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COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
CIRCULATED TO THE 153/97 (PE)
POSTAL EXECUTIVE ON
TUESDAY 11 MARCH 1997 B.71217
FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE
POSTAL EXECUTIVE MEETING
ON TUESDAY 8 APRIL 1997
HORIZON PROJECT : POST OFFICE COUNTERS LTD
The attached letter has been received from Post Office Counters Ltd in relation to a re-
plan of the implementation of the HORIZON Project. Further details in relation to a
visit to the test centre in Borough High Street and associated presentations will be
provided in due course.
RECOMMENDATION : That the document be noted.
ERNIE DUDLEY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
att.
C & CS DEPT.
Post Office Counters Ltd
GRO
Emie Dudley
Assistant Secretary
CWU
CWU House
Crescent Lane \
Clapham, LONDON
SW4 9RN ' 10 March 1997
Dear Mr Dudley
Subject: HORIZON - RE-PLAN
1am sorry I was not able to go ahead with a meeting I had planned to have with your
colleagues a few weeks ago. As I explained to Phil Bowerman this was because PDA and
ICL Pathway were still reviewing plans for the Trial and roll-out of HORIZON, and there
was not much I could tell them until these discussions were concluded - nor was there
anything to see in the Test Centre at Borough High Street.
1 am pleased to say we now have agreement in principle between ourselves, Benefits
Agency and ICL Pathway on an outline plan.
Before I detail this plan I should say that a re-plan was considered necessary for a number
of reasons:
- working experience of Initial Go Live at the 10 post offices,
- progress on the Benefit Agency’s feeder system CAPs,
- progress on software development by ICL Pathway
- the need for more robust testing schedule to derisk the programme
'
As a result the re-plan now provides for phased implementation of the various components
of the first software Release ie separate introduction of OBCS (Order Book Control Service),
BPS (Benefit Payment Service), AP (Automated Payments) and EPOS (Electronic Point of
Sale) ‘
Post Office Counters itd
Drury House
Ive Blackfriars Read
London sé 98
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A tria! of OBCS will begin from the end of April 1997 :n 200 post offices in the North Fast
and South Wales and South West Regions. This will be followed by introduction of BPS to
these offices in June and then in September AP and EPOS will be added. At this stage a
further 100 outlets will be added to the trial. It is only at then that Branch Offices will be
added as clearly it is only at this point that BCCO can be replaced by HORIZON. A
decision to roll-out will be made in November following a full and detailed evaluation.
Separately and in order to ensure that BA, ICL Pathway and POCL retain some of the
anticipated benefits of the programme, a secondary stream of outlets will be introduced.
Initially 450 offices will be brought on from July to September using OBCS only.
Thereafter from around mid September a further 1000 outlets will be installed offering full
functionality. These will be in a number of Regions.
Again due to the fact that evaluation will not have been completed and a final decision on
national roll-out not made till November, only a limited number of Branch Offices will be
included in this stream, principally to ensure completion of installation in discrete
geographical areas. This is because - in the event of any teething probiems with
HORIZON - we do not want to create disruption in our larger outlets which already use an
automated system (ECCO) that has to be removed at the time of installing the HORIZON
system.
The population of Branch post offices in which the system will be tested will be small but
nonetheless crucial as we will be testing migration procedures from ECCO to HORIZON.
By December 1997 we anticipate that c 2200 outlets will be automated. From January 1998
the programme will ramp up and we expect a tozal of up to 5000 outlets to be in place by
April 1998.
The PDA are currently putting together details of the outlets/Regions involved and we
hope to have a Regional view in c 2 weeks time. I will be in touch then with Phil
Bowerman to reinstate the visit to the Test Centre in Borough High Street and promised
presentations. We can then begin discussions on the implications for your members.
In the meanwhile if you have any queries do give me a call.
Best Wishes
Yours sincerely [ GRO
Mena Rego
Head of HORIZON Sponsorship
cc Stuart Sweetman (POCL) Phil Bowerman (CWU)
Paul Rich Andy Furey (CWU)
Ken Hodgson (POCL) Tony Kearns (CWU
Paul Zealander (POCL)
Bruce McNiven (PDA)