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CIRCULATION: NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL A/3 PC NW 06 01
Mr C Baker Post Office Counters Ltd
General Secretary
National Federation of Sub-postmasters
Evelyn House
22 Windlesham Gardens
SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
Sussex our ref: NFSPupdateOct00
BN4 5AZ 5 October 2000
Dear “stn
I promised you an update on the current progress and issues on Horizon.
National roll out progress
e Allavailable outlets are now in the programme and the main infrastructure phase
(survey and preparations) is largely complete. There are 25 outlets which are
suspended pending resolution of site/electrical supply problems and around 500
outlets, mainly mobile solutions, awaiting survey work.
« We have now migrated 12702 outlets (70% network). Our roll out rate equates to
an average of a counter terminal every 5 mins and an outlet every 12 mins.
° Training over 60,000 people has not been without its problems. Course
scheduling and occupancy levels have been major issues with ICL Pathway over
recent months. Happily their administration of user training events is now
within acceptable bounds but we now find ourselves in the position of training
fewer people yet needing more courses than the contract provides for. To address
the gap we have developed a number of initiatives including allocating 7
delegates to some courses, redistributing training costs including making more
prudent use of user awareness events and extending the training window to 10
days before installation. The extension of the distance limit to 25 miles will also
have a beneficial effect.
¢ Pre-Christmas installations. Unlike last year, when we paused earlier for
acceptance deliberations, we have a contractual commitment with ICL Pathway to
deliver installations until 8 December. Whilst this may be less than ideal there are
other busy times in the year when migrations have taken place. Without wishing
to understate the impact on those subpostmasters and branch office staff affected
we do need to automate our trading environment as quickly as we can to deliver
the commercial benefits we all wish to see. The wake of the PIU report and
advent of the regulator is not the time to be hanging back. There is only so much
that can be done to accommodate individual requirements and we have
developed an appropriate response with the NFSP.
2
5 October 2000
Mr C Baker
« Redeployment of team - Plans are being laid for redeploying 90 managers and 330
staff on the project. A preference and counselling exercise is almost complete.
Most field staff have a right of return to their previous job.
e All project milestones are being met. We have virtually completed our initial
installation sweep across the country; subsequent phases of the project will
include installation of 320 outlets with mobile systems and around 500 that
require satellite communication systems. Our first live satellite migration is
planned for 23 October at Shotton Colliery. The first mobile installation is
scheduled for w/c 15 January 2001. The projected main roll out end date is mid
April 2001 with a sweep up on a small number of outstanding cases by June 2001,
Live environment
e Helpdesk performance - although there have been some blips as a result of recent
incidents, such as the introduction of the Inland Revenue Working Families Tax
Credit facility, there has been an improvement on both Network Business Support
Centre (NBSC) and Horizon System Helpdesk (HSH) performance. The
introduction of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) on the HSH on the two busiest
days of the week, namely Wednesday and Thursday, was well received though it
did impair the % calls answered in <20 secs as a consequence of the duration of
the recorded message. This facility was introduced as a temporary expedient and
is to be withdrawn next week now that all HSH operators are fully effective.
Average number of weekly calls per outlet to HSH is currently 1.17 compared to
1.40 for NBSC, which in itself is 5% lower than regional helpline internal calls.
NBSC are now achieving almost all their call handling performance in all
dimensions; the latest time to answer performance is 8 secs with over 75% calls
now being resolved by the initial call handler.
° ICL Pathway performance against service level agreements - although there is an
improving trend there is an underlying cause for concern and a contractual
process of remedies has been invoked. Problems have been experienced in recent
months with the non-polling of transactions from some outlets. ICL Pathway are
working on changes to enable a quicker resolution of any failure in outlet
communication links at the time this occurs to minimise inconvenience to both
subpostmasters and customers.
* Cash accounts - since the introduction of Horizon there has been a significant
reduction in amounts held in unclaimed payments/ uncharged receipts. The
same cannot be said of authorised shortages and internal processes, including
additional help to specific outlets, have been improved. The level of errors on
Horizon continues to fall but has still not returned to pre-Horizon levels; an
analysis of root causes has led to a number of remedial actions being taken.
« Service improvements - continue to be recorded and evaluated. A number of user
ideas are incorporated into the CSR+ release, which is also expected to deliver a
reduction in roll over time. Many of the service improvements have come from
user groups.
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