POCL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
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Distribution:
Horizon Programme
Congo 4
(ICL Pathway Release 1c)
Horizon service Report
Number 6
Period - May 1998
Dave Miller Graham Beck
Janet Topham Phil Shingler
John Meagher Andy Radka
Bruce McNiven Kevin Lenihan
Mena Rego Vince Gaskell
John Holroyd Peter Charlton
Peter Crahan RLMs
Author: Dennis Wong ~_
Authorised by: Phil Turnock -
Date produced: 30 June 1998
Paul Hanson
Ruth Holleran
Bob Burkin
Peter Burden
National Audit Team (POCL)
Team Leaders
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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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 -
€> be Potential Threat to Business Continuity
The next full Horizon Service Report is scheduled for W/C 27 July 1998.
Immediate Threat to Business Continuity
No Threat to Business Continuity
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB ar matt oe
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2. Report Format
2.1. ABBREVIATIONS
BA Benefit Agency
BES Benefit Encashment Service
CAPS Customer Accounting & Payment Strategy
COLS Caps Operational Live Support
CAW Cash Account Week for Post Offices
CPCS Customer Payment Computer System
CSU Card Support Unit
HSHD Horizon System Help Desk
MAL Minimum Acceptable Level
OBCS Order Book Control Service
PCHL Payment Card Helpline
POCL Post Office Counters Ltd
RLM _ Regional Liaison Manager
PSM _ POCL Service Management
Post Office CAW
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday.
ie: Week 7 = Thurs. 14 May - Wednesday 20 May 1997.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB arc
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ie Headlines
Volumetrics for May 1998
¢ Number of active payment cards = 27,692
¢ Number of commissioned Post Offices = 204
¢ Number of Counter Positions = 334
¢ Offices De-commissioned = 1
¢ Manual Post Offices supporting foreign encashments = 1,492
¢ Number of encashments for May = 59,788
¢ Value of encashments for May = £ 2,185,324.90
¢ Number of foreign encashments for May = 866
e Value of foreign encashments for May = £ 31,666.25
e Average value of each encashment = £36.57
4. End to End Business Continuity
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB erat dee
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Overall there are no major threats to business continuity, however the ‘lost transaction’ trend continues which is the key
reason for the ‘BPS and Transaction Processing’ domains being on ‘amber’ status. The priority 1 level assigned to these
problems has focussed the contractor towards actively addressing POCL concerns and providing remedial action.
5. Core Elements of the Live service
Infra- BPS I OBCS I CAS I CMS I TP/Pwy I Fraud & I Accounting
structure /PAS Interface I Security
NB: This section of the report should be viewed and interpreted from the ‘end user’
perspective and how it will impact their environment.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB aha eet
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5.1
Benefit Payment System
Lost Transactions (LT)
A baseline has been introduced this month to regularly indicate current levels of LT in an easily readable form. This has
been carried out to reflect TP and Service Management concerns. These concerns are that current levels, while presently
manageable, may not be acceptable to the business when large volumes of encashments are returned by newly
automating post offices. LT indicate, when extrapolated (for BES only), volumes that may be startling in the live
service. It is worth noting however, that caution needs to be excercised when viewing raw figures as there may be
variables and arguments that might effect extrapolations.
Radical improvements need to be made now and the ways that this can be achieved are being formulated by Service
Management and ICL Pathway.
Baseline for LT
To provide an easy baseline against which LT can be assessed. Figures have been produced to show the volume of LT
per 10,000 encashments returned on an adjusted monthly basis and secondly a target figure of lost transactions that
POCL should be aiming to receive prior to the advent of Live Trial.
Current month level of LT per 10,000 encashments received 4.0
Target level of LT per 10,000 encashments received 0.26
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB thar a9 ce
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Lost Transactions May 1998
Lost Transactions
Cause unknown
Clerk Error
talncomplete Receipt
LT Potential
Power Failure
Receipt Preview
mm Suspend Session
4 User Logout
I mUser Setup
Volumes
os-noaaan
T
I
I
I
Categories
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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Risk Analysis - Lost Transactions
—a— Actuals —
‘a---.Monthly Expectation
_o— Target Level
Volume
5.2 Transaction Processing & ICL Pathway Interface
Lost Transactions (LT)
The report this month includes a comment from TP (Kevin Lenihan) to refocus attention on their continuing concerns.
“Whilst I accept that ICL Pathway need to balance time spent resolving the problem of lost transactions, against
development of Release 2, it remains a serious issue for POCL. Whether these problems are system or conformance
related, the point remains - we need to know and have assurance from Pathway that a similar situation will not occur in
Release 2. The level of confidence in the new system could rapidly be undermined if lost transaction problems increase
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ar a oc
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5.3
5.4
in line with volume at current levels. This would not only result in operational problems, but also effect the service
provided to customers, clients and our staff / postmasters. The need to isolate the cause of lost transactions must
therefore remain paramount.”
Fraud & Security
Authentication of Users to Helpdesks - One Shot Passwords
For Release 2, agreement on a procedure is imminent. Forecast closure is July 1998.
A review of the temporary procedure for urgent short notice requests from users for One Shot Passwords is to be carried
out.
Accounting & Reconciliation
Appendix ‘A’ details an agreed summary of accounting & reconciliation for the May 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”.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON S\WIW 0AB. * lr pate
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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.
6.1 Payments Card Statistics
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW OAB ethnic
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(Cumulative).
Mar. ‘98
Apr ‘98 30,574. 26,478 43 30 51
May ‘98: .; 32,719 27,692 59 28 37
6.2 Volumes of BES transactions
These fell sharply this period. Figures imply that the cause of volumes falling was due to customers foregoing encashment of
benefits whilst away from their home outlet and taking advantage of schools breaking up for the second of the May bank holiday
breaks.
2 Chom a
Actual'volume:6f'Encashments 3,440I_6,727I 16,835] 30,343I 53,786I 77,292 59,788
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON S\WIW 0AB ele mathe
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Volume
BES: Monthly Encashments
eon00 LU e ene [—¢—Actual Encashments
Dec-97 Jan-98 Feb-98 Mar-98 Apr-98- May-98
Month
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
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25845
Value of Encashments £ 748,404.80 £ 1,061,518.30 £ 31,666.25
NB.
6.3. BES Encashments by POCL Region for May 1998 (calendar month)
I Volume and Value of Foreign transactions include automated outlets (204) and non automated outlets (1492).
64 Percentage Split of Encashments
NB:
The forecast percentage split is
57% SW/SW and 43% NE,
derived from the number of
automated offices in each Region
Volume of BES Encashments
Volume NE
Volume SW/SW (Manipulate CD Rom)
43%
(Manipulate CD Rom)
57%
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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6.5 Encashment Breakdown by Payee Type for May 1998
"Beneficiary 2 a 57,597
‘Alternative'Payee-” 2 CE 2,191
Permanent:Agenti ie I 0
6.6 Number of Stops & Expiries: by Month
134 I 279 I 340 I 664
NB
The number of expiries is currently 1.1% of the number of
encashments for May. The more than double the amount
over April is the result of a backlog of expiries being returned *
this May. The cause was due to problems with counter
procedures which did not return expiries automatically to
CAPS. A CP has been raised to automate this process in
future.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ssurpate
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7. OBCS
7.1 No. of OBCS Transactions by Type - May 1998
Encash Encash Issue/ Receive Issue/Receive Re- Total
Local Foreign Local Foreign Direct I Transactions
257,265 3,283 29,006 455 170 290,179
7.2 No. of OBCS Transactions by Month
No.of OBCS Transactions by Month
May-97
Jun-97
Jul-97
‘Aug-97
Sep-97
Oct-97
A reducing trend is being shown, as
expected, due to customers taking
advantage of the holiday season.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
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8 Horizon System Helpdesk Volumetrics
8.1 Categories of calls to HSHD during May 1998
140
120
Volume
40
20
Analysis of Calls to
HSHD
Call
Categories
pHardware
gm Network
Sofware
Documentation
implementation
Operations
Advice & Guidance
Environment
mlnappropriate
Other
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SW1W 0AB
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Breakdown of calls to HSH
DEW I Nw I ROO I Mw I AS I MSS
‘Hardware’ 82 93, 74 105 117 64
Network: 4. 26 35 39 31 33 42
Software: ne 89 136 121 190 155 117
‘Documentation: 0 0 1 2 1 1
Implementation’ I 19 4 9 3 1 29
{Operations © 143 231 182 181 190 146
Advice '& 236 305 217 147 70 87
‘Guidance:
Environment: 14 23 13 15 19 20
Inappropriate 32 35 36 37 35 53
‘Other Pia 19 32 3 30 10 7
Total A 660 894 695 741 631 566
* Outlets receiving letters regarding implementation has resulted in an increase in the number
of calls in this area.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB.
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8.2 Source of Calls to HSH
Breakdown of Calls by Month
Business
Source of Calls to Horizon System Helpdesk
ICL Pathway
25%
Benefit Agency
™%
Post Office Counters
Utd
68%
Jan 98 Feb 98 Mar 98
Apr 98
May 98
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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9. Payment Card Helpline
I Calls to Payment Card Helpline I
I 2000 a
1500 a es ‘BA Calls ) I
2 ; n mPOCL Calls I
§ 1000 I (aCustomer Calls (Eng)
° 00 el rare (4 MaTeaa I I mee teem = nama I
0 oe io io I I
5 8 8 8 8 =
: ; 8
FAST hah ke aaa oe
Months
es is eat Se I
Source of Calls {Dee 97 II Jan98 II Feb 98 II Mar 98 I Apr 98 II May 98 I
425 (18%) I 339 6%)} 370 (15%) I 659 (20%) I 584 2%)
186 (8%)} 147 (7%)I 187 (7%)I 243 ai%) I 194 aox)
1,710 74%) I 1677 (77%) I 1928 (77%) I 1362 (60%) I 1066 (58%)
5 (2%) 2 (1%) I 14 (6%) I 3 (1%) 2 (1%)
2,326 2165 2499 2267 1846
Reduced volumes of calls have been reported. These correspond with the falling number of encashments also
seen this month
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
ar a doe
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¥ 65 (17%)I 120 66%) I 387 45%) 0
461 (68%) 61 38%) I 103 (9%) 0
58 (14%) 13 (6x) 576 (46%) 2 (100%)
584 182 1066 2
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWI\W 0AB . alae mathboe
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10. Key Incidents / Problems during Release 1c
f Problems Resolved
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-out’
Transactions being lost after experiencing printer failure
Stop payment not confirmed back to CAPS, following a customer
transferring from a BES office 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 §
Ic
Increased cash account errors
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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F Current Incidents in Resolution
Identify Process for outlet changes
Lost transactions - card problems
Lost transactions - printer failure
Lost transactions - correct permission not assigned to user
Lost transactions - user exited prematurely
Lost transactions - system lock
(full details are provided in previous reports).
11. Concerns
Timeliness provision of data supplied to POCL is an issue still to be resolved.
12. De-commissioned Post Offices
As of 30 May 1998, Hewelsfield (346523) remains the only de-commissioned outlet - ISD.
new telephone exchange.
N line still not available at the
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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Appendix A
ACCOUNTING AND RECONCILIATION MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
e RELEASE1C STATISTICS AND SETTLEMENT ADJUSTMENTS
Relic. From4/11/97 II From 1/5/98 to 31/5/98
to 30/4/98
Total I Cleared II C/F B/F Received I Cleared C/E
DSS Incidents 9 9 0 0 4 3 1
Fallback Incidents 5 5 0 0 i!) 0 0
Lost Transaction 126 120 6 6 24 24 6
PAS Incidents 4 4 0 0 4 4 Qo
PO Incident 8 6 2 2 4 6 0
POCL Incident 34 21 13 13 4 16 1,
Unmatched Encashment 13 8 5 5 0 4 1
TOTAL 199 173 26 26 40 57 9
Cumulative 26 40 57 9
4 Nov 97 - 30 Apr 98
Incidents have been reclassified to more accurately reflect the exception types received,
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB aMsr Boe
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Total Number of
Encashments from 1
May to 31 May 60,185
¢ General Reconciliation Performance
There was a 23% decrease in the level of transactions reported this period and good clear up rates were achieved.
e Improvements
This period - ratio of incidents to transactions were 1:1504 (last period 1:1659).
e Concerns
It is evident that Lost transactions still form the greatest proportion of incidents received. Their reduction remains a prime focus
for PSM.
Dennis Wong, Horizon Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
erate
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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