By Polly Raymond, 10 November 1998 18:43
NEWS The European Union is set to create an army of euro conversion experts to help Europe's eight million small firms struggling to get prepare their systems for the single currency. The EU's small business support agency, UEAPME, is financing the service, which will be free to any European small firm. It has enlisted the IT training and consultancy services of IBM to build the main body of the service. A spokesman for the Federation for Small Businesses welcomed the move, but said he hopes the service will kick in before it's too late. "Small businesses have a habit of sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to the euro. They need support and won't act until they have the support and guidance to do so," he said. IBM is currently preparing a team of 3,000 trained advisors to be on call throughout next year for small firms who need help with their preparations. Some work is already underway in Denmark, Greece, Sweden and the UK, where courses are running to instruct the trainers on the finer points of euro IT conversions.
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