The Euro as an IT Challenge

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter introduces EuroSmart and outlines how it can be used to assess strategies and verify euro-enabled applications as well as analyze the changes necessary for euro processing.

1.1 EuroSmart

EuroSmart provides a complete environment and range of tools for analyzing applications and identifying areas in them that might need modification in order to process euro-based transactions.

EuroSmart has a collection of features and analysis tools for project inventory, application analysis, identifying monetary points of interest and adding them to the project worksheet. These include:

• Intelligent analysis tools for locating potential monetary items

• Set manipulation facilities for refining the groups of monetary items you obtain

• Analysis tool composition for creating your own tools where the procedure for identifying a particular type of item is complex

• Country-specific configurable analysis tools that encapsulate our local knowledge and provide reliable analysis defaults

• Worksheet facilities for monitoring progress and project administration

• Assessment reports for auditing purposes

• Language extensions

• The Revolve database, which enables you to carry out many advanced functions that are not possible from a simple text representation

See the chapter Overview in Getting Started for more details about EuroSmart's facilities.

1.2 Applying EuroSmart to the Euro Challenge

The euro challenge is essentially a case of competent IT systems keeping pace with the introduction of European Monetary Union (EMU) and the euro currency unit. The remedy is either to replace each out of date system with a new one or, more usually, to modify the source code of each system so that it retains its function when processing euro currency in financial transactions.

When you modify existing source code to process the euro currency unit correctly, you renew the code. This document uses the term renewal to encompass all the work that is required to locate, apply and test all the source code changes when you update an IT system.

EuroSmart has a comprehensive set of facilities that make it ideally suited to the task of identifying areas in your applications where renewal is required. However, it has wider scope than this and can help in the:

• Initial strategic assessment of financial information systems. This is discussed more fully in the chapter Assessing Conversion Strategies.

• Conversion of financial information systems. This is discussed more fully in the chapter Analyzing Applications and Preparing for Enablement.

• Validation of a converted financial information system. This is discussed more fully in the chapter Verifying a Euro Enabled Application.

The Euro as an IT Challenge