IN CONFIDENCE
Report No: 68/01
Issued: January 2001
REVIEW OF HORIZON DATA CENTRES
ICLLTD
NOVEMBER 2001
REPORT DISTRIBUTION
For Information: I Mike Hannon Horizon Contract and Commercial Manager
Dave Miller Managing Director Post office Network
Paul Rich Group Managing Director Post Office Ltd
Peter Corbett Finance Director Post Office Ltd
Vince Mulholland Head of Corporate and Strategic Finance
Post Office Limited
David Lewington Head of Group Internal Audit
Ernst & Young External Auditors
From: Rashpal Dhesi Principal Auditor
‘@ Consignia
Group Internal Audit
Consignia, AT21
Rowland Hill House
Chesterfield
S49 1HQ
Telephone:
Postline:
Fax No:
REPORT REF: AR6801 PAGE I OF 2
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IN CONFIDENCE
INTRODUCTION
Ll This report has been provided for information and summarises the detailed report produced
by the International Computers Limited (ICL) Pathway Quality and Audit Manager
covering the Horizon operations carried out at the ICL Data Centres based at Bootle and
Wigan. The Horizon system records transactions carried out over the counter at Post
Offices. The provision and management of the Horizon system for Consignia is carried out
by ICL Pathway, who in turn have the Data Centres managed by ICL’s Infrastructure
Services Division (ISD). Under the contractual relationship, the recommendations made are
the responsibility of ICL ISD to deploy.
1.2 As a result of a problem in retrieving archived data from the Data Centres, Consignia Group
Internal Audit (GIA) asked to be involved with this review to provide assurance that
problems relating to retrieval of archived data had been resolved. Although, the same data
was archived at both sites, on one occasion, a tape holding the data was found to be corrupt,
whilst the other tape was lost in transit by an external carrier. The data was eventually re-
created using another source and no further issues have emerged.
REPORT REF: AR6801 PAGE I OF 2