SoccerMom Company sells a patented seat that spectators can take to youth soccer games. The seat folds so it is small enough to ±t in the glove box of most vehicles. The company operates a factory in Kansas and also contracts its manufacturing projects to small ±rms in Canada and Mexico. An unusual problem has occurred for this small multinational company: People are getting confused about dates in internal memos, purchase orders, and e-mail. Towson Hopkins handles all IT functions for SoccerMom. When he designed the company’s database, he was not aware that the format for dates in Canada and Mexico was di²erent from the format used in the United States. For example, in Canada and Mexico, the notation 7/1/15 indicates January 7, 2015, whereas in the United States the same notation indicates July 1, 2013. Although it seems like a small point, the date confusion has resulted in several order cancellations. Towson has asked for your advice. You could suggest writing a simple program to convert the dates automatically or designing a switchboard command that would allow users to select a date format as data is entered. You realize, however, that soccermom might want to do business in other countries in the future. 1. What would be the best course of action?
2. Should soccermom adapt to the standard of each country, or should it maintain a single international format?
3. What are the arguments for each option?