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BA/POCL Programme
CONGO 4
(ICL Pathway Release ic)
Horizon Service Report
Number 2
Period - January 1998
Distribution: Dave Miller Graham Beck
Janet Topham Kevin Lenihan
John Meagher Vince Gaskell
Bruce McNiven Paul Hanson
MenaRego I Ruth Holleran
John Holroyd PDA Team Leaders
Douglas Craik PMT Board
Phil Shingler National Audit Team (POCL)
Andy Radka RLM’s
Peter Charlton
Author: Phil Turnock -
Authorised by: Dave McLaughlin
Date produced: 27 February 1998
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 1 of 13
3nd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON swiw oan esurjttte
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1. ‘Introduction
This report is produced by the PDA Operational Service Management teain and provides
a high level “in-flight” assessment of any threats to overall business continuity in thé
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
i]
The next full Horizon Service Report is scheduled for 13 March 1998.
No Threat to Business Continuity
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
i CSU Card Support Unit
j EDS Electronic Data Systems
HSH Horizon System Helpdesk
IGL Initial Go-Live
OBCS Order Book Control Service
OSM. Operational Service Management
PCHL Payment Card Helpline
PDA Programme Delivery Authority
POCL Post Office Counters Ltd
RLM. Regional Liaison Manager
Phil Tumock, OSM. Page 2 Of 13
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OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Post Office CAW
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday. 5 a> t
ie: Week 32 = Thurs 30 Nov - 5 Dec 1997. ~
3. Headlines
Volumetrics.
¢ Payments card customers on CPCS = 19,453
¢ Number Of active payment cards = 6,432
¢ Number of commissioned Post Offices = 203
¢ Number of Counter Positions = 332
© Offices De-commissioned = 2
¢ Manual Post Offices supporting foreign encahments = 1,492
¢ Number of encashments for January = 16,827
¢ Value of encashments for January = 477,309.65
¢ Number of foreign encashments for January = 75
¢ Value of foreign encashments for January = 2414.80
¢ Average value of each encashment = £28
4. End to End Business Continuity
The volume and impact of problems have reduced over the past three weeks
following the successful introduction of scheduled software fixes to resolve the card
activation and lost transactions problems, plus the actions taken from the customer and
payment file failure PIR (post incident review).
Therefore from an operational point of view there are no major threats to business
continuity.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 3 Of 13
3rd Floor, Terminat [louse
52.Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON SWIW 0AB espe
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5. Core Elements of the Live service
Infra- BPS I OBCSI CAS I CMS I TP/Pwy I Fraud & I Accounti
structure RAS Interface I Security I". “ng
NB: This section of the report should be interpreted in respect of the perception of the ‘end user’ and how
it will impact their environment.
5.1 Infrastucture
Post Office Relocations/Refurbishments
The proposed relocation of Ellington SPSO and refurbishment of Easton Road are
progressing as scheduled.
Despite from the SW/SW Region, OSM and ICL Pathway work closely together, the .
relocation of Hewelsfield SPSO cannot progress due to BT not being able to install an
ISDN line at the new location. The telephone exchange at the new location is not
ISDNE compliant (an EEC requirement). This has resulted in * being de-
commissioned with effect from 25 February 1998. It is planned to re-commission the
outlet once the ISDN line is available.
Details of this relocation has been cascaded onto the POCL Implementation team for
reference within their domain.
A PIR is to be scheduled during March to access the learning points gained from the
recent relocations/refurbishments.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 4 Of 13
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5.2
5.3
5.4
6.1
Fraud & Security
PDA Fraud & Security are to perform a risk assessment of the problem of
‘Authentication of users to the PCHL for the duration of Release Ic.
Accounting & Reconciliation
Appendix ‘A’ details an agreed summary of accounting & reconciliation for the
January period
User Population Telephone Research
OSM commissioned an external research company to perform a telephone survey of
Release Ic Post Offices.
See Appendix ‘B’ for management summary.
BES: Volumetrics
Definitions for the purpose of this report.
A transaction is a broad description of a customer session.
A payment is the Child Benefit allowance money due for one week, or for four weeks (in 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.
Payments Card Statistics
Month — Cards Issued to Active Lost Cai Stolen Damaged
POCL Cards Cards Cards
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 5 of 13
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6.2 BES Transactions against Forecast since Release 1c
BES: Actual Encashments Against Forecast
80000
70000 I] —+— Forecast of Encashments
60000 II —@— Actual Encashments
C)
Nov-98 Dec-97 Jan-98 Feb-98 Mar-98 Apr-98
Month
6.3 Volumes of BES transactions
Nov 97 I Dec97"_ Jan 98 Feb 98 Mar 98 Apr 98
6.4 BES Encashments by POCL Region for January 1998 (calendar month)
th East South West / South Wales — Foreign
Region
6,376 10,384 75
I 170,406.95 303,838.50} 2,414.80
NB: SW/SW have more cards due to an existing customer base with the ex.IGL offices.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 6 of 13
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$2 Grosvenor Gdns
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Percentage split of Encashments
Volume of BES Encashments
Volume NE
38%
Volume SW/SW
62%
NB:The forecast percentage split is 58% SW/SW and 42% NE, derived from the number of automated
offices in each Region.
7. OBCS
TA No. of OBCS Transactions by Type - January 1998
Encash Encash Issue/Receive I Issue/Receive I Re-Direct I Total
Local Foreign I Local Foreign Transactions
322,689 5,515 48,675 1,782 237 378,898
7.2. No. of OBCS Transactions by Month
No.of OBCS Transactions by Month
270865.
243643
200000
150000
100000 4
sooo [ita
ae
te = x x rs 2
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 8
a € 3 A 3 3 3 €
s s 3 8 5 8 §
= 5 Ed o ° 2 6 s
Month
Phil Tumock, OSM
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8. Horizon System Helpdesk Volumetrics
8.1 Categories of calls to HSH during January 1998.
Analysis of Call to Horizon System Helpdesk
350
mferdware
300 Netw ork
Software
250 a "plimentation
200 w Operations
2 wAdvice & Guidance
3 ah Environment
ta happropriate
Other
Call Catergories
NB: This graph includes all calls from POCL,BA & ICL Pathway
Breakdown of calls to HSH
Category
NB:Calls relating to A&G and Operations increased due to problems with card activations and lost
transactions.
Phil Turnock, OSM Page 8 Of 13
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8.2 Source of Calls to HSH
Source of Calls to Horizon System Helpdesk
{C1 Pathway
25%
Benefit Agency
6%
Post Office Counters
Utd
69%
Calls for December 1997
Busine: De Jan 98
9. Payment Card Helpline
Calls to Payment Card Helpline
- 8A Gals
E POC Calls
3 9 Customer Calls (Eng)
1
January 1998
Phil Turnock, OSM Page 9 of 13
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10.
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OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Calls for December 1997
Jan 98
NB: The volumes of calls to the PCHL have increased in line with the volumes of active payment cards.
Key Incidents / Problems during Release 1c
¢ ICL Pathway ‘maestro’ scheduler failed over a weekend period, affecting 10 ex IGL
offices
Release Ic 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 1c
© Increased cash account errors
© Identify Process for outlet changes
(full details are provided in previous reports).
De-commissioned Post Offices
There has been two de-commissioned offices as of 26 February 1998
1. Blackhorse (349511) - Audit Closure
2. Hewelsfield (346523) - ISDN line not available
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 10 of 13
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LONDON SWiW 0AB a thar fa ce
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Appendix ‘A?
ACCOUNTING AND RECONCILIATION MANAGEMENT SUMMARY. :
.
« BROUGHT FORWARD
Two incidents were brought forward.
¢ RELEASE 1C STATISTICS AND SETTLEMENT ADJUSTMENTS
There were 47 new reconciliation incidents. All were cleared.
Amount
Exception Type B/fwd I New I C/fwd £
Duplicate due to failed recall/re-issue 1 1(£29.05)
Stops not confirmed to CPCS (“marooned”) 1 1
Transaction data lost - Duplicated 2 37.15
Reporting Errors - CBOS 13 2,485.70
System time out lost transaction (BES p’ment) . 14 587.50
Discrepancy discovered after Cash Account 10 341.05
Week
Pathway BS emegency fallback (“99”)-txn not 6 159.40
finished
Card inactivation problems-fallback 1 20.05
encashment required when card activated
PCHL foreign encashment/PO system not 1 17.10
reflecting initial change PSEUDO TXN
LOSS)
Total I 47] £3,647.95
« GENERAL RECONCILIATION PERFORMANCE
Good general performance of reconciliation work was maintained as volumes increased
further.
¢ IMPROVEMENTS
This period - one incident every 358 transactions (last period one every 220).
Forced logouts committed.
Card arbitration.
Pathway software fixes.
* CONCERNS
Degree of conformance by user population - initiatives identified to reduce impact.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page LL of 13
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$2 Grosvenor Gdns
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11
12
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.3.1
2.3.2
2.3.3
2.4
.Suggests that the counter operations manuals are difficult to use because of the flow
Appendix ‘B’
1b/1c Upgrade Subpostmasters' Views. Precise = +.~ } ‘
Preamble
50 outlets participated in the telephone survey, 25 in NE and 25 in Swisw.
Compared to July 1997, Subpostmasters now feel significantly better informed about the
Horizon programme. There is also a significant drop in the perception that the system is
easy to use. Users are also less satisfied with the training provided as well as with the
system in general. However users think very highly of the helpline service provided.
Generally, respondents in the North East were more positive about Horizon than their
counterparts in South Wales & South West.
Headlines
From the comments made during the interview the following common areas have been
identified.
System log out; Due to an incorrect parameter the user was logged out after a short
period of inactivity. This has been fixed.
Printer; Loading the receipt was found to be difficult. A software fix has been applied
and no more calls regarding loading of receipts have been logged.
Training
The gap between the end of training and carrying out the first transaction was thought to
be long and caused a lack of confidence by the user.
There appeared to be confusion as to which Helpdesk to call for advice and guidance.
Users were frustrated by the Regional Helplines being unable to answer questions when
the question should have been directed to Horizon System Helpdesk or Payment Card
Helpline.
Subpostmasters found some guides easier to use than others. Other anecdotal evidence
charts, while the ICL Pathway training manuals are preferred as they contain pictures of
the screen menus.
POCL Support; There is a perception that NE Region is not as active in supporting the
outlets as SW/SW.
Phil Tumock, OSM.
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIWO0AB
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Implementation; Many comments around the siting of the kit . Also one concern about
the number of power cuts having a knock on effect on training.
Actions * avn
The report has been copied to ICL Pathway, POCL regions and POCL Implementation.
Comments and proposed action plans are expected by 12 March 1998.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 13 of 13
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON sWiW oAB
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