Will Daylight Saving Time Knock Your Business To It's Knees?
By: pegeler | Posted: 29th January 2007
It seems that many business people are either oblivious to or are choosing to ignore the upcoming changes to Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. There in lies a potential problem.
While most folks say, "my PC updates for DST automatically," they fail to understand that the update is based on the OLD DST standard time changes in April and October. Since the new time changes take place in March and November, PC's that have an Operating System of Windows95 through XP (Pro or Home) Service Pack 1 will NOT change time correctly.
Just what type of effect could the new time changes have on PC users? Here's an example of what one major corporation has told their offices:
"The list of impacted systems could include anything from the Heating/AC system to Access Door Controls to Trading Systems and Blackberries."
The company also noted: "All associates using the Outlook Calendar will be impacted by this change. In order for Outlook to see the new DST rules, an updated tool must be run on every user's PC."
Of course most people don't have their PC's programmed to operate their Heating/AC systems, most DO use their computers in one manner or another to perform certain tasks at a specified time.
Let's say for example that you're using an automated program to track and submit your auctions for you on eBay(r). The program will continue to run as it should, but it will make your auction submissions later than they should if you're not set up for the new time changes.
Any type of automated programming that you rely on you PC doing for you will run one hour late this spring, and an hour early in the fall.
So how can you cover yourself for these new changes? Well, there are a couple of ways to do this. You can get a "fix" from Microsoft for an estimated $65. Or, you can put post-it notes on your screen to reminde you to run the clock up an hour in March, then back an hour in April.
When October comes around, your computer will drop back an hour, so you'll have to remember to set it forward an hour. Then, in November (the new time change for fall,) you'll have to move it back an hour.
If you're a real computer techie, you can do a Google search for Daylight Saving Time changes and find several sites that will tell you how to make permenant changes to your system. From what has been posted on the problem so far, you're still looking at making up to two or three registry changes in your system to get the job done.
No matter what course you decided to take, remember that the new Daylight Saving Time changes are as sure as the sun coming up in the morning. If you don't want your business knocked to it's knees by the changes the time to do something is right now. Nothing worse than trying to close the barn door after the horse has already escaped.
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Tags: submissions, operating system, microsoft, auction, ebay, pc users, clock, auctions, time changes, new time, service pack 1