Press Article from Luxembourg Business - Oct 1999

ConvertAll - Getting to grips with the euro

A new software programme, integrated in to MS Word, allows users to convert national currency values into euros across an enormous range of corporate data, such as quotations, price lists, catalogues, audit reports, legal contracts, e-mails, and routine internal and external correspondance.

During the last months and weeks of the millennium, the IT industry and business in general may be focused on concern about Y2K compliance and millennium bug, but by the end of January 2000 most IT departments will have survived and the focus will turn to other pressing issues - such as the transition to the euro, largely a non-event until now, will begin to receive attention.

<*dv_2*>When the Europes single currency was officially launched on January 1 this year all the major financial institutions had fully euro-enabled their computer systems. For the rest of us, the main impact on our lives has been that restaurant menus and supermarket receipts now display the euro equivalent side by side with the national currency.

Once the Y2K concern has receded, we will see business organizations take a more proactive role in adopting the euro. The long lead-in time, up to 2002, will see the initial trickle of companies invoicing their customers in euro become widespread practice. Processing of payments in euro will also become more common, as will the issuing of euro-denominated price lists and quotations.

<*dv_1*>Concern about euro-compliant software rightly initially focuses on accounting systems. Most accounting systems have been upgraded to handle triangulation and the other controls inherent in the new dual currency environment. However, accounting systems are only one element of the larger business picture.

Over 80 percent of all data stored electronically in computer systems are unstructured data in forms such as word-processed documents or e-mail messages. Such commercial correspondence is the very lifeblood of modern business as even the shortest downtime for corporate email systems quickly makes clear Monetary figures regularly appear in all these documents.

Up to now we never needed to do anything with commercially critical monetary amounts in word-processed documents other than read them, and perhaps type them. But from now on, we will need to convert them, on an increasingly frequent basis.

<*dv_0*>Even when the transition to the euro is complete we will need to refer back to pre-euro documents such as quotations, contracts, or price lists and convert the national currency amounts in these documents.

Suddenly we will become aware that monetary amounts pop up everywhere in quotations, price lists, catalogues, audit reports, legal contracts, e-mails, and in everyday correspondence, both internal and external, which is routinely produced in every organization.

From a euro perspective two issues arise. These documents are produced using word processing systems and they originate throughout the organization.

The unstructured nature of the documents and diversity of the groups that author such correspondence make it particularly difficult to ensure that currency conversions conform to the triangulation rules and the other controls that form the basis of the new euro currency regime.

In word-processed documents, there is no easy way to ensure that specific exchange rates are used or to enforce correct conversion procedures. For staff unfamiliar with the new currency the error of multiplying rather than dividing, or vice versa, by the exchange rate can be all too common.

Conversion errors in quotations, price lists, or contracts can be just as expensive as errors in core financial systems. However, unlike the financial systems, these documents are rarely subject to a rigorous annual audit.

The effort involved in producing a price list, that may run to several hundred items, in euro and national currencies, can be considerable and prone to costly error.

A recently launched software product ConvertAll appears to address all of these issues and be the answer to currency conversion in unstructured documents. Unlike a pop-up currency calculator, ConvertAll automatically processes entire documents. Operating like "Find & Replace" it finds and converts all the currency amounts and symbols (including the Euro symbol) in any Word 97 document or Excel 97 spreadsheet.

The original currency value can be replaced or the converted value can be appended in brackets beside the original currency value. The user can easily add new currencies, up to 999 in total. Long lists of entries in price lists can similarly be automatically converted.

The networked version of ConvertAll allows central control of exchange rates, thus ensuring consistency in the conversion procedure and exchange rates used by the diverse groups who author documents containing monetary amounts. The product also includes a TrueType Eurofont that includes the official euro symbol and can be used with any MS-Windows application.

At a time when the average user is overwhelmed by the amount of new software available, and the consequent need to install and learn new products, it is refreshing to see that ConvertAll has been fully integrated with the popular Microsoft Word. It works like Word, from within Word. A user who knows how to use Word can start using ConvertAll immediately, without any special training.

As the adoption of the euro becomes a priority for most organizations, a product such as ConvertAll, can provide consistent, simple to use, centralized control of the currency conversion process used in the vast array of unstructured commercial correspondence which is not produced by euro-compliant accounting systems.

This article first appeared in the October 1999 issue of Luxembourg Business. It is the Copyright (1999) of International City Magazines (ICM S.a.r.l.) and we use it with their kind permission.