By Ian Jones, 6 July 1998 06:44
COMMENT The EMU train may have left the station without the UK but that doesn't mean IT directors can go home and forget about the single currency. Quite the opposite in fact. Sterling or no Sterling, the pressure to support the Euro will be irresistable. Everyone from business partners to tourists will force it in across every business sector. But aside from the usual fears of making systems able to handle dual currency, there will be a host of other technology issues that will deeply affect IT networks. John Stevens MEP this week told Silicon that electronic cash will be pivotal in smoothing the introduction of monetary union. Filling the continent's pockets with notes and coins is a sizeable logistical problem. Minimising it by moving to ecash can cut that overhead significantly. This has inevitable ramifications for IT. Not only will we be expected to handle two currencies, hardware and software upgrades will be essential to support a massive ramping up of electronic transactions. Trying to phase this in over time will not be an option either. FDs will see more and more epayments as less and less physical administration - but it will be the IT department that has to do all the work. So it seems disagreements between Westminster and Brussels have become irrelevant. We're on the EMU train whether we like it or not, so we'd better get to work.
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