POL00028596
POL00028596
OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
BA/POCL Programme
CONGO 4
(ICL Pathway Release Ic)
Horizon Service Report
Number 1
Period - December 1997
Distribution: Peter Crahan Kevin Lenihan
Bruce McNiven Vince Gaskell
Mena Rego Paul Hanson
John Holroyd Ruth Holleran
Douglas Craik PDA Team Leaders
Phil Shingler PMT Board
Andy Radka National Audit Team (POCL)
RLM’s
Phil Turnock
PDA Operational Service Management Team
3rd Floor
Terminal House _
Phil Tumock, OSM Page I of 14
3rd Floor, Terminat House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB Marsal be
POL00028596
POL00028596
@ OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT ©
1. Introduction
This report is produced by the PDA Operational 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.
The next ‘the interim OSM service report’ is scheduled for 13 February 98.
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
©
The ‘traffic lights’ in section 5 of this report should be interpreted in respect of the
perception to the ‘end users’ and how it will impact their environment.
No Threat to Business Continuity
2. Report Format
2.1 ABBREVIATIONS
BA Benefit Agency
CAW Cash Account Week for Post Offices
CRN Change Request Notice
CSU_ Card Support Unit
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 14
3nd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW OAR. alae habe
a OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Post Office CAW
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday.
ie: Week 32 = Thurs 30 Nov - 5 Dec 1997.
3. Headlines
Volumetrics.
e Payment card customers on CPRS = , 10,815
¢ Number of active payment cards = 3,645
¢ Number of Post Offices = 205
e Number of Counter Positions = 335
© Offices De-Commissioned = 0
© Manual Foreign Encashment support Post Offices = 1,492
© Average number of encashments per week = 1,552
© Average value of each encashment = £40
4. End to End Business Continuity
Though the recent incidents involving the failure of Payment Authorisation and
Customer Detail files have been resolved as far as the customer perspective is concerned
and awaiting a Post Incident Review, there are still serious concerns over the volume of
inactivated payment cards issued to customers which is still occurring. A software fix is
+ being sought after as a matter of some urgency.
However, it should be stressed that although there has been many concerns in recent
weeks, a great deal of work has been undertaken by all domains to resolve or minimise
the impact of the problems.
Therefore the expectation is that the ‘BPS’ category should return back to yellow within
the next month.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 3 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ater tte
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
r OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
5. Core Elements of the Live service
Infra- BPS I OBCSI CAS CMS I ABED I Fraud & I Account
structure /PAS : Security I. ing
The BES category shown in the Business Continuity report has now been changed to
BPS (benefit payment system), in this report, as it is believed this best describes this
category.
5.1 INFRASTRUCTURE
Release 1c Printers
A software fix has now been developed by ICL Pathway and is currently undergoing
operational tests. Initial reaction from ICL Pathway staff is very favourable and it is
predicted that this will cure the problem once-it has been implemented into the ‘live’
environment.
5.2 BPS & CAS/ PAS
Payment & Customer Detail File Failure
The customer impact for the aforementioned file failures has been resolved and both
incidents are awaiting a full post incident review scheduled for Wednesday 04 February
1998. .
Additional measures have been agreed between ICL Pathway and CAPS to prevent
. further instances of ‘lost’ files. CAPS will make a daily scan to establish which files
they have not had retuned successfully and the journal would be tidied to ensure failed
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 4 Of 14
3rd Floor, Tenninal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW oan atersatse
POL00028596
POL00028596
eo OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
file transfers could be retumed quickly. ICL Pathway will ask CAPS/EDS for positive
confirmation of which files had failed and request manual re-sends.
Lost Transactions
There has now been 46 lost transactions, 8 of which resulted in duplicate payments
being made with a total value of £254.75. The responsibility and liability for these
payments lies with ICL Pathway.
ICL Pathway’s preferred option for resolving this problem, is to enforce the
commitment of transactions at the point of terminal time-out. The disadvantage of this
approach is that there is a chance that a transaction is forcibly committed although the
clerk intended to void the transaction. If this were to happen then a repudiation would
inevitably be made by the beneficiary who would be initially denied payment because
the system had falsely registered an encashment. Historical data suggests void
transactions are minimal. .
Further analysis is in progress to determine whether there is any impact on other
processes and a Change Proposal will be submitted to secure final approval from BA
and POCL.
Payment Card Activation
There has been continued occurrences of incorrectly activated payment cards at the Post
Office / ChB customer interface, which if allowed to continue will seriously undermine
the credibility of the ‘Horizon’ system with its target customers.
Changes have been identified which, when implemented, will modify the prompts at
card activation and check for confirmation of the operator’s intention should the process
be incomplete. ICL Pathway will raise a CRN for impact by POCL
Asan immediate work around, OSM has requested that all card enabled Post Offices
retain the PUNs at the card activation stage, for one month, this will be a contingency
to correct any inactivated cards when next presented.
Correspondence Server Failure
A technical review of the recovery process has been carried out and recommendations
are to be published shortly, with a full rehearsal and operational test to be scheduled at
Bootle.
ICL Pathway will be discussing the status of all recovery processes at a service review
on 26 January 1998 with CFM Operations.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 5 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52.Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON SWIW OAB ate uatse
I
OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Incorrect Cash Account Weeks
The proposed software fixes applied to the system on 10 January were tested out on two
(ex IGL) Post Offices. At this point it reported the fix was not functioning.
However, on the 15 January a Post Office communicated that a weekly report had been
successfully completed. Another test was run on 20 January, which proved to be
successful. Further test have now been proposed for 21 January, if successful the Post
Offices will be asked to resume weekly reporting.
It would appear the failure on 10 January may have been erroneous, this is being
investigated further.
Late Polling of Release 1c Post Offices
The monitoring of outlet polling to the data centres has now been improved with all
connections checked on a daily basis and a report produced of outlet ‘end-of-day’
messages. ICL Pathway have agreed to notify OSM of any Post Office which has not
harvested for two days, this in tum will be cascaded to all interested domains within
CAPS and POCL. At release 2, this process will be automated.
Complaint from a Housebound Disabled Customer
A house bound disabled customer who’s order book is to expire on 26 January, has
complained to the local BA office, having received her PUN to collect her new payment
card she realises there is no facility for an ‘Agent’. BA subsequently offered the ACT
facility, however the customer stated that she will still have the same problem of
gaining access to her monies. The customer has complained that the ‘level of service
has gone down and that her and other disabled customers are persecuted and penalised.
The customer has stated that she will write to her MP.
This particular customer will be regressed to an order book. CAPS COLS are resolving
the issue.
5.3 ABED
In general the have not been any reduction in the areas giving reason for concem noted
in the previous interim report. However, with the scheduled software fixes to the
aforementioned problems and the positive initiatives from respective POCL regions, it is
hopeful that improvements are to be seen in the next few weeks.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 6 Of 14
3nd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB teste
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
a Y
xe OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
5.4 Fraud & Security
PDA Fraud & Security are to have a meeting with ICL Pathway to perform a risk
assessment of the problem of ‘Authentication of users to the PCHL’. Further details will
be reported in the next Interim Business Continuity report.
5.5 Accounting & Reconciliation
Appendix ‘A’ details an agreed summary of accounting & reconciliation for the
December period
6. 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.
6.1 BES Transactions against Forecast since Release lc
BES: Actual Transactions Against Forecast
—— Forecast No. of Payments
—a— Actual No. of Payments
Forecast No. of
Encashments
: —x— Actual No. of Encashments
5
3
>
I SF ae hq A Oe. Pear. 38 AO 40 AI
Cash Account Week No's I
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 7 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ar de
POL00028596
POL00028596
RS I
OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
6.2 Volumes of BES transactions
CAW I CAW CAW CAW CAW I CAW
: 36 37 38 39 40 41
Transaction
Number of 886{ 1110] 1376] 1656] 1652} 3093
payments
Customer 695 852] 1062} 1342] 1369} 2407
encashments
6.3 BES Encashments by POCL Region for December 1997 (calendar month)
North East South West / South
Region Wales
Volume of 1361 5366
Encashments
Value of 45,949.95 226,722.30
Encashments
NB: CAW data will not match calendar data.
Percentage split of Encashments
Volume of BES Encashments
Volume NE I
20% I
I
I I
Volume SW/ISW I
80% I
NB: The 80% volume in the SW/SW region is due to the 10 ex IGL offices already having a customer
base.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 8 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ewe atin
a Y
= OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
POL00028596
POL00028596
6.4 BES: Foreign Encashment Transactions for December 1997
Volume Value
BES
Foreign Encashment 23 £886.30
Transactions
J OBCS
ICL Pathway are forecast to supply OBCS data in January 1998.
9: Horizon System Helpdesk Volumetrics
9.1 Profile of calls to HSH during December 1997.
Analisis of Call to Horizon System Helpdesk
Volume
8
1
Call Catergories
NB: The above graph details profiles from POCL, BA & ICL Pathway inclusive.
wtterdware
Network
Software
a hplimentation
w Operations
Advice & Guidance
hha 73)
gw Environment
ta appropriate I
Phil Tumock, OSM
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWI W 0AB
Page 9 of 14
NTs Oe eee SS ae ee ea I
POL00028596
POL00028596
OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Breakdown of calls to HSH
Category Volume
Hardware 82
Network 26
Software 89
Implementation 19
Operations 143
Advice & Guidance 236
Environment 14
Inappropriate 32
Other 19
NB: There are no major differences in volumes from the previous month.
9.2 Source of Calls to HSH
Source of Calls to Horizon System Helpdesk e
I 1. Pathway I
I 19% I
I Benefit Agency I
2%
Post Office Counters
Ltd
79%
Calls for December 1997
Business Volume
Post Office Counters Ltd 523
Benefit Agency 13
ICL Pathway 124
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 10 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB oar eT
10.
1
$s ,;
OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Payment Card Helpline
Calls to Payment Card Helpline
Volume
aQustomer Calis (Eng) I
I I mOustomer Calis (Welsh)
December 1997
Calls for December 1997
Source of Calls Volume
Post Office Counters Ltd 270
Benefit Agency 69
Customer Calls (English) 733
Customer Calls (Welsh) 5
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 Ic 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
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 11 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWiW 0AB er ete
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
POL00028596
——I
rN OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
12. De-commissioned Post Offices
There have been no Post Offices de-commissioned this month.
Phil Tumock, OSM
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
_ Page 12 of 14
eter tate
~~
POL00028596
POL00028596
8 I
r yy OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
APPENDIX ‘A?
BROUGHT FORWARD my :
Two incidents were brought forward: the marooned stops and the Bath Road duplicate
due to a failed recall/re-issue for Mrs. Feist. Both remain unresolved at 31 December.
RELEASE 1C STATISTICS AND SETTLEMENT ADJUSTMENTS
There were 29 new reconciliation incidents. All were cleared. One was a failed recall /re-
issue (a “Known Problem”). Pathway wrongly authorised one payment that was not
available on the system (due to card not activated) when the customer complained.
Pathway has undertaken to refund £180.60 to POCL and £11.05 to BA as a result.
: POCL BA
Exception Type Bifwd I New I C/fwd és £s
Duplicate duc to failed recall/re-issue 1 1 29.05
Stops not confirmed to CPCS (“marooned”) 1 1 .
Transaction data lost - Duplicated 5 165.55
Unactivated card payment authorised by P’way 1 20.05
Duplicate due to failed recall/re-issue 1 11.05
Transaction data losv/recovered: forced log-out 13
Transaction data lost/recovered: printer failure 2
Reporting Errors: Common Basis of Settlement 7
Totals i 29 185.60 I 40.10
GENERAL RECONCILIATION PERFORMANCE
General performance of reconciliation work remained good as volumes increased.
IMPROVEMENTS:
. the monthly operational review meeting will be fed by routine reconciliation
summary reports;
. PDA Service Management will run the meetings in future;
. software fixes are scheduled for January to clear and prevent “marooned stops”
and to correct Common Basis of Settlement Reporting errors.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 13 Of 14
31d Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW0AB . eM dAT be
POL00028596
POL00028596
@. OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
CONCERNS:
. absence of the agreed, apparently critical, CPCS:PAS interface File Summary, .
Report and that its absence was not noticed in testing or live running;
. Christmas / New Year holiday resourcing proved inadequate in more than one
area and all operational parties must ensure full support is available in future.
. a process must be established for agreeing fixes that impact service behaviour
or to agree that a fix does not impact behaviour.
. the overall exception rate (1 per 233 encashments) remains a concern if scaled up
to full Release 1c volumes (factor 25) and an issue if scaled to full roll-out (factor
thousands).
Phil Tumock, OSM. Page 14 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB Mar ita