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Claimant
J Holmes
Fi
Exhibit
Dated: August 2004
CLAIM NO CR101947
IN THE BLACKPOOL COUNTY COURT
BETWEEN
POST OFFICE COUNTERS LIMITED
Claimant
AND
MRS JULIE WOLSTENHOLME
Defendant
WITNESS STATEMENT OF JAN ROBERT HOLMES
I, JAN ROBERT HOLMES of Fujitsu Services, Forest Road, Feltham, Middlesex,
TW13 7EJ STATE AS FOLLOWS:
1. I am employed by Fujitisu Services Limited (“Fujitsu Services”) as Programme
Assurance Manager. I have been employed by Fujitsu Services since
January 1995. I work for Fujitsu Services and deal with the Post Office
Account. I have been asked to provide a description of the support services
provided by Fujitsu to the Post Office in respect of the Horizon system.
2. The facts and matters deposed to in this statement are within my own
knowledge unless I say so. Insofar as they are within my own knowledge,
they are true. Insofar as they are derived from information provided to me by
others, they are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
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3. I set out below a glossary of terms used in describing the matters referred to
in this statement.
Term/Acronym Explanation
BRAO1 Fujitsu building Bracknell 01
Cleveleys Runnymede Ave, Thornton Cleveleys, Lancs, FYS 1DF. The Post Office in question
FELO1 Fujitsu building Feltham 01
Front Line Name associated with the HSH staff actively interfacing with Post Masters on calls.
HIT Horizon Incident Team (additional 1* Line). This function established in July 2000 to handle
specific types of calls. Now amalgamated with SMC
HSH Horizon System Helpdesk (1* Line) (Fujitsu help desk for Post Masters with technical/system
queries to call)
ICL Pathway The name by which the current Fujitsu Services Post Office Account was known in 2000.
KELs Known Error Logs
MANOS Fujitsu building Manchester 05
NBSC National Business Support Centre (A Post Office run help desk for Post Masters with
business queries to call)
OLA Operational Level Agreement
PinlCL Call management system utilised by SSC and Pathway development fo r capturing and
progressing incidents escalated from SMC (2" Line). (Replaced by system called PEAK in
PM Post Master
PowerHelp Call management system utlised by HSH fr capturing and progressing call information trom
s
QFP Quality Filter Process
RMF Release Management Forum
SMC System Management Centre (2 Line)
ssc System Support Centre (3" Line)
STEO9 Fujitsu building Stevenage 09
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4. Fujitsu Services Post Office Account (known as ICL Pathway in 2000)
provides technical support to Post Office users of the Horizon system through
a four-tier model, with the handling of incidents escalating through the tiers
depending on the nature of the final resolution action.
Horizon Support ‘Domains’
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5. Each of the domains, referred to as 1°, 2", 3" and 4'" Line Support, has its
own objectives and responsibilities, both to themselves and each other, and
these are defined in an internal Fujitsu document reference CS/FSP/006: End
to End Support Process, Operational Level Agreement. The content of this
document has been in operation since 1999 and applied to calls raised by the
Cleveleys office.
6. While the following paragraphs are written in the present tense, they describe
equally what happened in 2000. Whilst there have been changes to the
processes and tools since 2000, the basic four-tier model has remained
unchanged.
Horizon System Helpdesk HSH/HIT Team (1* Line)
7. Calls are received by the Horizon System Helpdesk (HSH) direct from Post
Masters (PM). They can also arrive via the National Business Support Centre
(NBSC), a Post Office organisation established for Post Masters to contact if
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they have business related problems. The NBSC sometimes receives calls that
are more relevant to the HSH and these calls are transferred by telephone.
All calls are registered on PowerHelp by the HSH and all calls remain open
until such time as a resolution has been reached to the problem and the
originating Post Master agrees to the call being closed.
An initial diagnosis is conducted by the HSH Front Line while the PM is on
the line, using the Horizon reference system co-located with the HSH
terminals, and information available on the automated support tool HSHONE,
Advice and Guidance information and the Weekly Counter News. If the
problem requires further investigation, or an engineer, the call is escalated to
the Horizon Incident Team (HIT), a subset of the HSH, and the current call to
the PM terminated. [Note: The HIT was established in July 2000 to deal with
specific types of calls]
Known Error Logs (KELs), developed by the SSC (3 Line), are used by the
HSH and HIT Team, and further attempts are made to resolve the problem
with the PM. If resolution is still not possible the call is escalated to 3 Line
support, be that hardware engineers, network specialists or the SSC in BRAOI.
Calls that are to be escalated to SSC are transferred from the HSH and
registered on the PinICL system.
System Management Centre (2™ Line)
12,
The SMC deal with the more technically oriented elements of Horizon support
including:
> Network monitoring.
» Event monitoring and, where possible, identifying problems using SSC
KELs.
» Investigating non-polling Post Office’s and reporting back to CS
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» Providing software and POL Type A Reference Data distribution services
to the live Horizon estate.
Primary inputs to the SMC include calls that have been escalated from the HIT
Team and a number that may also be escalated from the HSH Front Line.
System Support Centre (3™ Line)
13. SSC receives the majority of its incidents as PinICL calls raised via
Powerhelp. These may be calls raised by the HIT Team for counter related
problems, or the SMC for central systems or Tivoli monitored errors.
14. Problems are analysed through a process of elimination and by mimicking PM
actions in an attempt to re-create the problem.
15. Primary outputs are agreed closures of PinICLs, data fixes to enable Post
Masters to continue working and workarounds, usually pending final
resolution through a subsequent software release by 4"" line. A workaround is
a temporary fix to a problem that may have an alternative final resolution.
16. The SSC are also involved in the closure of PinICLs that are referred to 4""
line for resolution, where they act as moderators with the customer before
agreeing final closure. PinICL closures provide the filtration measure of errors
transferred to 4" line.
17. Workarounds are often required due to the backlog of software releases and
unless a fix is absolutely required the PinICL is linked to a KEL entry and,
with the agreement of the customer, a workaround agreed pending final
resolution.
18. The Release Management Forum (RMF) controls the release of software and
data through the normal release cycle although the SSC can, in an emergency,
implement a change and seek retrospective approval from the RMF.
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19.
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Closed PinICLs refer back to the originating PowerHelp call, which is
automatically closed.
ICL Pathway Development (4 Line)
20.
21.
22)
Faults are passed to 4" line when all other attempts to resolve the problem
have been exhausted and it is believed that changes to the underlying code will
be required to bring the problem to closure. PinICLs are routed to the Quality
Filter Process (QFP) for initial scrutiny and routing to the most appropriate
development team.
PinICLs are discussed at the Release Management Forum and a target release
for the fix arrived at. Releases can be either Major or Interim and ‘live fix’
problems are usually targeted at the next available Interim Release if urgent, or
Major Release if not. Counter based problems are usually targeted at Major
Releases due to the complexity of distributing fixes to the entire estate. Once
the Release has been identified the PinICL is returned to the QFP for transfer
to the appropriate development team.
Cleveleys office went live on Release NR2 with the next major Release, C14,
occurring during the first week in August 2000 a precise date cannot be given
since Outlets are upgraded over a period of time shortly after the Release is
authorised. Call E-O008021149 dated 2 August 2000 was the last recorded
call under Release NR2. Call E-0008172268 dated 17 August 2000 was the
first recorded call under Release CI4.
Resourcing the Support Function
23.
National Rollout of the Horizon system did not complete until early to mid
2001 and would have been in full flow during 2000. As the number of Post
Offices was automated so the support capability provided by ICL Pathway was
enhanced to reflect the increased population of Horizon users.
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24. It should also be noted that calls relating to National Rollout were handled by
a dedicated Rollout Helpdesk, and not by the HSH. Rollout calls made to the
HSH in error were transferred to the correct helpdesk. Cleveleys made 16 such
calls.
25 The number of staff involved in staffing the horizon support system is set out
below. It is to be noted that these staff were dedicated exclusively to the Post
Office project.
Item Feb 2000 Nov 2000
Number of Post Offices running Horizon System 3136 14841
Number of ICL staff in Horizon System Helpdesk Front Line (1 * Line) 65 186
Number of ICL staff in Horizon Incident Team (Additional 1* Line) [Note 1] 0 1
Number of ICL staff in System Management Centre (2™ Line) 50 73
Number of ICL staff in System Support Centre (3 Line) [Note 2] 34 34
[Note 1] : The Horizon Incident Team was introduced in July 2000 to deal with
specific types of problems.
[Note 2] : Despite the increase in Post Offices the number of employees in the
SSC remained static as working practices improved, better problem diagnosis
tooling was available and the general level of staff competence increased.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
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Dated :
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