Daylight Savings Debacle For Your CRM Software: Worse Than Y2K

As you may be aware of, daylight savings will now commence three weeks earlier to begin on March 11, and ends one week later, April 1 (and again between October 28 to November 4). And while the media is telling us this does not compare to the potential nightmare that Y2K could have created, it's still a major irritation and a chafing annoyance that could actually cost you more than Y2K could ever have.

Here's why. Y2K was a grand disaster of biblical proportions that never came to fruition. This problem is very, very real and affect the end user as we attempt to go about our day and use our scheduling software. And while the vendors have been pretty forthcoming with the relevant information to fix the problem, it´s a problem that will have a very measurable and realistic affect on all of us, where the pain of Y2K was mostly experienced by IT professionals who had to go out and fix the problems. What makes this worse is, many users won't even know about this problem and as such, the effects will be much more widespread.


Here´s the deal. If you're a user of any CRM software like my self (I'm an Outlook user, to the core) you'll see that, if you click on March 13 and view your calendar, you'll see now that all appointments have been moved 1 hour later. (But if you have a web based CRM solution such as salesforce.com that adds another twist to this problem.) I don´t need to tell you the cost of missing appointments, sales calls, meetings, etc. due to calendar error.

Moreover, I just got a text message from Cingular (I mean ATT, I mean Cingular, I mean"?¦.. wait; that´s another blog. What a major marketing blunder there.) telling me I also need to update my mobile phone to reflect the correct day and time.

Essentially, if we fly blind on this and make no changes, you'd be 1 hour late on every scheduled appointment you have on your calendar until April 1st, the old Daylight Savings Time, when everything in your calendar would revert back to normalcy. Or, at least that´s when your computer knows to make the adjustment, which it will do. And you can look at your calendar today and see this to be true. Just go to April 1 on your calendar and you´ll see that your appointments are back in their rightful time slot; including your recurring appointments.

Now, Microsoft has responded to this issue by offering a patch for this problem. So the question is, do you download the patch (which by the way is two separate downloads that I'll explain in a moment) or keep a mindful eye on your schedule and ride the wave for the next three weeks until April 1 when the change happens automatically based on your computer's current setting of when DST is.

Now, if you go to Microsoft.com you can find information on this issue and the fix for it here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102086071033.aspx

And while it seems they´ve tried to make it simple, my eyes and my brain were a bit twisted by the end of reading this very long page and trying to determine, "Which situation do I fall into?"

Well, I was all set to download the patch until I decided to check with some clients in the IT world who know this stuff better than I do. One of my clients responded to my email inquiry with the following:

"You will definitely need to run the Outlook "Time Zone Data Update Tool". You will also need to make sure you have applied the DST WinXP Operating system patch as well (see below).

DST Operating System Patch:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836/

"You also want to make sure that you have the Windows XP patch applied to the Operating System as well. Go to this page and look for the patch download link referring to "Windows XP" and you need to download this patch FIRST before running the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool."

NOTE: you definitely want to apply the XP patch before running the Time Zone Data Update Tool.

But, when we jumped on the phone to discuss, here´s what I learned. Basically, if you have Outlook and you're a single user on one computer, (if I'm reading this right), it will update recurring appointments but you'll have to manually keep your eye on single stand alone appointments because those may or may not be updated depending upon when you enter in the appointment. That is, did you enter the appointment before March 11 or during the three week period between March 11 — April 1?

You see, the update tool will update all recurring appointments. Stand-alone appointments will also be updated BUT you just need to verify the updated time is accurate. And to add to this challenge, stand-alone items will become a problem if you have accepted calendar items from people in a different time zone than you!

Then, if I update my phone and sync it to my computer and Outlook which is not updated, what result should I expect then?

A few aspirins later, the bottom line is this, I'm leaving well enough alone. I'm not downloading the patches and decided to ride the wave, knowing my schedule will be an hour off for the next few weeks. With all of these stipulations and a myriad of scenarios that may or may not fix the problem, it sound to me that it would take me longer to go through this download and repair process to update my computer just to cross my fingers and hope it all works out. No, my time is much too precious to waste on performing an update that may not work or work to correct only some appointments and not others. And if you´ve ever had to update your computer, you know it´s never as simple and easy as they make it out to be.

My solution? I'm putting myself on a brand new temporary time zone for the next three weeks. After all, at least I can now know and anticipate what to expect. And here are a few tips, that if you choose to travel down this path with me, will make it easier for you to navigate through the next few weeks.

* During the period of the extended DST (March 11 to April 1 and October 28 to November 4), you should carefully view your calendar.
* Open each appointment or meeting request that occurs during the extended DST, and for which you are the creator or organizer.
* For every appointment during this period, add the time and time zone to the subject and/or body of the appointment so that in case it´s moved into the wrong time, the subject line will reflect the correct time for that appointment.
* As the meeting organizer or creator, you must update the appointment for all attendees to be updated.
* Be aware that generally, uncorrected items may appear one hour later than intended.
* Any time you create a meeting request (appointment, recurring meeting, or any calendar item), put the time and time zone in the subject and/or body of the message. This can help make things clear for people in different time zones, and will also help you check your appointments during the extended weeks of Daylight Saving Time.