On Saturday, I found myself in Watford, just on the outskirts of London, to pick up an eBay find

As we pulled in, my partner Julie turned to me and asked, “Have you ever actually been to Watford?”

It’s funny how a simple question can trigger a total tech-sector flashback

Back in the day, I had a client based there, ACI

You might not know the name, but you definitely know their work; they essentially built the software that broke down the walls between banks

Before them, if you were at university and needed cash, you had to trek to your specific bank’s Cash machine / ATM

ACI changed the game so you could use your card anywhere, a convenience we totally take for granted now

At the time, ACI was rolling out Oracle Financials as a global single instance

The project was being driven out of the US, with the UK office managing the European side of the implementation

The UK CIO called us in because he needed some Oracle experts to "fight his corner" against the stateside strategy

The whole project was fueled by the ticking clock of Y2K and the looming arrival of the Euro on January 1st, 1999. But as we dove in, it became clear that the US implementation team had a few... interesting assumptions:

  • The "Euro Dollar" Myth: The system was hard-coded for a single currency, the US Dollar.  When the UK team pointed out that Europe was moving to the Euro, the US team replied, "But that’s just the Euro-Dollar, right?" They genuinely thought it was just a European flavored version of the USD

  • The Sterling Silence: Beyond the Euro confusion, nobody seemed to grasp the fact that the UK wasn't even adopting the Euro at all

  • The Tax Tangle: There was a total disconnect over "Sales Tax." In the US, that's the standard, but in Europe, it’s VAT (Value Added Tax). While they function similarly, the terminology matters

Ultimately, getting buy-in for a new system isn't just about the code; it’s about the people using it

If you expect data entry and finance clerks to embrace a platform, you have to speak their language

You can’t just impose foreign terminology and expect them to feel "at home" in the software

Conclusion The trip to Watford was a reminder that while technology aims to make the world smaller, global implementations often stumble over local realities

Whether it’s an ATM network or a massive ERP rollout, success usually comes down to understanding that the "rest of the world" doesn't always do things the American way