro in Information Systems: Strategies for Successful Changeover" was published by Addison Wesley in August 1999, ISBN: 0-201-60482-5. The accompanying CD has software,fonts, web links, europapers and articles. The table of contents can be seen on the web at http://www.sysmod.com/maneuris.htm

He may be contacted at Systems Modelling Ltd in Ireland at the web site http://www.sysmod.com

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Last updated January 03, 2005