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Speaking Brief for Dave Smith - 24/11/99
Confirmation of Purpose of meeting
Purpose was agreed between Dave Miller and Richard Christou as:
To agree a programme of work to be completed by 3 December 1999 which
will provide POCL with further information to enable us to decide whether
or not to exercise the right to suspend roll-out.
POCL Requirements - general
By 3 December, we need to be assured that all issues that would cause
suspension of roll-out have either been resolved, or have agreed plans in
place that we are confident will lead to their resolution by 14 January.
Regardless of the outcome of the current discussions, and whether or not
POCL then issues the notice to suspend roll-out, we reserve the right to
issue a notice following the second checkpoint in January if then
appropriate.
POCL provided Pathway with a statement of our position at the meeting
on Monday. In the light of subsequent discussions, we have considered
how this should be taken forwards.
1. All criteria in the 2"4 supplementary agreement to be met by 24 November, to be
met, with appropriate later dates, and monitoring periods of at least the same
length as originally.
2. All criteria in the 2"4 supplementary agreement to be met by 14 January, to be met.
The only change to be exclusion of the period to date from the 0.6% criterion for the
accounting integrity incidents.
We need agreement on a way forwards on the first 2 requirements -
relating to retesting the 24 November criteria, and adjusting the success
criteria for the 14 January criteria before 3 November. This is largely a
contractual issue, and KB will lead for POCL on it.
3. The measurement method for the Help Desk service level relating to compliance
with scripts to be changed to one based on recording of calls and analysis of a
sample of them.
This now needs to be extended to include resolution of other issues relating
to the measurement of service levels for the help desk, that emerged as
disagreements at the help Desk meeting on Monday. On the specific
question of script compliance, POCL have a view of how this should be
taken forwards, but Pathway have not agreed this. We need an agreed
approach by 3 November, including confirmation from Pathway that the
approach is feasible. Adele Henderson will lead on the development of the
measurement method for script compliance. KB will lead on contractual
issues around definitions for the service levels.
. The development plan for the integrity control to be jointly reviewed for
completeness, and revised in line with the review findings. This to include addition
of activities relating to development of processes for handling of discrepancies at all
levels of occurrence.
Work on this needs to start earlier than 30 November. By 3 December we
need to have an agreed plan for development and testing of operational
procedures, and to have completed a high level review of the plan to
identify any gaps.
. Pathway to make available documentation relating to the design of the integrity
control at a sufficient level of detail to allow POCL to ensure that the criteria iti
and iv in the supplementary agreement are being met. Joint working to be
instituted to ensure POCL have adequate and timely access to information.
Our requirements for 3 December are:
Pathway to provide a list of relevant documents and their product
descriptions
Experts for POCL to discuss the document set with Pathway and identify
any “gaps”. (We recognise that there may be gaps at present because of the
short development timescales that Pathway have been working to.)
A programme of meetings to be agreed to provide POCL with information
relating to any “gaps” in the document set, including agendas, outputs and
attendees.
Pathway to make relevant experts available to explain the documents to
POCL experts.
All known AI 376 problem types to be analysed to establish how they will
be prevented and/or trapped.
The output for 3 December to be an agreed list of gaps with outline
solutions, timetables for implementation and an assessment of severity
(incidence rate and extent of impact per incident.)
. The joint review of reference data to have made sufficient progress so that POCL
can be assured that there are no deficiencies in the process that could compromise
the data passed to TIP.
Terms of Reference have been agreed. By 3 December POCL also requires
agreement to a work programme and to commercial terms for
implementation of the review findings.
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7. Extension of the TIP checking, at Pathway’s expense, until they have
demonstrated to POCL’s reasonable satisfaction that all error types that have
occurred will be trapped by their control
It is now apparent to POCL that this needs to be extended to cover all
problems under the AI 376 rectification plan, whether trapped by the
integrity check or dealt with by other means in the Pathway domain
8. Introduction of additional SLAs to ensure that response times at the Help Desk are
maintained on the weekly peak period (Wed/Thurs) in addition to average response
times. Performance to be reported daily during the monitoring period, and daily
statistics to be available as required subsequently.
9. Introduction of check-steps during roll-out, such that POCL will have a right to
suspend or slow roll-out if help desk service, or data integrity across the TIP
interface fall below the levels to be achieved under the 2"4 supplementary
agreement. Pathway to pay POCL’s reasonable additional costs as a result of any
such suspension or slowing down.
These are commercial issues. By 3 December we need to have agreed how
they will be progressed.
NB: Dave S needs to phone Dave Miller at 3.30 or so (AJR briefing)
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