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Post Office Ltd
(company no. 2154540)
Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Directors
Present:
Sir Mike
Hodgkinson
David Mills
Alan Barrie
Peter Corbett
David Miller
Gordon Steele
In attendance:
lan Anderson
Jonathan Evans
Martin Gafsen
Graham Halliday
Neil Owen
Apologies
Allan Leighton
John Main
Elmar Toime
POLB03/34
(a)
(b)
POLB03/35
held at 80-86 Old Street, London
held at 80-86 Old Street. London
on 19" June 2003
Non-Executive Chairman
Chief Executive
Information Technology Director
Finance Director
Chief Operating Officer
Sales & Marketing Director
Human Resources Director designate
Company Secretary
Mergers & Acquisitions Project Director, Royal Mail Group
Executive Director, Banking & Financial Services
Notes
Chairman, Royal Mail Holdings
Human Resources Director
Executive Deputy Chairman, Royal Mail Holdings
APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTORS
The Board agreed to the resignation of John Main as the
Human Resources Director of the Company, with effect from
1* July 2003. The Board expressed its warmest thanks to John
Main for his very valuable contribution to the Company during
his many years of service;
The Board noted that the Royal Mail Holdings Board of 4”
March 2003, had agreed to the nomination of lan Anderson as
Director of the Company. The Board agreed to the
appointment of lan Anderson as Director of the Company, with
effect from 1° July 2003.
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING POLB(03)2™ and 3”
The Board approved the minutes of the Board meetings of 9"
April 2003-and May 19" 2003.
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POB03/36 STATUS REPORT POLB(03)34
(a) The status report was noted.
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POLB03/37 CHAIRMAN’S BUSINESS
The Chairman reported the following matters to the Board:
Action: (a) Business Strategy: The Chairman had examined the strategic
Directors plan and was content with the current scope and direction.
Future Board meetings would always feature a strategy é
agenda item, and Directors were asked to provide Neil Owen:-, 2
with their:strategy ideas for discussion at the Board. The Chief . §
Executive would decide which items would be brought forward C
onto the agenda; vot +
Action: (b) Horizon: The Chairman expressed.a particular interest in “
Alan Barrie furthering his understanding of the capabilities and limitations’
of'the Horizon system. Meetings would be arranged with the ©
appropriate managers to provide the Chairman with a detailed
overview;
Action: (c) Role of the Chairman: The Chairman welcomed ideas and
Directors suggestions from Board concerning how the office of non-
executive Chairman could be developed, and the type of
activities the Board hoped the Chairman would be involved in.
POLB03/38 CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT
The Board noted in discussion that:
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Action:
Directors
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Network Reinvention: The Chief Executive and David Miller
had met with the Chairman of Postwatch Peter Carr to discuss
branch closures under the Network Reinvention Programme.
The principle of ‘area by area’ rather than piecemeal closures
had been accepted, together with an acceleration of the whole
programme. David Mills confirmed that Royal Mail Group
would underwrite the extra administration costs incurred by 2":
Postwatch from accelerating the programme;
(g) Future of the Rural Networ!
had taken place between Post Office Ltd, Postcomm and DTI,
to discuss informally possible future scenarios. It was crucial
that the appropriate decisions were made by December 2003,
primarily because of funding implications;
(h) Select Committee: The recent Trade and Industry Select
Committee. hearing into benefits payments had gone well. The
transcript of the session had been released and was
. acceptable. The Board recognised Colleen Walsh for her
excellent work in providing the Directors with accurate and
.. Irrelevant:
David Miller
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POLB03/39 BUSINESS CASES - RULES OVERVIEW
Peter Corbett outlined the revised procedure for approval of
future Company investment cases. The Board noted that:
(a) Business cases below £10m would be approved by the Post
Office Ltd Board rather than the Royal Mail Management
Board. Business cases above £10m would require approval of
the Royal Mail Holdings Board;
(b) An obligation existed for the appropriate papers to be
submitted to Martin Gafsen’s Investment Appraisal team two
weeks before the intended circulation date of the papers to the
Board. Exceptions to this policy would only be made in special
circumstances;
(c) It would be the responsibility of the sponsor to ensure that the
business case was properly written and complete;
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POLB03/44 END TO END SIMPLIFICATION.— ACCOUNTING & CASHi ms
MANAGEMENT POLB(03)39a-c: ° :
Peter Corbett presented the Accounting & Cash Management
business case to the Board. In discussion the Board noted
that:
(a) The initiative would be funded by both cash and Horizon
Prepaid Systems Integration in a ratio of approximately 50:50;
(b) The initiative would generate significant cost savings, simplify
procedures, reduce time at branch level, and provide other
softer benefits;
(ce) Clear milestones would underline the benefits to the business
that each release would bring.
The Board agreed that the case should be forward to the
Holdings Board for approval subject to:
(i) Royal Mail Holdings Board approval of the
allocation of Prepaid SI to Post Office Ltd;
(ii) Total Project spend being capped at £17.1m;
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(iii) I A post implementation review being produced to
deal with both spend and benefits achieved from
the commencement date. A full post
implementation review would also be produced 2
years from the commencement date when the
project had been completed;
(iv) Confirmation that the £2.8m per annum Horizon
savings were available and contractually
enforceable.
Furthermore the Board agreed that a suitable name would be
provided for the project, which had connotations of ‘moving
forward’.
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POLB03/48 BUREAU AUTOMATION POLB(03)43
Gordon Steele presented the Bureau Automation business
case to the Board.
The Board noted that discussions with FRTS had taken place
to finalise the business case.
The Board agreed the project and expenditure.
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POLB03/52 BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES POLB(03)47
The Board noted the report.
In addition the Board noted that:
(a) ‘Etror Reports: Progress has been made in reducing the
number of error reports from 40% to 15%. Of the 15%, 9%
POLB03/53 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLB(03)48 . *
The Board noted the report.
(a) The Board conveyed their warmest congratulations to the
Chairman for the award of a knighthood he had received in the
Birthday Honours List;
Action: (b) The Board noted that several other people in Post Office Ltd
David Mills had been recognised in the Birthday Honours list. David Mills
would write a personal letter of congratulation to each of these
people. portent 1
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CLOSE
There being no further business, the meeting was closed.
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