ICL PATHWAY CASE LAW REFERRAL CS/TEM/013
7 ] VERSION 1.0
CASE LAW NO. 0009 inI
BIMS REF. Not applicable im
TIP REF. Not applicable POH-4718D J
EXCEPTION CLASS NA
EXCEPTION CATEGORY _I OBCS Encashment Failure
DATE FIRST RECEIVED __I 08 November 2001
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ACCEPTANCE OF LIABILITY DISPUTED BY: ICL Pathway
DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT:
‘At 06.00 on Thursday the 8" of November the first of many calls was received by the HSH where the Post
Master was unable to scan or manually input a pension book. An analysis of the problem was initiated and
the problem was identified in the Pathway Reference Data. By 09.30 a fix was produced and distributed to
10 outlets for an initial trial. The major part of the distribution of the fix to the remainder of the outlets was
completed by 11.15.
The impact to Post Offices and their customers on that morning was minimised by. the use of the Message
Broadcast facility and MBS234, which documented the manual process the Post Masters should follow
regarding the payment of pensions. Pension groups 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13 were affected by this fault.
Following the 11.15 download of the fix for the 6 OBCS Product Modes the HSH were advised that Post
Masters would be able to manually enter pension books. In some cases Post Masters were asked to reboot
their systems due to the side affect of the OBCS problem. These-were due to the Post Masters entering a
foil under OBCS manual and the system freezing or having a ‘no entry sign on home and log out’ which
could not be removed using the usual work around. From 11.15 oriwards Post Masters were able to
manually enter the pension book details into Horizon and, where counters.had been rebooted, to scan
pension books. (Other scanners may have functioned prior to the reboot.
ICL PATHWAY STATEMENT:
ICL Pathway considered the events to be of significant importance and Tony Wicks, in his Pathway
Business Continuity Manager (Pathway BCM) role, decided that there was a high risk that this problem
could affect the whole estate and decided to escalate the problem,
At 07.45 the Pathway BCM contacted Dave Hulbert, the Post Office Limited National Business Continuity
Manager (POL BCM), and informed him of the problem. The POL BCM was asked if the POL NBSC
could monitor the call levels for this problem and if POL could conduct any checks which would assist in
determining the severity of the problem, in accordance with the Cross-Domain Business Continuity
Interface Agreement.
At 09.15 the HSH requested that the NBSC consider changing the ‘Single Point of Contact’ Interactive
Voice Response message to notify Post Masters that there was a known problem with the OBCS service. At
11.30 the HSH contacted the NBSC as the IVR message appeared riot to have been updated. However, it
transpired that Post Masters needed to select NBSC via Option 3 before they were able to hear the
message, therefore it was likely that most did not hear the message.
Within ICL it was reported during the Thursday morning that some Post Masters phoning the Single Point
of Contact number received the message “Unable to connect you” and the connection was dropped.
At 10.14 ICL Pathway received Message Broadcast MBS234 from Andrew Bradley of POL. In summary
this message advised Post Masters that there was a known fault with the OBCS service. With the POL.
Problem Manager’s agreement the message was not distributed by ICL Pathway, because the release of the
fix by the SSC caused the message to become obsolete.
It has been reported by POL that inconsistent advice was being given by the HSH desk during the aftemoon
of the 8" of November. This has been investigated and there is no evidence to support this.
ICL Pathway regard the actions taken as complete and feel the problem was dealt with quickly and
effectively. The allocation of the [VR message to ‘Option 3’ by POL exacerbated the problem as many_
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ICL PATHWAY CASE LAW REFERRAL CS/TEM/013
VERSION 1.0
callers did not access the IVR informing them of the correct action to take to complete the transaction.
ICL Pathway dispute the claim for consequential loss of £22,236.36 laid out in Keith Baines’ letter of
14/12/01.
Detailed.report ref: CS/REP/113 Pension Book MBCI Report supports these.statements.
NB: ICL Pathway would also like information stating how the claim for £22,236.36 was derived (see
comment below).
POL STATEMENT:
As per letter dated 14 December 2001 from Keith Baines, IS Service Manager, Post Office Ltd:
“ As you are aware, there was a failure of the OBCS system on 8" November 2001 which occurred as a
result of invalid Reference Data.
We have calculated that the loss to Post Office Ltd for which Pathway is responsible amounts to
£22,236.36, which comprises lost income of £5,867.11 and the additiorial costs at the National Business
Support Centre of £14,369.25. This is in addition to any liquidated damages which may be payable to Post
Office Ltd in connection with OBCS transaction times during the relevant Service Level Measurement
period. If you require further details of these costs, Liz Tuddenham will be able to provide these”
FINAL LIABILITY ASSIGNED TO:
DATE
SIGNED: ICL. PATHWAY
POST OFFICE LTD
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