Time Zone Dependency

In the context of distributed environment it is necessary to distinguish between the following two main categories of date&time data:

• Time Zone Dependent Entries

  Time zone dependent date and time entries represent events linked to a particular location or time zone.The event happens in the same instant around the globe and meaning of the value depends on the offset from UTC.

  A typical example would be an arrangement to call a person at a certain time. If that person is located in a different time zone, the time zone offset has to be taken into account.

  In Valuemation, examples of such time zone dependent data include:

  • Date and Time information specified in the Ticket object type (DateReported, DatePlanned Response, DateResponse, DateFinished)
  • Date and Time information specified in the Activity object type (Create Date, Target Date, Begin Date, End Date)
• Time Zone Independent Entries

  Time zone independent date and time entries represent events divorced from a particular location on the Earth. For example, holiday schedules or accounting information such as beginning/end dates of the quarter normally fall into this category, partly because time is not expressed, and partly because the actual time of the start and end of the day for a given geographic location may not be considered important.

  In Valuemation, an example of such time zone independent data would be:

  • valid from / valid to data used in object types such as System