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To: Butts Geoff[f
From: D'Alvarez Alan[/O=EXCHANGE/OU=,
Sent: Wed 24/02/2010 10:58:18 PM (UTC)
Subject: I FW: FW: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for BTS
-ADMINGROUP1/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=I = DALVAREZA}
Geoff,
Not sure if I forwarded this one.
Alan D'Alvarez
Associate P&PM Academy
FUJITSU
Mob :
E-mail: alan.d'alvarezi
Fujitsu Services Limited, Registered in England no. 96056. Registered Office: 22 Baker Street, London W1U 3BW.
This e-mail is only for the use of its intended recipient. Its contents are subject to a duty of confidence and may be privileged. Fujitsu
Services does not guarantee that this e-mail has not been intercepted and amended or that it is virus-free.
Sent: 23 February 2010 11:26
To: D'Alvarez Alan
Cc: Dodington Chris; Jenkins Gareth GI; Allen Graham (BRAO1); mark.burleyé
Subject: RE: FW: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for BTS
Importance: High
Alan
Further to the correspondence detailed below - I have now met with our
Finance Team to discuss this issue and to establish their position regards
any requirements they have to ensure POL does not incur additional expose
as a result of this defect.
As previously stated the Final Balance Report is a legal document and as
such POL rely on the accuracy and integrity of the report during any legal
action we undertake to recover monies from Subpostmasters. Given the Trial
report can be printed several times - usually following stock adjustments
made during the balancing process, this has no standing from a legal
perspective.
Based on this, and the understanding of the defect, how it arose, and the
proposed rectification (as provided by Gareth); our Finance team require
certain specific deliverables from Fujitsu in order for them to be able to
mange the risk this poses, and to give them confidence to support the
continued Roll-Out of HNG.
The deliverables required are;
A complete and comprehensive list of all products where the volumes on
the Final Balance Report differ to those on the Trial Balance Report.
A definitive statement detailing:
1. How this defect has arisen
2. What the impacts of this defect are - detailing all stock items
affected
3. What Fujitsu are doing to resolve this defect
4. Aclear statement proving the integrity of the data is not
compromised in any way, and that the only impact is incorrectly reported
data.
5. A commitment to support POL in proving the integrity of the system
in any subsequent legal action (specifically where the difference in the
two reports is used as a means to challenge the
integrity of the system).
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POL Legal to "sign-off" the Fujitsu Definitive Statement as fit for
purpose.
There are several internal processes that will be implemented to ensure any
impact is minimised, however I do need Fujitsu's agreement to the above to
gain the support of our Finance teams.
Would you please respond and action this as a matter of urgency.
Thanks and Regards
Phil
Principal Analyst
Post Office Ltd.
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Phil,
Thanks for the quick response - and yes, it does clarify the
cause of the issue.
What would be really useful is an example of exactly which
figures are different.
The only differences are in the Stock Levels part of the BTS report. The
first part which is concerned with the Cash movements and the summary
Trading position will be correct.
It is not practical to explain exactly which figures are wrong and which
are correct on the Final Report. However it is restricted entirely to the
Stock levels of Volume Stock (ie the second part of the BTS). From the
examples we have seen it is likely to be many of the Stock levels are wrong
(and the figures will be too high, so indicating that the Branch's Stock
levels should be higher than they really ought to be).
Given the legal status of these reports (they <the final > are
often used in court proceedings when we are trying to recover
monies from dismissed Subpostmasters) and the potential
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"integrity" challenges that could be levelled against the HNG
system as a result of any differences; POL need assurance from
Fujitsu that they could/will explain the cause of the problem
and prove the system has integrity should we be challenged.
I understand this, though I would have though most legal proceedings would
be based on the first part of the report (which covers cash levels) rather
than the second part.
I know this is not your area, however in order to help us get
concurrence from our Finance Team we do need that commitment. I
know Mark has asked Chris for that assurance, however dependent
upon the outcome of the meeting scheduled with POL Finance on
Monday we may need to request more specific assurances.
I'll leave others to respond to that.
Would you please advise who within FS would be in a position to
provide the assurances/agree to any such request.
Again, I'll leave others to respond to that.
Regards
Gareth
Gareth Jenkins
Distinguished Engineer
Applications Architect
Royal Mail Group Account
FUJITSU
Lovelace Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8SN
Tel:
(Note new external number -
old number will not work after 31/12/2009)
Mobile:
email:
Web: http://uk.fujitsu.com
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P Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
Fujitsu Services Limited, Registered in England no 96056, Registered Office
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This e-mail is only for the use of its intended recipient. Its contents
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1 19/02/2010 15:10 I
I To: — <phil.norton;
cc: "D'Alvarez Alan’
"Allen Graham \(BRA01\)"
I Subject: FW: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for BTS
Phil,
Alan D'Alvarez has asked me to respond to your concerns below.
I'll try and explain the issue and what has caused it.
I assume you've seen the attached write up of the issue which was send to
Barry Evans (and others) on Friday 12/02/10.
<<BTSStockLevels v3.doc>>
To expand on this a bit further:
1. When the BTS is being produced, it is done based on data written to
the Branch Database (BRDB) whenever a Stock Unit Rolls over.
2. BTS Production retrieves this data from BRDB to the counter.
3. The counter then uses it to generate the Trial BTS
4. There is a bug in the way that the report is produced such that
some of the in-memory copy of the data is overwritten when the Trial BTS is
produced
5. Aconsequence of this is that when the final BTS is produced it is
using incorrect data.
6. The problem has been fixed by ensuring that the final BTS uses the
original data retrieved by the counter at step 2 rather than the data left
over after step 4.
7. The problem was first reported by Warwick and they pointed out that
the trial Balance figures were correct and the Final Balance figures were
incorrect.
8. Comparing the Trial and Final balance figures with the
corresponding Stock Unit Balance Reports shows easily that the Trial
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Balance is correct and the final Balance is incorrect.
9. None of the incorrect data is stored to BRDB so there is no
possibility of ongoing corruption of stock levels.
Does this clarify the situation for you? I’m happy to talk it through with
you and expand on any areas that are still unclear if that would help, but
I thought it simplest to expand on the write up first.
Regards
Gareth
Gareth Jenkins
Distinguished Engineer
Applications Architect
Royal Mail Group Account
FUJITSU
Lovelace Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8SN
Tel: Internal: {GRO}
(Note new external number -
old number will not work after 31/12/2009)
Mobile: Internal: f
email: Gareth. Jenkins;
Web: http://uk.fujitsu.com
P Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
Fujitsu Services Limited, Registered in England no 96056, Registered Office
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22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW.
This e-mail is only for the use of its intended recipient. Its contents
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From: phil.nortory ° 7 [mailto:phil.norton
GRO
Sent: 19 February 2010 14:00
To: D'Alvarez Alan
Subject: Re: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for BTS
Importance: High
Alan
Just rang Geoff but he is on leave - would you be able to help with this
one please.
Would you please send any history regards this issue - specifically what
the differences in the Final report are, and can you advise how Fujitsu
have established that the trial report is correct - and that there is no
corruption of the data.
A speedy response would be appreciated as I need to explain this issue to
our Finance colleagues in more detail.
Thanks and Regards
Phil
Principal Analyst
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Post Office Ltd.
STD Phone:
Postline:
External Email: phil.norto
I I Mark Burley =I
Io 18/02/2010 07:37 I
I To: "Butts Geoff" <""
Norton/e/POSTOFFICE I
I ce: "D'Alvarez Alan" <
barry.r.evans}
"Dodington Chris" I
“>, "Jenkins Gareth GI"
"Allen Graham \(BRAO1\)" I
"Welsh Graham"
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will.russelli
I Subject: Re: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for
BTS(Document link: Phil Norton) I
Geoff
Thanks but can I ask who you have agreed this workaround with. This is a
legal document and there is a difference between a trial balance and a
Final Balance? I would also expect CS to have a KEL for this - if agreed -
to be able to explain the position to any Subpostmaster who calls in.
Graham to confirm please.
Phil
Can you discuss with P&BA please to determine if this would be acceptable?
Mark Burley
Programme Manager HNG
Post Office Ltd
Operations
2nd Floor
148 Old Street
London
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EC1V 9HQ
Postline: Mobex:
External Email: mark.burley;
I I "Butts Geoff"
>, <barry.r.evans(~
I cc: "D'Alvarez Alan"
"Welsh Graham" <
"Dodington I
I Chris" >, "Allen Graham
\(BRAO1\)" <i "Jenkins Gareth GI" I
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I Subject: Workaround for the Final Balance Report for
BTS I
Both,
This is to confirm the position on a fix for the BTS issue whereby printing
the Trial Balance Report for BTS results in incorrect data being displayed
in the Final Balance Report. A fix can be delivered and tested for
inclusion within the 01.08 Maintenance Release as a counter fix.
In the meantime, branches need to use the BTS Trial Balance Report, which
is correct, and discard the BTS Final Balance Report, which is incorrect.
Regards,
Geoff
Geoff Butts,
Programme Manager, HNG-X Release 1,
Royal Mail Account
Practitioner, P&PM Academy
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FUJITSU
Web: http://uk.fujitsu.com
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