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@
Horizon Programme
Congo 4
Ce . (ICL Pathway Release 1c)
— Horizon Service Report
Number 10
Period - September 1998
Distribution: Stuart Sweetman Peter Crahan Paul Hanson
Dave Miller Sue Harding Ruth Holleran
Janet Topham Phil Shingler Bob Burkin
John Meagher Andy Radka Peter Burden
Bruce McNiven Gail Morley National Audit Team (POCL)
Mena Rego . Vince Gaskell Team Leaders
John Holroyd RLMs
Author: Dennis Wong
Authorised by: Phil Turnock +
Date produced: 28 October 1998
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
3al Floor, Terminal COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB aerate I
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1. Introduction
This report is produced by the POCL Service Management team and provides a high level “in-flight” assessment of any
threats to overall business continuity in the Congo 4 live service environment. The primary purpose is to identify any issues
(actual or potential) that might threaten the Congo 4 roll-out or regression from ICL Pathway services. It should be noted
that this report may have an operational bias.
For ease of reference, the report.utilises a traffic light system with the following keys -
Immediate Threat to Business Continuity
Potential Threat to Business Continuity
No Threat to Business Continuity
O
The next full Horizon Service Report is scheduled for W/C 26 October 1998.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB aroma doe
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2. Report Format
2.1. ABBREVIATIONS
BA
BES
CAPS
COLS
CAW
CPCS
CSU
HSH
IT
MAL
OBCS
PCHL
POCL
RLM
BSM
Post Office CAW
Benefit Agency
Benefit Encashment Service
Customer Accounting & Payment Strategy
Caps Operational Live Support
Cash Account Week for Post Offices
Customer Payment Computer System
Card Support Unit
Horizon System Help Desk
Incomplete Transactions (formerly Lost Transactions)
Minimum Acceptable Level
Order Book Control Service
Payment Card Helpline
Post Office Counters Ltd
Regional Liaison Manager
Business Service Management
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday.
ice: Week 8 = Thurs. 14 May - Wednesday 20 May 1998.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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3. Headlines
Volumetrics for September 1998
¢ Number of active payment cards = 34,897
¢ Number of commissioned Post Offices = 204
¢ Number of Counter Positions = 334.
© Offices De-commissioned = 1
¢ Manual Post Offices supporting foreign encashments = 1,500
e Number of encashments for September = 78,830
e Value of encashments for September = £ —2,407,788.70
e Number of foreign encashments for September = 770
¢ Value of foreign encashments for September = £ 27,959.50
e Average value of each encashment = £ 31
4. End to End Business Continuity
The status of business continuity remains at ‘Amber’, dué to the continuing presence of ITs. However categories of ITs have seen a
significant reduction this period.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW OAB : aromathttttde
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5. Core Elements of the Live service
Infra-
structure
BPS
OBCS
CAS
/PAS
CMS
TP/Pwy
Interface
Fraud &
Security
Accounting
=
5
=
NB: This section of the report should be viewed and interpreted from the ‘end user’
perspective and how it will impact their environment,
5.1 Benefit Payment System
Incomplete Transactions
Status lowered to Amber owing to significant reduction of IT categories. However the continuing presence of ITs is
still cause for concern.
Ss
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
Page 6 Of 26
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Software fixes were released to the counter on Friday 9th October and will be effective and robust in preventing ITs in
the categories they were designed to address. It is foreseen that no ITs will appear in these areas.
However 16 were generated in the category of incomplete receipts (BES). These incidents involve premature removal of
the receipt, by the user, during the printing process. BSM are, however, investigating incidents to determine if printer
failures were the cause. Incomplete transactions have now largely moved away from user non conformance and system
software errors towards examination and resolution of the user friendliness of system prompts. These may be
misleading the user into incorrect procedures causing non committals to occur. This issue is being examined closely by
BSM.
Baseline for Incomplete Transactions
To provide a baseline against which incomplete transactions can be assessed figures have been produced to show the
volume of incomplete transactions per 10,000 encashments. The baseline is adjusted to reflect actual monthly ITs.
Secondly a target figure is shown of incomplete transactions that POCL should be aiming to receive prior to the advent
of Live Trial.
Current month level of IT per 10,000 encashments received 3.0
Target level of IT per 10,000 encashments received 0
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB. teervma sr O21 1 doe
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Incomplete Transactions - September 1998
Categories
mw ncomplete Receipt BES corrupt
Risk Analysis - Incomplete Transactions
40
35 (RoR eos Satie eatin eon eee et eee ere uie thom ment]... g.
30
25
i?
> 10
A
gs 8 8 8 8 Fs 8 8 8s $8 B BR BR 8B
Ae eh eee erm z § §
Month
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
2ed Poor, Tena Howe COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SW1W 0AB “e ueromarnr021 doe
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5.2
5.3
Transaction Processing & ICL Pathway Interface
,
-
i
Incomplete Transactions
Amber level remains unchanged with the continuing presence and extent of ITs the primary cause.
Accounting & Reconciliation
Appendix ‘A’ details an agreed summary of accounting & reconciliation for the September period.
BES: Volumetrics
Definitions for the purpose of this report.
A transaction is an incident of “a recorded and auditable instance of business activity, involving Service provision or Stock
movement across organisational or Service boundaries”.
A payment is the Child Benefit allowance money due for one week, or for four weeks (in the case of a four- weekly
allowance).
An encashment is a measure of the work effort in a customer session from the clerk accepting the payment card to
returning the card with monies, i.e. one customer is paid all due Child Benefit allowance. Thus, a customer may save
several payments before visiting their PO. During such a transaction there will be one encashment of several payments.
Q
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
Bed ee, Tera Hono COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB sbbervmaAsr021 oe
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6.1 Payments Card Statistics
ae
fe)
NB.
Damaged card volumes remain within BA’s expectations. POCL expectations are that there should
be no impact on service levels. Monitoring will continue on this basis. I
6.2 Volumes of BES transactions
Expected volumes of encashments are being shown.
fa UMiar (98) I Apr 198 II May, 198 June (98) I July, (98) I #Aug 198 I Sept 98)
IMctualvolume ofits) 53,786 I 77,292 I 59,788 I 73,383 I 68,834 I 75,636 I 78,830
lEncashments
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3x8 Floor, Terminal Howse COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
wee
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWI 0AB
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6.3. BES Encashments by POCL Region for September 1998 (calendar month)
BES: Total Monthly Encashments
goSES5EESE
Mar-98 Apr-98 May-98 Jun-98 Jul-98 Aug-98 Sep-98
Month
1,427,619.29
NB.
Volume and Value of Foreign transactions include automated outlets (204) and non automated outlets (1,500).
Bolick Obi tee COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SW1W 0AB e\ervmanihsrO21 doe
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6.4 Percentage Split of Encashments
Volume of BES Encashments
Volume NE
Volume SW/SW 3%
57%
NB:
The forecast percentage
split is 58% SW/SW and
42% NE, derived from the
number of automated
offices in each Region
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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6.5 Percentage Split of Foreign Encashments
Volume Non Automated Offices
280
Volume Automated Offices
490
Volume of Foreign Encashments by Auto/Non
Automated Outlets.
Volume Non
Auto
36%
Volume Auto
64%
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
pn at ak ct COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
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6.6 Encashment Breakdown by Payee Type for September 1998
Number:
75,836
2,754.
9
78,599
6.7. Number of Stops & Expires: by Month
198, ) :
[Stops I 276 I 437 I 621 I 678 I 647 I 694 I 852
[Expires I 3 I 134 I 279 I 340 I 664 I 461 I 402
7. ° OBCS
7.1 No. of OBCS Transactions by Type - September 1998
293,844 I 3671 33,731 I ; Ba197A
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
mente
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LONDON SWIW 0AB
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7.2 Number of OBCS Transactions by Month
I No.of OBCS Transactions by Month
I 450000
I 400000
I 350000 317325. 319353931974 I I
I 290179
300000
250000
200000 I
150000 I
4100000 I
50000
0
fe iS 2 g 2 8 2 g 8
5 5 8 8 8
5 8 Z 8 5 5 5 § 3 $
2 [-) ia ¢ = < = ae td : a
Month
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWI1W 0AB.
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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8 Horizon System Helpdesk Volumetrics
8.1. Categories of calls to HSH during September 1998
Analysis of Calls to HSHD
350 —
300
250
200
Volume
1
Call Categories
NB: The total number of call to the HSH = 968
Hardware
Netw ork
Software
tp Documentation
gm iplementation
tm Operations
pAdvice & Guidance
Environment
tm happropriate
Other I
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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Breakdown of calls to HSH
106
a 31 33 42 80 70 41 39
ware] 190 155 117 156 122 247 256
tatio 2 I I I 4
3 1 29 15 [028308 8
181 190 146 134 61
Zz & 147 70 87 82 86
Environments 15 19 20 "25 42
Inappropriate 37 35 53 41 48
Keri 30 10 7 3 8
moi 741 631 566 646 749 1264 968
NB:
SLA levels have remained constant for Engaged and Abandoned calls. There is degradation of service due to
implementation call volumes. These have fallen due to a degree of exaggeration caused by last month’s enquiries
swollen by calls from Rel 1c offices.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
ea COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB keene as O21 doe
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8.2 Source of Calls to HSH
Post Office
Counters Ltd
88%
Breakdown of Calls by Month
Source of Calls to Horizon System Helpdesk
Benefit Agency
1%
Business Feb 98 I Mar98 I Apr98 I May 98 I June 98 I July 98 I Aug ‘98 I Sept ‘98
Post Office Counters Ltd 468 527 430 338 346 556 987 669
Benefit Agency 31 OD: Ad 38 21 AWA 15 21
ICL Pathway 196 179 157 190 279 220 193 224
Model Office Rehearsal - - : : - - 233 169
End to End Testing - - - - - - vy 0
Total 695 741 631 566 646 793 1430 1083
NB.
This month has seen a reduction in implementation calls from last month’s peak of 617 to 308 this period.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
se ervmanihr 0211 doe
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9. Payment Card Helpline
Volume
2500
2000
1500
1000
Calls to Payment Card Helpline
Calls to Payment Card Helpline I I
Ig BA Calls
(D POCL Calls
: tp Customer Calls (Eng)
Customer Calls (Welsh)
Months
“POCL I BA I Customer I Customer
— foe (English) (Welsh) _
115 (20%) 140 657%) 1023 (50%) 0
348 (60%) 99 (40%) 17 a%) 0
111 (20%) 8 3%) 995 (49%) 0
574 247 2035 0
r” are calls which do not fall under category ‘card or payment’. For
example calls made by customers which are proper to the Benefit Agency. (A1 Benefit
Forms)
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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cont:
9. Payment Card Helpline
[ Soureeroe CANIS iN il Mar08 i PAB EEO8 i I May 598i Tanioii I Taleo Nis 798) /SepecoRy
Post Office Gounters Ltd I 370 sx) 659 (29%) 584 (2m) 851 @7%) 613 (30%) 674 (31%) 574 (20%)
[Benefits Agency 187 (7%) 243 (11%) 194 (10%) 231 (10x) 241 (12%) 195 (9%) 247 (9%)
fGtistomer Calls\(English);I 1928 ~zx) I 1362 ox) I 1066 (sex) I 1210 3%) I 1197 68x) I 1300 (0x) I 2035 x)
i Gustomer Calls(Welsh). II 14 (6x) 3 (1%) 2 (a%) 0 0 0 0
TOTAL: 2499 2267 1846 2292 2051 2169 2856
NB 2
Volumes of calls to the PCHL show 3.6% of the total of monthly encashments, up 0.6%. The increase of customer
calls are quoted as being, in part, due to inquiries about entitlement for school leavers. The second contributing
factor were the incidents of customers being advised to call the Child Benefit Centre (CBC) and subsequently
calling again due to an unsuccessful attempt to reach the CBC.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB enucetiiae
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10. Summary of Key Problems during Release 1c
Problems Resolved (Closed / Monitor)
¢ ICL Pathway ‘maestro’ scheduler failed over a weekend period, affecting 10 ex IGL offices
Release 1c printers not performing to standard required
Release 1c payment receipts are lower specification to that of IGL
Files sent to ABED with wrong creation date
ISDN line problems affecting release 1b offices
Authentication of users to the HSH & PCHL
Duplicate payments at Bath Road, due to office unable to harvest
PMSR report received in ABED did not pick-up Bath Road Duplicate payment
BES transactions not being committed and subsequently lost after ‘full log-oul’
Transactions being lost after experiencing printer failure
Stop payment not confirmed back to CAPS, following a customer transferring from a BES t to a non-automated office
Payment cards not activated at Post Offices in NE Region, prior to their issue to the customers
Disabled customer complaint concerning lack of ‘agent’ facility at Release 1c
Increased cash account errors
Incomplete transactions - Time Outs
Incomplete transactions - Receipt Preview
Incomplete transactions - Clerk Error
Incomplete transactions - HSH Instruction
Incomplete transactions - Power Failure
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
Sel For, Terminal COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
LONDON SWIW 0AB atuermorAurO21 doe
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Problems Resolved (Closed / Monitor) cont:
Incomplete Transactions - Suspended Session (Monitor)
Incomplete transactions - Other (Cause Unknown & Potential)
Incomplete transactions - Incomplete Receipts
Incomplete transactions - New Card Activation
Incomplete transactions - BES/OBCS Corruption
Incomplete transactions - User Logout
Current Problems awaiting Resolution (Open)
° Identify Process for outlet changes
. Incomplete transactions - User Set-Up.
° Printer robustness and possible linkage to ITs.
° Determine whether system design (prompts/icons) are misleading users towards non committal of transactions.
11. Concerns
Categories of ITs have shown a significant decrease. While the categories of Incomplete Transactions have reduced for
the September period their existence is still cause for concern. Business Service Management objectives remain at
reducing ITs to zero. Activity here remains heavily focused through the Incomplete Transaction working group.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Foor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
_ LONDON SWIW 0AB Rloermant har doe
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12,
De-commissioned Post Offices
Static since 29 June 1998. Hewelsfield (346523) remains the only de-commissioned outlet - ISDN line still not available at
the new telephone exchange.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52.Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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ACCOUNTING AND RECONCILIATION MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
e RELEASE 1C STATISTICS AND SETTLEMENT ADJUSTMENTS
Thirty five new incidents were received this month.
Appendix A
4/11/97 to 31/8/98 1/9/98 to 31/9/98
Received I: Cleared Ii C/E I B/E I: Received’: Ii Cleared): I:Outstanding3I
EDSSinc 14 14 L'} L') L')} L') 0
eka 6 6 0 i!) i‘) [') 0
i 239 237 2 2 24 25 1
i pe 18 18 0 0 0 0 0
xo) eeu 20 20 0 0 1 1 0
EPOGE! a1 59 54 5 5 Z 2 10
Panett a 36 36 0 0 3 3 0
‘Encashment:
TOTAL URE 392 385 7 7 35 31 11
[ Total Number of Transactions from 1 September to 31 September [78,830 I.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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¢ General reconciliation performance
Reconciliation performance remains consistently high.
e Improvements
This period - ratio of incidents to transactions 1:2252. Last period showed 1:2161.
e Concerns
Incomplete Transactions form over 68% of all incidents received this month and are still a cause for concern. The focus,
however has shifted from the categories of user non conformance and system errors to that of system user friendliness so
that system prompts should not give rise to user error.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB Harometrt abe
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