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Fujitsu Services Report on Cleveleys Post Office Ref: TA/REP/047
Version: 1.0
Company in Confidence Date: 01/09/04
Document Title: Report on Cleveleys Post Office
Document Type: Report
Release: N/A
Abstract: This document describes the involvement of Fujitsu Services
Post Office Account with Post Office Security Investigation in
the matter of Cleveleys Post Office and the dispute between the
Post Office and the Post Master.
Document Status: APPROVED
Originator & Dept: Jan Holmes (Programme Assurance)
Contributors:
Internal Distribution: Post Office Account Commercial Director
Post Office Account Security Manager
External Distribution: Nil
Approval Authorities: (See PA/PRO/010 for Approval roles)
Name Position Signature Date
Colin Lenton-Smith Commercial Director
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Fujitsu Services Report on Cleveleys Post Office Ref: TA/REP/047
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0.0 Document Control
0.1. Document History
‘VersionNo. I Date I Reason for Issue Associated
I I CP/PinICL
01 29/03/04 Initial Draft
0.2 01/04/04 Updated
0.3 03/08/04 Updated following request for assistance from POL
Counsel
1.0 01/09/04 Approved following case closure
0.2 Review Details
Review Comments by :
Review Comments to :
Jan Holmes
Mandatory Review Authority
Name
Optional Review / Issued for Information
( * ) = Reviewers that returned comments
0.3 Associated Documents
Reference
Vers
I Date Title
I Source
Unless a specific version is referred to above, reference should be made to the current
approved versions of the documents.
0.4 Abbreviations/Definitions
Abbreviation I Definition
PO Post Office Limited
POA Post Office Account
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0.5 Changes in this Version
Version Changes
0.6 Changes Expected
Changes
Comment from document reviewers
0.7 Table of Contents
1.0
2.0
3.0 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY...
4.0 CHRONOLOGY
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1.0
2.0
3.0
3.1
Introduction
Post Office Account provides support to Post Office Security Investigations in their
legal actions against Post Masters. Generally speaking this is in the form of audit data,
witness statements and, if required, appearances in court.
Occasionally Post Office will request special assistance in matters that do not fit the
standard service described above. The dispute at Cleveleys revolves around the Post
Master being dismissed by PO in November 2000, ostensibly for ‘unacceptable
losses’, her counter-claim for damages for unfair dismissal and her subsequent refusal
to return Horizon equipment to Post Office as she felt that it’s contents would
somehow uphold her claims.
Scope
This report does not set out to address the case itself, merely what POA have provided
as support and some of the issues identified in providing that assistance. It does make
recommendations as to how future involvement by POA in these non-standard cases
might be better managed.
At the time of writing this report attempts were being made by PO to reach an out of
court settlement with the Post Master.
Management Summary
The Experts Report
The Expert, who was supposed to be jointly appointed, has taken a very one-sided
view of life and has drawn conclusions that are based on a paper review of HSH call
logs covering the period from initial rollout of the office to November 2000. In some
cases his analysis of the call logs is incomplete and stops at the point where it
supports his opinion.
In his original Report the Expert made a number of general assertions that are difficult
to refute since there is no audit data available that would allow a point-by-point
rejection of his assertions. This means that the argument would be reduced to
assertion and counter assertion, probably in court and ultimately resulting in a lose-
lose situation for POL and POA. He has also drawn conclusions about the Horizon
System Helpdesk without considering fully the primary objective of the HSH, ie to
get the outlet up and running as quickly as possible and minimise business
interruption to the PM.
POA cannot prove, in the literal sense, that the system operated correctly during 2000
since we do not have transaction data that will demonstrate that fact. Equally, any
proving that we could do, for example, by design walkthroughs with the Expert,
would prove nothing since it would be a 2004 system baseline that was being
considered, not one from 2000. We can infer that it was since we are not aware of any
contemporary POL prosecutions failing due to the system not operating correctly.
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When confronted with a comparative analysis of HSH calls for all 6 counter outlets
the Expert dismissed it and implied that we might have deliberately withheld the
information from him in the first place. This was rejected strongly in our final
response.
Some of the terminology used by the Expert is also not what POA would consider to
be objective or supported by substantive evidence or benchmarks. An example of this
is his statement that ‘installed equipment was clearly defective’, a statement presented
in such a way as to reduce the debate to a ‘no it wasn’t, yes it was’ level.
We have offered to host him at any of our locations so he can analyse HSH data
direct, speak to the experts and walkthrough the problem management cycle for
himself. He will not have seen this offer since it was contained in the email that
accompanied our final response and this has not been passed on to the Expert pending
the outcome of an out of Court settlement offer by POL to the PM. [DN 01/04/04;
Confirmed with Jim Cruise that the recommended 3 months salary offer is now with
POL for approval prior to being made to the PM]
3.2. POA Involvement
Arguably we were brought into this too late. Our first involvement was August 2003,
some 6 months after the court appointed the Expert and some three years after the
original dismissal of the PM. No doubt some of this delay is attributable to the
workings of the Courts but even so POL might consider our earlier involvement, even
if it’s just as a ‘heads up’ to a situation that might become more active.
The problem of audit data deletion will not apply on future cases since we no longer
delete TMS transaction data after 18 months although this change only affects data
archived after 18" May 2002.
4.0 Chronology
15/08/03 I POA initial involvement following request by PO for Witness Statement declaring that there will be no
transaction data on some Horizon equipment that the Post Master (PM) was refusing to return to PO
since it would support her counter-claim for unfair dismissal,
It was known at this time that a court order had been made for a computer expert to look at the losses
at Cleveleys and whether they were caused by the Horizon equipment as was being claimed by the
PM
15/08/03 I JH brought issue to attention of CLS and questioned legal position wrt 3 party having access to the
equipment to conduct forensic examination:
20/08/03 I PO (Jim Cruise) sent fax formally requesting witness statement and background information from
their solicitors (dated 17/02/03) surrounding the appointment of a single Joint Expert be instructed on
the issue of liability and causation.
21/08/03 I A preliminary report (email) was despatched by JH to JC that identified that we did not have any audit
data for Cleveleys for the period in question (02/00 to 11/00) and explaining the issues around trying
to ‘fire-up’ a counter that has been dormant for >35 days (as was the case with this equipment). POA
also stated that we would not be prepared to allow a 3” party direct access to the counter.
06/02/04 I Nothing more was heard for almost 6 months until we received a letter from Post Office containing the
Experts report. PO were concerned that the report claimed that the equipment installed at Cleveleys
was defective and that the Horizon System Helpdesk (HSH) was more concerned with closing calls
than resolving problems. PO feared that if the report went unchallenged it could set a precedent for
other cases being progressed against PMs.
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JHIJC discussed situation and JC asked that we respond to Expert's report with anything that might
help him change some or all of the opinions expressed in the report. In particular, any comparisons
with other similar Outlets that would suggest that Cleveleys was nothing out of the ordinary would be
very helpful. JC also confirmed that the equipment had still not been returned to PO and that it was
not examined as part of the Expert's review.
12/02/04
JH tealised that HSH call logs were still available for the period in question and obtained a call
analysis for other 6 counter outlets. The analysis was not conclusive but it did indicate that Cleveleys
could not be considered as out of the ordinary with regard to number of calls or the spread of call
types
There followed a short period during which the Expert's Report was considered within POA.
20/02/04
CLS wrote to Keith Baines with our detailed response to the Expert's Report. The POA response
challenged all of the Expert's conclusions and opinions and identified, through the HSH call analysis,
that the call profiles for Cleveleys was consistent with other 6 counter outlets.
27/02/04
The Expert replied to our response, through the PO's solicitors, stating that he saw nothing in the
POA response that would cause him to change his opinion. There was an implication in his reply that
POA had been less than honest in the area of HSH call logs — we had previously stated that data was,
not available since it was deleted after 18 months. While this is true of audit data sourced from a
regulated archive the unregulated Powerhelp files from which the analysis was sourced was
available. JC advised POA by email that the Expert's Report was not acceptable to PO and that an
application needs to be made to the court for Fujitsu to give evidence about the Horizon system and
its working
12/03/04
A final response to the Experts reply to our original response was prepared and despatched to JC.
19/03/04
JH/JC discussed the case. JC advised that PO were going to make an offer to the PM and were not
forwarding our final response to the Expert pending the outcome of their offer.
06/04/04
JC provided email update on case wrt written-off losses and current thinking on how they are
approaching case. This information passed to CLS for update.
07/06/04
Following two months of silence I rang POL for update to find that JC has taken early retirement and
Mandy Talbot now handling the case for POL.
26/07/04
POL advised of changed nature of J. Wolstenholme's case and need to provide expert witness in
Court. Also that Fujitsu may be required to provide same.
28/07/04
This information passed to CLS during Commercial Forum,
03/08/04
Conference call between POL, POA, Masons, Weightmans and POL Counsel to discuss approach
To
13/08/04
There followed a period of time during which Witness Statements and supporting documentation were
produced by Jan Holmes (POA) and Keith Baines (POL) and delivered to Weightmans.
13/08/04
Notified by POL that Post Office had made an increased offer to Mrs Wolstenholmes to drop the case
and this had been accepted. Not required in Court.
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5.0 Witness Statement 1
Claimant
J Holmes
First
Exhibits “-”
Dated: August 2004
CLAIM NO CRI101947
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:
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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.
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.
I set out below a glossary of terms used in describing the matters referred to in this
statement.
BRAOI Fujitsu building Bracknell 01
Cleveleys Runnymede Ave, Thomton Cleveleys, Lanes, FYS IDF. The Post Office in question
FELO 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 SM
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
PinICI Call management system utilised by SSC and Pathway development for capturing and progressing
incidents escalated from SMC (2™ Line). (Replaced by system called PEAK in 2004)
PM Post Master
PowerHlelp
Call management system utilised by HSH for capturing and progressing call information from PMs
are Quality Filter Process
RMF Release Management Forum
SMC System Management Centre (2 Line)
SSC System Support Centre (3 Line)
STE09 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.
(Conon ° en
Horizon Support Domains’
Lire Suppor Bre Lire Suppmr Sa Line Suppor “Eh Line Supper
SH ‘suc ssc a a
(sTE09) (sT=09) (R801) (FELOVBRAD}
Foner Pics
5. Each of the domains, referred to as 1°, 2"4, 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 they have business
related problems. The NBSC sometimes receives calls that are more relevant to the
HSH and these calls are transferred by telephone.
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8. 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.
9. 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]
10. 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 BRAO].
11. 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. I 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
> 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)
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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. I 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.
19. Closed PinICLs refer back to the originating PowerHelp call, which is automatically
closed.
ICL Pathway Development (4" Line)
20. 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.
21. 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
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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.
22. Cleveleys office went live on Release NR2 with the next major Release, Cl4,
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-OO08021149 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 Cl4.
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.
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] I 0 4
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.
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[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.
Signed :
Dated: niece ceeeee eee eeeseeee terete tersteeeeees
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