Brief EnCounters
The ICL Pathway Newsletter
View from the Top
1999 proved in many ways, to be the best
yet for ICL Pathway as we accomplished
a large number of tasks. We delivered
two major key milestones: that of
Acceptance and the Horizon go-live in
1,856 post offices - our service in these
Horizon offices performs extremely well
As planned, the installation programme
has been put on hold in the run up to
Christmas and New Year to avoid
disruption to post offices during their
busiest period. This time is also being
used to review our progress to date.
There are still some important issues
which we are working on with the Post
Office but, we plan to restart roll-out on
24" January 2000 at which time we will
rapidly reach the rate of 300 post offices
per week, completing as planned in
Spring 2001. Meeting these dates is just
as important to the Post Office as to us,
since they are keen to get started on the
exploitation opportunities, which
Horizon provides. The next major new
activity for both parties will be around
banking services. Work here will
accelerate rapidly through 2000.
There are circa 19,000 post offices in the
UK and to date the Post Office Regional
General Managers have informed the
postmasters in over 17,500 offices that
their office is now schedules in the
Horizon automation programme. As a
result over 18,000 managers have
attended MIB (Management
Infrastructure Briefing) events, and over
16,600 site surveys have been
undertaken. This means that nearly every
post office has been involved somewhere
within the programme.
We have recently hosted, here in
Feltham, Alan Johnson MP, Minister of
State at the DTI, responsible for the Post
Office. Like many of his colleagues, he
found the session an__ excellent
introduction to the project. We have also
been very fortunate to have visits from
the Parliamentary IT Committee and the
Performance & Innovations Unit from
H.M.Treasury during November. Those
attending were particularly excited by the
impact that this project can have on the
way that government services are
delivered in the future, exploiting the
natural strengths of the post office
network.
2000 will be a challenging and exciting
year for us all and I thank you all in
advance for all your efforts and wish you
and your family a Happy Christmas and
New Year.
John Bennett
Achievements to date
1,856 Post Office, 4,173 Counters
(as at w/e 12 November 1999)
17,563 RGM letters issued
18,080 Postmasters attended MIB
events
16,617 site surveys undertaken
9,035 site preparations done
(as at w/e 12 November 1999)
> 28.5 million — number of EPOSS
transactions to date
> £617 million
transactions to date
> 5.0 million — number of APS
transactions to date
> £109 million — value of APS
transactions to date
(as at the end of November 1999)
VV v
vv
value of EPOSS
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Business Continuity
Did You Know
80% of businesses involved in a serious
incident go bust! This is because they do not
have recovery plans in place and when an
incident occurs it is too late to plan: chaos
ensues.
For the Post Office and ICL Pathway this
risk is unacceptable: plans have been
developed to enable us to respond
effectively in an emergency. These inter-
related Plans are summarised below
enegement Pan Recor oy
i
Sie Incident Infemal Services
Management Recov ery
Plans Plans
Team ‘Suppliers!
Business Recov ery
Recov ery fans Plans
Sub-contractors™
Recov ery
Plans
We have in place:
Resilient network
Dual data centres
Dual site HSH Desks
Two test centres / locations
Dual site Configuration Management
and PinICL.
«Tape back up of desk top servers
© Resilient mail system
Most important when responding to an
incident is_—_—excellent-—_internal
communication. Everyone affected needs to
know what to do ~ QUICKLY.
The Communication Team _ handles
communications with the media, as always.
Our response to a serious incident is
controlled by our Crisis Management Team
and communicated to all staff via the
Business Recovery Team Leaders or their
Deputies. Everyone is assigned to a Team,
Disaster Recovery Site
In serious situations it may be necessary to
work at a different location for example
another ICL site, or working from home
We also have reserved office space at a
recovery site run by:
Guardian Disaster Recovery at:
1a Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7BP
You will be informed as to which site to
attend.
Questions
1. Does ICL Pathway have details of how
to contact you and your next of kin?
2. Is everything you need to recover your
work backed up on another site?
If your answer to either question is NO
please take the following ACTION:
1. Informing personnel of your next of
kin details
2. Ensure that your work is backed up
Y2K
Despite everything we have done to avoid
systems problems associated with the new
millennium, disruptions may occur, not
necessarily as a result of our own actions
or omissions.
Key staff will be on site over the
millennium weekend to confirm critical
systems operation and monitor the
availability of utility services to our sites.
A support team has been identified, and
will be on standby, to enable us to recover
efficiently from any situation. Everyone
required to be on site or on standby has
been informed of the requirement. Spare a
thought for them as you celebrate!
Dave Groom & Ian Honnor
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Configuration
Management News
Helpdesk mailboxes
The old TeamWare mailbox for PinICL
HelpDesk has been closed down. Two
mailboxes have replaced it:
> Pathway PinICL
(PathwayPinICL Helpdesk,
> Pathway PVCS
(PathwayPVCSHelpdesk” GRO}
Pathway PinICL Helpdesk
Please send mail to this mailbox for:
1 All requests for
new/change/deletion of PinICL
users including changes to teams
accessed. (Requests for new
users must be sent from a team
leader/manager or an
administrator/PCO.)
2. Requests for resetting passwords
3. Queries regarding —_possible
problems with PinICL or
enhancement requests
General information (e.g. unavailability
of service, new versions etc.) will be
sent from this mailbox.
Asim Mushtaq or John Newitt will
regularly check the mailbox.
Pathway P" Helpdesk
Please send mail to this mailbox for:
1 All requests for
new/change/deletion of PVCS
users including changes to roles
or worksets accessed. (Requests
for new users must be sent from
a team leader/manager or an
administrator/PCO.)
Requests for resetting passwords
Queries regarding _ possible
problems with PVCS or
enhancement requests
4. All Requests for creation
/modification/withdrawal of,
WorkPackages
a All Requests for Item Slot
creation/modifications
General information (e.g. unavailability
of service, new versions ete.) will be
sent from this mailbox.
The mailbox will be regularly checked
by John Newitt (items 1-3) and Alec
Hanson, Pete Green, Amit Chauhan,
Martin Bailey (items 4-5)
PVCS access from sites other than
FELO1
Users of PVCS from sites other than
FELO1 will usually find that access via
Terminal Server is faster than using the
normal PC Client. Terminal Server has
replaced Winframe, which will be
closed down by mid December since it
is not Y2K compliant. If you still use
Winframe, contact John Newitt
urgently.
I have provided Terminal Server access
to PVCS using the UK domain
username for all known users in
BRAO1, IREOI and IRE11; I should
have completed KIDO1 by Christmas
Please email Pathway PVCS Helpdesk if
you have any problems,
Year end closedown
The CM team have spent a lot of effort
to ensure that we are prepared for Y2K.
The last hurdle starts at 15:00 on
December 31", and staff will be
working through the night to enable all
you keen PVCS users to start work
once again in the morning of January
1%. To achieve this, please note that
PVCS will not be available after 15:00
on December 31".
The last backup of the CM servers will
be overnight 30°31" — December.
Changes after about 20:00 on the 30"
will not be backed up (due to the
elapsed time required). Users who make
changes after this time will be
responsible for taking any essential
security copies.
John Newitt
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Post Office Announces Half Year Results
On 30" November, the Post Office announced a pre-tax loss for the 1999/00 half year of £386
million. It is the first half year loss since 1990/91.
A Post Office spokesman said the loss was due to the need to include an exceptional charge of
£571 million in the accounts in relation to the Horizon project to automate the nation-wide post
office network. Without this charge, The Post Office would have made a pre-tax profit for the half
year of £185 million
Key points:
» Sales increased by 9% to £3,623 million,
> Operating profit before exceptional charges up by 4% to £157 million,
» Exceptional charge of £571 million made to account for the costs of the Horizon project,
> Pre-tax loss of £386 million due to these exceptional charges (1998: £283 million profit),
> Operating profit/(loss) before exceptional charges by principal business is:
Business Operating Profit(Loss) [Change from Sept] _% change
before exceptional charges 1998 £M
for the half year to
September 1999 £M
Royal Mail 139) @3) “19
[Parcelforce Worldwide a5) T +6
Post Office Counters 1S (4) -21
The Post Office spokesman said: “Our final figure is dominated by the accounting implications of
the Horizon project for automating the Counters network. The Post Office agreed with
Government to proceed with the project, despite the decision to move to payment of benefits
direct to claimants’ bank accounts in 2003. The Government has agreed that The Post Office can
draw on reserves to fund Horizon payments this year and we will need to do so in coming years. In
complying with accounting standards, The Post Office has had to make an assessment in its
accounts for acquiring an asset which does not at this stage yield sufficient assured income to
justify the cost. This has meant an exceptional charge amounting to £571 million.”
Without the exceptional charge, Post Office Counters would have made a pre-tax profit for the
half year of £15 million - compared to £25 million in the first half of last year.
During the half year, Royal Mail has maintained its freeze on the 26p basic first class postage - a
price which has been unchanged since July 1996 so customers have had the benefit of stable basic
first class postage for more than 40 months, the longest period of frozen prices for more than 40
years.
A continuing freeze on many postage prices and a Ip cut in basic second class postage to 19p in
April this year is sharpening the business's competitive edge but the effect is also contributing to
reduced profits.
In July this year, The Post Office announced a pre-tax profit of £608 million for 1998/99 - £56
million lower than the previous year, when it had first warned of lower profits as a result of rising
competition.
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Flagship Post Office
at the Dome
Did you know that the Post Office
and ICL Pathway are setting up a
flagship post office at the Millennium
Dome to cater for the expected 12
million visitors to the Greenwich site?
The new open plan office will have
two counters running with Horizon
and a back office terminal. It will be
located in a convenience store right
by the main entrance to the Dome. It
will be open seven days a week from
8am to 8pm, with trading hours
extended to 11pm when the Dome
has late-night opening to the public.
The hardware will be installed and
migrated by Friday 17" December.
Training will be taking place week
commencing Monday 20" December,
with the post office opening up for
business on 30" December.
The 20 acre Dome, which could
accommodate 13 Royal Albert Halls,
is the centrepiece of the UK’s
celebrations to mark the new
Millennium
Corpse and
Robbers
Two men and a woman tried to claim the
pension of a dead man by taking his
corpse into a South African post office
and attempting to manoeuvre his hand on
a fingerprint identification card
Holding up the corpse between them, the
trio arrived at the main post office,
approached a counter used to. serve
illiterate people and said the man was an
uncle who was not feeling well, said
Postmaster Dawie Bester.
Seeing that the man’s eyes were closed
and that he was obviously not in control
of his body, the cashier became
suspicious, especially when one of the
men carrying the corpse had to
manoeuvre the dead man’s hand for
fingerprint-taking, the official said.
When another postal worker approached
and felt the pensioner, he discovered that
he was “ice cold”. The body was then
taken into the assistant postmaster’s
office and laid on the floor.
While the trio slipped out of the post
office, paramedics arrived and said the
man had been dead for some time. The
cause of death was not immediately clear.
Bester said the post office was
investigating.
Source: Post-express
EDITORS NOTE:
This is the seventeenth edition of the official
newsletter from ICL Pathway - a regular for
Staff and friends of ICL Pathway !
If you have any news, views, or comments,
please send them to Chrissie Kennedy, FELOL
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The Business Transformation
Campaign
Employee feedback has made it clear that
ICL needs to invest more time and energy in
internal communication to ensure that
everyone in ICL understands ICL's global
business priorities and can see how they can
make a real difference in achieving ICL’s
business goals.
This programme is known as ‘Conversations
for Change’ and events are being held across
ICL globally between December 1999 and
February 2000.
ICL is using a new and innovative
communication process based on groups of
three or four people having a dialogue
around a number of visuals known as
"WorkMats’
These WorkMats cover six main subject
areas:
> the history of ICL
> imagining the future and the role that
technology will play
> ICL's vision and goals
> what differentiates ICL from other
companies
> how we will operate and where we will
focus to achieve our goals
> actions you choose to take with your own
team
Every ICL employee across the world (and
long-term contractors wherever possible) will
participate in Conversations for Change. A
monitoring system will track progress as
people participate across the world. Over
200 ICL facilitators are being trained to
support. this programme. A core
implementation team has been working on
the logistical challenge of registering ICL
people across the world on to Conversations
for Change sessions.
You may have already received an invitation
from the EMC regarding attendance. If you
have not, don’t worry, full details on how to
register can be found on the Conversations
for Change community on Café VIK.
Conversations for Change is as a two way
communication process and feedback will be
gathered from every Conversations for
Change session. These will also be published
in the Conversations for Change space on
Café VIK.
Conversations for Change will help create
the focus and energy that are needed to bring
ICL's global business performance to a new
level. Please sign up for a session near you as
soon as you have the opportunity.
Excellence Awards
Congratulations to the following people
who have received Silver Excellence
‘Awards,
Steve Reed
John Dicks
Tony Hayward
Dave Hollingsworth
Dave Jones qG
Dave Cooke
John Coakes
John Pope
Patrick Cattermole
David Groom
Jan Holmes
Pam Barlow
Paul Curley
Peter Robinson
VVVVVVVVVVVVVY
If you would like to nominate one of
your colleagues, please contact Chrissie
Kennedy, FELO1, A2
“It’s an excellent way to say
thank you”
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ICL unveils major eBusiness
expansion plan
On the 17 November 1999, ICL announced
a £100 million plan to expand its eBusiness
capability on an international scale. This
follows a doubling of its eBusiness revenues
over the past year and a surge in demand for
its skills for developing a whole new
generation of Internet services, delivered
over non-desktop computer devices such as
mobile phones and interactive digital TV.
The main points from the plan are:
> 4,400 new jobs: 1,000 in the UK;
700 in continental Europe; 700 in
USA
> Massive training and staff
redeployment programme
> 7 new ‘eBusiness Centres of
Excellence’, ‘Virtual Colleges’ &
Solutions Framework
> Agreement with {meeeven! to create
wireless applications” for _ mobile
Phones, & new contracts from.
I IRRELEVANT I
> Development of pan-European
Internet trading community
Keith Todd said: “This Internet revolution is
all about banking, shopping and doing
business how and when people want it -
whether by PC, mobile phone, TV,
household appliance, in-car system or games
console. Too few organisations have woken
up to the opportunities afforded by these
new channels and the power of this anytime,
anyplace, anywhere service model for
transforming their relationships with their
customers. Fewer still have risen to. the
challenge of integrating all their business
processes around the Internet. We foresee a
multi-billion pound business for ICL in these
areas over the next three years and are
expanding aggressively to capitalise on our
leadership position.”
ICL’s growth strategy includes the creation of
over 4,400 new jobs over the next three
years. 1,000 of these new jobs will be in the
UK, located at ICL’s facilities in the Thames
Valley and at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. 700
new jobs will be located in the USA with the
balance in continental Europe. About half of
the new jobs will be for eBusiness systems
engineers. Creative new media designers,
project managers, consultants and systems
integrators will make up the balance.
Patricia. Hewitt MP, UK Government
Minister for e-commerce and small business,
said: “Britain is a leader not a follower in
eBusiness and I welcome this move by ICL to
expand its eBusiness capability, particularly
as it will create several thousand highly
skilled new jobs in the UK and elsewhere in
Europe. The Government is determined to
make the UK the best place for the
transaction of eBusiness and ICL is
demonstrating that it shares this vision.”
As well as the new jobs, ICL will reskill and
redeploy an additional 4,000. staff from
across the group to focus solely on eBusiness
solutions. This underlines ICL’s on-going
commitment to training, life-long learning
and the transformation of its business to meet
customer needs.
The company will also develop seven Centres
of Excellence, specialising inthe
development and deployment of eBusiness
solutions, These will be located at ICL
facilities in Aarhus (Denmark); Frankfurt
(Germany); Helsinki (Finland); Dublin
(Ireland); Bracknell, Kidsgrove (UK) and
Dallas (USA).
The company will also look to expand its
network of Virtual Colleges, which are run
successfully in Denmark, Finland and
Sweden. These involve students who, on
completion of their university education, join
ICL for 9 months where they receive a
combination of classroom-based training, on-
the-job experience and online training.
Successful completion of the course results in
the award of an ICL certificate in eBusiness
and a permanent job offer.
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ICL helps Feltham First bring IT
skills to the local area
On the 26" November 1999, the Feltham
First Regeneration Partnership and
Hounslow Library Network opened a new
CyberSkills technology learning centre in
central Feltham, Middlesex, to help local
businesses and residents gain new technology
skills. The centre is part of an initiative to
help residents compete more effectively for
local employment and provides low cost or
even free training on the Internet, email, CD-
Rom and word processing skills.
ICL is providing its CyberSkills workshops,
which will provide local people with
comprehensive IT training and support.
Designed for individuals and small and
medium-sized businesses, the workshops
teach people how to use new technologies to
gain competitive business advantage, to
improve their employment prospects or
simply for pleasure.
Leslie Forsyth, programme director, Feltham
First, said, "We commissioned a survey in
1997 which showed that IT companies
moving into the area were finding a
significant skills gap in the local population
We are investing in local education and
training to enable local people to compete
effectively for local job opportunities.”
Daniel Johnson, ICL’s CyberSkills business
manager, said, "The Government has
highlighted that social inclusion is an
important issue and ICL is responding by
showing people how they can harness
technology to gain new skills and combat
unemployment. We helped Hounslow
Library Network design a friendly drop-in
centre to make it easier for local people to
learn about technology, dispelling many of.
the fears associated with the use of IT."
KnowledgePool provides training
for 60,000 travel agents
KnowledgePool has won a contract to
provide British Airways with the largest ever-
training programme for travel agents in the
UK. As part of the contract, a customised
training programme is now being delivered
to 60,000 travel agents across the UK and
Ireland.
The first module of the programme will run
until the end of 1999, and provides an
overview of all British Airways products. The
programme has been designed to help travel
agents understand and explain the range of
products and services that British Airways has
to offer to customers.
Both independent and Business and Leisure
multiple travel agents, will receive the
training which is a self-teach package
delivered through either a workbook, video,
or for the first time, via the Internet. To
implement the training, KnowledgePool
designed, developed and produced 30,000
training workbooks, 6,000 training guides for
managers and over 2,500 videos.
The user-friendly training programme covers
the wide variety of British Airways brands,
ranging from Concorde and World Traveller,
the Executive Club, franchise and alliance
partners to onboard services and terminal
facilities. The second module, planned for
early next year, will provide a more in-depth
view of British Airways’ services.
KnowledgePool has also implemented a
range of services including a support-agent
telephone helpdesk, to answer queries and
enable agents to order further training
materials. In addition, KnowledgePool
updates British Airways’ database of travel
agent records and monitors the results of the
self-assessment questionnaires.
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BUSINESS ANALYSTS
What do they do?
What do they offer?
How can they help me?
Good analysis can be defined as solving
the right problem, compared with good
design, which is concerned with solving
the problem the right way.
The BUSINESS ANALYSIS Set in
A&TC’s Technical Centre comprises
more than 100 highly skilled professional
IT Business Analysts.
The Business Analysts and Consultants
focus on business issues and problems,
working with all levels of the client
organisation and ICL as appropriate,
providing practical, hands-on, —_no-
nonsense skills and capabilities. ICL
Business Analysts uniquely are prepared
to underwrite the appropriateness of any
IT solution they recommend.
How can they help me?
In areas of Business Consultancy:
Vision and Strategy
Process Management - Defining the
requirements for IS / IT developments,
including requirements capture and
analysis,
Data modelling
Quality Management - Ensuring a Quality
approach, including development of a
Quality Management System, audit &
assessment.
Change Management - Supporting the
changes required by Process & IS / IT
developments.
You can find out more about how ICL
Business Analysts can help you by visiting
the newly launched Business Analysts
Community on CafeVIK or by contacting
Phil Harpin on:
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If you require a Business Analyst with
specific skills contact Jim Thompson at
the A& TC Scheduling Centre in BRAOI
or to register a requirement for one (or
more) of our professionals call the Sched
on:
Phone GRO
GRO I
E-mail the-sched
Help Needed
Can you spare one Sunday
afternoon each month?
Contact the Elderly needs more
volunteers to take elderly, housebound
people out to tea. Groups exist in most
areas and meet one Sunday afternoon
each month. Volunteer drivers pick up
two or three elderly people and take
them to a host who provides tea.
Thave been doing this for many years and
have found it really rewarding. If you are
interested, I can provide further details or
visit the web site at http://www.contact-
the-elderty.org/
John Newitt (7229 4138)
New Joiners
We would like to welcome the following
people to ICL Pathway:
Aileen Davis, Joe Pugh, Alison
MeCriskin, Tony Green, Sean Holme,
ff Dobson
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