Why you could be an hour late in March…

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Are you aware of the *NEW* Daylight Savings time changes going on in March? For those of us in the US, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time starting in 2007, and is arriving a bit earlier, and leaving us a bit later.

Why is this important? Well, it impacts computers…for one, scheduling software. You may find your electronic calendars off by one hour. That is, making you one hour late…

Here’s the skinny: There is a patch that Microsoft is issuing via Windows Update for computers to comply with this new Energy Policy, however it results in calendar items showing up an hour later than originally scheduled.

ACT! will be releasing a utility on their website March 4th designed to correct this issue in their products (more on that in a later post). The reality is, it doesn’t matter
if you are using ACT! or another scheduling tool, all will have to deal with this issue (initial reports show even Outlook is incorrect after the patch is applied! Microsoft
also has a patch (see links below).

I cannot say definitively what the impact will be to your system, but I felt I should let you all know what the potential impact is. Don’t be passive with this information, apply the patch, and see what it does to your appointment times, and make corrections proactively. Perhaps your IT department is already on the ball with this, touch bases with them, and find out what impact the patch will have to your applications, and the best way to prepare for it.

How bad would it be for a range of appointments to shift to an hour later than originally scheduled? Imagine this for yourself, then imagine it for a whole workgroup or department! The only saving grace is that those same appointments shifted on the calendars of those you are set to meet with…but let’s not bank on that

So if you show up to an appointment and your party is late by say, one hour… think of me.

Can I ask you a favor? Have look at your calendar appointments for March 11, 2007-April 1, 2007, and see if some of them are one hour later than they should be. Then post a comment to this blog (below), and let me know your findings.

Here are some resources to assist you…
CalConnect.org Explains this Pretty well (Thanks Pat Egen)
http://www.calconnect.org/dstlinks.html
DST 2007 Wizard
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst
Office Products
http://www.microsoft.com/office/timezone.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931667/en-us
Windows Operating Systems
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928388
Windows Mobile
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx