Here are some excerpts from
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C15628%2C00.html?nd.w


With most of their attention focused on the Year 2000
bug few companies are addressing another computer
issue that looms even closer. The European Monetary
Union (EMU) conversion is a systems challenge that is
in many ways just as serious, according to analysts.

... "Many
North American companies and their chief
information officers--already distracted by the Year
2000--must start preparing immediately for EMU."

... "The 100 billion dollar
figure is a good eye opener. This is an enormous
issue, although, because it is so complicated, you can't
really quantify the cost."

...Between January 1, 1999, when companies can begin
switching to the Euro, and December 31, 2001, when
companies will have to have completed the
conversion, there will be two currencies in use.

..."This means that trade between
companies and business partners that have switched to
the Euro and those that haven't becomes very
complicated.

..."Conversion of historical data will be a major
requirement," Schowe said. "Organizations will need
to build and manage parallel systems to handle both
legacy and Euro currencies. Interfaces to external
systems may need to support multiple currencies or
trading partners from nations adapting to Euro on
different schedules."

For some retail businesses, many of which are U.S.
companies operating in Europe, there will be a period
when cash registers will have to be equipped to handle
two different currencies.

--------  end of excerpts  --------


Now that the cat is out of the bag I can comment, in public, that
I have been quite involved with intercontinental Adager customers
who use HP3000s to handle huge amounts of international transactions.
Powerful new functions (such as adding fields while copying AND
converting information from existing fields) are vital to be able to tackle
these challenges.  Thanks to Adager's object-oriented design, these new
functions simply inherit a large amoung of functionality from current
functions (such as adding fields and converting fields/items from one
format to another while preserving their information content).  Many of
these items, of course, are also defined as SEARCH fields.

I have been really delighted to see the forward-looking attitude of
these HP3000 users.  And, as is usually the case with leaders, they began
worrying about these problems way BEFORE the press reported them.  In fact,
I have gone to Europe a few times this year to discuss this very issue with
some of Adager's largest customers.  Imagine my pleasure when I then ran
into them at HP's 25th-anniversary party for the HP3000 in Stuttgart last
September (the party's theme was quite futuristic).

This is yet another great opportunity for HP marketing to stress the
adaptability of its flagship HP3000 computer...  A lot of important (and
quiet) work is going on all over the world on HP3000 computers.  We might
as well let the rest of the world know!





 _______________
|               |
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                                  www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs           Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|


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