FUJ00078062
FUJ00078062
Isc/97/13
ICL Pathway Memorandum
DATE: 24th February 1997 Ref: jnb/Feb.97/172
TO: Rod Scott
SUBJECT: ICL Pathway - ISC Progress Report
1. Programme Replan
This has been the main activity for the last two months, to reassess with the customer
the best way of achieving a phased roll out during 1997. This work has now been
completed and the programme events will lead to a 200 post office implementation of
the first service for live testing starting at the end of April, the second service in June
and the third service in September. Although this derisks the programme it has moved
the national roll out date back from July to November. The increased start up costs
and delays to the revenue stream have required commercial renegotiations with the
customer which have also just been concluded. Broadly speaking, the contract will be
extended at the completion date to take into account the late start. In the case of Post
Office Counters, the contract end date has moved forward some 7 months, which also
allows issues surrounding the increased training requirements to be covered. The fine
details of the programme plan are now being worked out with the customer and in
addition we are looking to see if we can roll out up to 2,000 Post Offices in 1997
before the full acceptance of the system has been achieved. The net effect is,
nevertheless, that we are likely to complete 1997 with just over 2000 Post Offices live
as opposed to the original plan of approximately 5,000.
The new arrangements have high visibility politically and the plan as described above,
has been discussed with the Secretary of State Peter Lilley and is likely to be signed off
by him within the next week.
2. Progress Summary
The Initial Go Live system which went operational in the Stroud area of the UK last
September continues to run well and now has its maximum number of 1400 claimants
regularly using the payment card.
System testing activities are well advanced now for all three services to be
implemented and the two data centres in Wigan and Bootle are now largely complete
and ready for service.
In total there will be five difference payment cards covering 20 million beneficiaries
and final designs on three of them are complete and the two minor ones are now being
worked on.
3. Risk Management
A total review of the programme risks has now been conducted, working on the new
replan timetable. This shows, as expected, a reduction in risk due to the phased
implementation plan. This risk report is now published together with the updating
schedule for 1997 and dates of the management risk reviews which will keep this
process under active management.
4, Major Issues
As well as the replan activities and risk management referred to above, the key areas to
manage during 1997 is the delivery from the customer of his dependencies into our
plans. These interfaces have proved complex and unstable and we are using change
control to impose better disciplines here.
5. Supplier Management
We have completed a further round of negotiations with our key suppliers to improve
the supply margins through the supply chain. In most cases, we have gained extra
percentage points. We have regular communications with our key suppliers through
our Suppliers forum and kept them up to speed on the replan activities and their needs
to mitigate their costs against the new plan.
6. Partnership Plans with Post Office Counters Ltd
We have had two successful Board to Board events over the last few months with
POCL and have drafted a strategic partnership agreement which we shall use to
address new business activities and the responsibilities of both partners to make this
happen. In process terms, we have agreed:a new business process which allows us to
assess the business case of new opportunities and to schedule them into our future
release strategy for new services on the infrastructure.
Our Release 2 products scheduled for Q1 1998 will be the first opportunity to build in
new business revenue streams.
We have shared with POCL the need to be complimentary in the way in which we
conduct ministerial lobbying, particularly over the election period and the potential new
labour administration. Also we have exchanged views as to how we could collectively
address the opportunities coming from the UK government green paper
“Government.direct’ which looks at new ways of delivering government services to the
citizen.
John Bennett
FUJ00078062
FUJ00078062