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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal vi Reh en/Acdi218
‘ersion:1.I
Acceptance Incident 218 Date:23/8/99
Document Title: Acceptance Proposal for Acceptance Incident 218
Document Type: Acceptance Proposal
Abstract: This document contains ICL Pathway’s proposal to the
independent Expert in respect of Acceptance Incident
218.
Status: Issued
Distribution: Expert:
ICL Pathway:
Library
POCL:
Author: JCC Dicks
Comments to: Pathway list
Comments by:
0 Document control
0.1 Document history
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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal Ref:CR/ACD/218
. Version:1.0
Acceptance Incident 218 Date:23/8/99
Version Date Reason
0.1 20/8/98 Initial draft for comments
0.2 Approval authorities
Name Position Signature Date
JH Bennett Managing Director
JCC Dicks Customer Requirements
Director
W M Foley Business Development
Director
0.3 Associated documents
Reference Vers Title Source
0.4 Abbreviations
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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal Ref:CR/ACD/218
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Acceptance Incident 218 Date:23/8/99
0.5 Table of content
1 PURPOSE 4
2 SUMMARY 4
3 CRITERIA 4
4 POCL POSITION 4
5 PATHWAY POSITION 5
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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal Ref:CR/ACD/218
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Acceptance Incident 218 Date:23/8/99
1 Purpose
This document sets out ICL Pathway’s proposals that Acceptance Incident
218 may be categorised as closed and that the Clearance Plan has been
successfully implemented.
2 Summary
ICL Pathway believes that no effort has been spared to develop training
events suitable for the wide range of users in the POCL network. However,
we strongly maintain that the success of a programme of this size cannot be
achieved by training alone. A change management approach must exist for
pre-entry and steady state environments as well as for formal training.
ICL Pathway believes the Clearance actions now proposed demonstrate its
intent to provide further investment to ensure the success of the Horizon
change programme. ICL Pathway will discuss the implementation of these
steps with POCL as a matter of the greatest urgency.
3 Criteria
No Criteria are formally cited on the Acceptance Incident, although reference
is understood to be made to Criterion 534/1:
“Pathway’s training solution shall take account of Users’ experiences in term
of automated products and platforms (ECCO+, APT, ALPS) and their differing
abilities to learn.”
The Acceptance Incident reads: “The Managers Training Course is not
acceptable due to deficiencies in the accounting modules. In the live
environment the training given did not equip the users to perform the
completion of office cash accounts. This is a basic POCL function that is
central to running and accounting for the POCL network.”
4 POCL position
Based upon the minutes of the Acceptance Board Meeting of 18 August 1999,
POCL contended that:
“the reason for the incident was the requirement to recognise the differences
in users’ ability”.
“a number of offices could not cope with the first live balance without HFSO
support which had never been intended by POCL”
“POCL now have had additional proposals from Pathway but they cannot
accept this as a mature plan — it is lacking in details of cost and time for
example”.
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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal vi Reh en/Acdi218
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Acceptance Incident 218 Dates23/8/09
5 Pathway position
5.1
5.2
Pathway believes that it has made exceptional efforts both over time, and in
particular during the Live Trial, to provide a Manager's training course that
effectively supports POCL business needs.
Significant changes to the business processes specified for producing Cash
Accounts were introduced into the Live Trial at short notice. The fundamental
issue from early Live Trial exposure was that the balancing process was too
complicated for a high proportion of sub post offices. It needed to be
simplified, in terms of the necessary POCL business rules to be followed, and
made easier to operate, in terms of quantity of work to be performed and the
HCI of some display screens, commensurate with this group’s knowledge of
POCL business rules and initial IT skills.
The Need For A Management Of Change Programme
POCL is introducing Horizon to the entire UK counters network. This covers
a wide spectrum of offices from single position to 20-position, from automated
to non-automated, from 20-year-old staff to 85-year-old staff or agents. ICL
Pathway has always clearly stated that this is, by any standard, a massive
change programme. Training is but a part of the overall POCL change
management programme for their network. ICL Pathway has continued to
stress this point in correspondence between Bruce McNiven and John
Bennett (copies attached in section 4).
Moreover, besides introducing automation through Horizon, POCL is using
the change opportunity to introduce conformance of business practices
throughout the network.
Differing Requirements of Users
The development of training courses — in particular the Manager's course -
and associated material has been on-going since May 1996. A chronology of
that development is included as Appendix 6. POCL has been closely involved
through formal reviews and regular meetings with the specification and
development of all training courses and has approved the course
specifications and sat in on the dry run of all events. Significant change has
taken place to the training events since May 1996:
e Courses were extended from a half-day to one day and from one day to
one and a half days in recognition of the need to provide more detailed
training
e The training course population has increased from 67,000 to 72,000
« The number of training events to be provided was increased by ICL
Pathway from 12,000 to 12,600 to provide contingency for lower than
expected attendance. This was to cover a POCL concern that mandating
training would not be totally effective
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5.3
e Post the HM Treasury review and the cancellation of the benefit card, the
specific benefit card training has been replaced by training of a similar
time to allow more time for balancing.
In recognition of the need to be ready to adapt courses in the light of real
experience, ICL Pathway has made every effort to make changes to the
training to POCL’s satisfaction before and throughout Live Trial, such that
every course has been significantly changed. Furthermore, at POCL’s
request, an additional 24 outlets were installed in July, to form a basis on
which the effectiveness of the training improvements could be — and indeed
have been - demonstrated. At every stage POCL has had complete approval
authority for the changes being made and has registered its satisfaction with
the results of these changes.
ICL Pathway has endeavoured to keep the user uppermost in mind. This has
guided the design of the system with use of touch screens, clear on-screen
instructions on next steps and easy-to-use documentation, and the approach
to training that delivers competent users to the programme.
Improvements to Balancing
It is clear that the day-to-day use of the system works well for the majority of
users. However, there have been significant problems in the use of the stock
unit balancing and the cash account part of the system. These arise
principally on Wednesday nights and have caused disruption in post offices
and a significant number of help desk calls.
A number of factors have contributed to this:
e the length of the end-to-end balancing process
e problems with the printing of the cash account and the time taken to print
(20 minutes to print two copies)
e the need for a progress indicator on the print screens causing staff to
believe that nothing was happening and to press a series of keys or
buttons
¢ staff not following the Quick Reference Guides to ensure conformance to
process
«screen freeze and printer hanging problems which stopped the system
* uncertainty about POCL business rules and how to apply them in the
Horizon context
e overload of the Horizon Systems Help Desk
When this disruption became apparent, ICL Pathway proposed a number of
changes to the system to make balancing easier. A joint workshop took place
to evaluate these changes, change requests were raised and the changes
were implemented on 12 July. In parallel with the system changes, the
training courses were modified to place far greater emphasis on the
balancing part of the system and changes were made to the various
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5.4
documentation sets to ensure consistency. Specific details of the changes are
appended as Appendix 7.
A further joint workshop has since taken place on 26 July where a further 60
possible improvements to the system were discussed. The outcome of this
workshop is currently under normal business process review within POCL.
Additional Proposals from ICL Pathway
A joint workshop on Management of Change took place on 13 August in a
final attempt to arrive at an acceptable Clearance Plan for Acceptance
Incident 218. At this POCL said actions were needed in seven areas. Of
these ICL Pathway contend that the first three are Management of Change
related and the other four are business as usual actions associated with
training.
5.4.1. Management Of Change
5.4.1.1Pre-Entry Event
It was agreed at a joint workshop on 13 August that about 20% of the user
population would need a pre-entry Horizon appreciation event. This would
demystify computers, introduce standard balance terminology, explain the
‘manual to automated’ change, give the user hands-on experience using the
in-built training mode.
Action: ICL Pathway has offered, jointly with POCL, to develop and run 370
half day events for a maximum of 3,700 office managers. This is a new event,
not yet developed and not envisaged within the contract.
5.4.1.2Post Installation Care
Most management of change programmes provide for post-installation user
care: this gives support during the initial take-on period when users are at
their most vulnerable and when confidence in new systems and processes
may be low. ICL Pathway is responsible for migration, a task that is sub-
contracted to POCL who is naturally best placed to undertake this task. POCL
has defined a Horizon Field Support Officer (HFSO) to perform this role. In
addition, POCL have allocated an HFSO to each office for the day of
migration and the following day. POCL has been reviewing the use of the
HFSO at the first balance, i.e. the first Wednesday after migration.
Action: ICL Pathway believes that after the first Wednesday, any support
should be part of business as usual, with the help desks backed up by normal
retail line support providing sufficient guidance: there will always be a first
‘unaccompanied’ balance. The danger with any level of continued in-office
support is that the user will rely too much on the support and not accept
personal responsibility for the new approach and subsequent learning.
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5.4.1.3Post Installation Competency Strategy
The joint workshop on 13 August accepted that not all users out within the
large population will ‘absorb’ Horizon. This may eventually call for closure of
the outlet, replacement of the sub-postmaster or training of additional staff.
Handling fallout is a natural part of any Management of Change programme.
Decisions arising are entirely within POCL’s remit and while ICL Pathway will
Support any change under the Operational Business Change process, it
cannot be a party to decisions of a contractual nature between POCL and its
Staff or agents.
5.4.2. Business As Usual Training-Related Actions
5.4.2.1Monitoring Of Training Delivery
POCL is concerned that trainer competence is not sufficiently closely
monitored by ICL Pathway or its sub-contractor thus allowing perceived “weak
trainers” to continue training.
Action: Training course attendees all complete confidential appraisal forms.
These forms are reviewed and assessed by ICL Training and action is taken if
any negative views are expressed about the either training or the trainer. ICL
Training also undertakes at regular intervals, sampled attendance at training
events to monitor the performance of the trainer. This is completely in line with
ICL Training’s approach across its business and is, we believe, sufficient to
ensure the quality of the trainers.
5.4.2.2User Competency
POCL considers that the Performance Standard Assessment (PSA) is too
subjective and needs to be reviewed and re-defined to ensure it meets
expectations. The current PSA had previously been defined and agreed by
POCL.
Action: ICL Pathway is happy to will work with POCL to ensure an agreed
PSA is delivered on the training courses.
5.4.2.3Post Training Consolidation
Horizon has an in-built training mode that allows the user (post system
installation and in a special training mode) to enter and perform transactions
on the system to improve familiarity and ease of system use. POCL and ICL
Pathway have identified that users are not making use of training mode and
hence not taking the opportunity to improve their confidence.
Action: ICL Pathway recognises this and is proposing a number of steps.
These include more time during the formal training events to cover training
mode (we have already proposed its introduction during the pre-entry event),
POCL mandating and monitoring the use of training mode in live outlets and
the HFSO encouraging the use of training mode during his time at the office.
5.4.2.4Agreed Training Course Changes
POCL has already submitted to ICL Pathway a number of minor changes to
course content following the dry runs of events.
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ICL Pathway Acceptance Proposal Ref:CR/ACD/218
Version:1.0
Acceptance Incident 218 Date:23/8/99
Action: ICL Pathway is already implementing these changes and will in the
course of normal business continue with POCL to review course content and
applicability, making agreed changes where appropriate.
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