Y2K? This Could Be Painful

Filed in archive Customer Service on February 20, 2007

I wonder how many call centers and small business owners are prepared for this little pain in the rear?

Imagine a world where people are mixed up on their times and time zones.

Working time zones on both sides of the world is a challenge to say the least.

For three weeks this March and April, Microsoft Corp. warns that users of its calendar programs "should view any appointments ... as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees." Wow, that's sort of jarring - is something treacherous afoot?

However, computers running anything older than the most recent version of Windows XP, known as Service Pack 2, no longer get this level of tech support. Owners of those PCs should go into the control panel and unclick the setting that tells the machine to automatically change the clock for daylight-saving time. They have to make the change themselves when the moment arrives. (This is a sizable population; according to Gartner, Windows 2000 alone was still running 14 percent of PCs worldwide last year.)

Microsoft advises heavy calendar users to go online and download a small program known as "tzmove" - Time Zone Move - that can retrofit all previously booked appointments to the new daylight-saving rules. Via Canadian Business

Can you imagine the chaos if people on mass were confused as to the time of day? Ouch! Or something as simple as you have updated your computer and the person you are conferencing with hasn't - waste of time and a pain in the rear.

You have been warned. Please run the fix or get someone to fix your machine. Thank you.