NFSP00000348
NFSP00000348
Post Office Counters itd
Mr C Baker
General Secretary
National Federation of Subpostmasters
Evelyn House
Windlesham Gardens
SHOREHAM BY SEA
Sussex our ref: dg6S2
BN4 5AZ 1 February 2000
Dear +24.
I was sorry to learn from our recent telephone conversation that you had
received no affirmation of Horizon national roll out from 24 January. I hope that
with the regular dialogue we will establish in my new role that such incidents
will be a thing of the past.
Since we paused roll out in November we have undertaken a number of
improvements to build on past experiences and provide the robust arrangements
we would all like to see to support a programme of around 300 outlets a week
coming on stream. I note that Dave Smith has outlined most of these in his letter
of 31 January so I will not repeat here. Suffice to say if you need more detail on
any of these please let me know.
Hopefully these improvements will have an evident beneficial effect and tackle
the problems identified in the pre-Christmas research that was done via 335
telephone interviews with staff and agents who were involved in Horizon roll
out during last Autumn. There is some positive feedback from this research (eg,
36% improvement in ease of balancing; 90% found the system was easy to use;
fewer dissatisfied with training than in live trial and 80% satisfaction with the
automation programme in general). The January edition of Subpostmaster (Your
Letters) also contained some encouraging comments. However, we should not
kid ourselves that we are out of the woods yet. The research also showed that
many would like more training and balancing is still difficult for too many.
Certainly we will need to continue to monitor the position as we go through the
programme and respond to prevailing requirements as appropriate.
NFSP00000348
NFSP00000348
2
1 February 2000
Mr C Baker
We could usefully spend some time when we meet on 15 February reviewing
performance measures, the impact of recent changes which should becoming
apparent by then and what more can reasonably be done. I have also enclosed
for your information a measure you may not have seen before which attempts to
quantify the coping curve outlets endure post go-live. It is a composite measure
based on number of calls to the National Business Support Centre Helpdesk,
number of cash account errors and the time taken to produce cash accounts (from
telephone calls to a sample of outlets). The graph shows a noticeable
improvement since live trial and suggests a 13 week period to adapt to Horizon I
and before most aspects of performance are back to normal. We will be working I
to reduce this. I
I
On the other specific issues you raised:-
a) I have arranged for someone to speak with Tony Harrod to resolve his
concerns around balancing with later lottery cut off.
b) I will pursue the issues around John Peberdy ‘s training when you let me
have details.
c) If you let me know of part-time office training problems we will handle as
sensitively as possible.
d) — Onthe non-fixed counters we are developing a solution and I will let you
have details of the trolley solution specification when we meet. As things stand
the processor with these systems will need to be left on at all times.
e) On the turn round and number of calls to the Support Centre someone
from Andy Radka’s team should be in touch shortly to arrange a presentation.
NFSP00000348
NFSP00000348
3
1 February 2000
Mr C Baker
f) Of the three offices you mentioned with losses none of them had any
reported discrepancy problem at migration nor is there, with the possible
exception of Burley in Wharfedale, (ie, Giro rent error under query) any evidence
of subsequent migration related issues. It is also apparent that all three offices
had a number of significant misbalances pre-migration. 1 am, however, doing
some more digging to satisfy myself on this issue and will be in touch if there is
other information that has a bearing.
Hopefully, this is sufficient for your needs at present; I will be happy to pick up
any outstanding issues when we meet shortly.
Yours sincerely
Don Grey
Horizon National Roll Out Project Manager
Telephone: I GRO