It doesn't eliminate the need for monitoring.
I'm looking for a program that is going to connect to all my SSL sites, and report back a problem if the cert is within 30 days of expiration. It is easy enough to write a client that will fail after the cert has expired, but I want one that will warn me ahead of time. And I don't want to mess with the system clock or something like that.
It shouldn't be a big program, I may just write it myself.