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Horizon Programme
CONGO 4
(ICL Pathway Release 1c)
Horizon Service Report
Number 3 ; 5
Period - February 1998
Distribution: Dave Miller Graham Beck
Janet Topham Kevin Lenihan
John Meagher Vince Gaskell
Bruce McNiven Paul Hanson
MenaRego .. 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 - I
Authorised by: Dave McLaughlin -!__
Date produced: 27 March 1998
Phit Turnock, Performance Analyst Page 1 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON SWIW 0AB ctr fatse
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1. Introduction
This report is produced by the POCL Service Management team and provides ahigh : +
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
The next full Horizon Service Report is scheduled for 30 April 1998.
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
EDS Electronic Data Systems
HSH _ Horizon System Helpdesk
IGL Initial Go-Live
OBCS Order Book Control Service
OSM - Operational Service Management
PIR Post Incident Review
PCHL Payment Card Helpline
PDA Programme Delivery Authority
POCL Post Office Counters Ltd
RLM _ Regional Liaison Manager
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 2 Of 12
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Post Office CAW
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday. > «and
ie: Week 32 = Thurs. 30 Nov - 5 Dec 1997. a
3. Headlines ~
Volumetrics.
e Payments card customers on CPCS = _ 25,119
¢ Number Of active payment cards = 16,875
¢ 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 February = 30,343
¢ Value of encashments for February = 882,813.33
© Number of foreign encashments for February = 245
¢ Value of foreign encashments for February = 7,214.15
¢ Average value of each encashment = £29
4. ~ End to End Business Continuity
Overall there are no major threats to business continuity, however there are still growing
concems regarding the continuation of lost transactions, it was anticipated that lost
transactions would decline after the software fix dated 16 February 1998.
Continuation of this trend will seriously undermine the credibility of the system.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 3 OF 12
3rd Floor, Terminal Htouse
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW0AB atte fide
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5. . Core Elements of the Live service
Infra- BPS I OBCSI} CAS I CMS I TP/Pwy I Fraud & I Accounting
structure /PAS Interface I Security I ~*~
ene
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 Infrastructure
Post Office Relocations/Refurbishments
Following the PIR for the recent relocations and refurbishments an interim process has
been verbally agreed between POCL and ICL Pathway, for the duration of Release Ic.
A formal process cannot be drafted until POCL states it’s requirement, this is not
envisaged until Release 2 when the ‘change catalogue’ is produced.
A number of actions were assigned at the meeting for subsequent feedback at an update
meeting scheduled for early April.
5.2 Benefit Payment System
Lost Transactions
ICL Pathway are continuing their investigation concerning the four categories of lost transactions
identified in the last interim report. The objective is to ascertain the root cause at the POCL
customer interface. Service Management has escalated the aforementioned problems to Product
Management for action to facilitate a solution within the ICL Pathway domain.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 4 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House .
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5.3. Accounting & Reconciliation
Appendix ‘A’ details an agreed summary of accounting & reconciliation for the
February period.
6. BES: Volumetrics
Definitions for the purpose of this report.
A transaction is a broad description of a customer session. (the term ‘transaction’ is
more rigorously defined in the contract).
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 Payments Card Statistics
Month — Cards Issued to Active Lost Cards Stolen Damaged
POCL Cards Cards Cards
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 5 of 12
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6.2 BES Encashments against Forecast since Release 1c
BES: Actual Encashments Against Forecast
—e— Forecast of Encashments
60000 II @— Actual Encashments
Nov-98 Dec-97 Jan-98 Feb-98 Mar-98 Apr-98
NB: The actual volume of encashments is ramping-up in line with the forecast.
6.3 Volumes of BES transactions
Nov97 Dec 97; Jan 98 Feb 98 Mar 98
Transaction
Apr 98
6.4
North East I South West / South Wales _ Foreign
12,925 17,418 245
360,935.72 521,877.61 I 7,214.15
NB: SW/SW have more cards due to an existing customer base with the ex.IGL offices.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 6 Of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB eer fe
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6.5 Percentage split of Encashments
Volume of BES Encashments
Volume SW/SW
57%
Volume NE
43%
NB: The forecast percentage split is 58% SW/SW and 42% NE, derived from the number of automated
offices in each Region.
7. OBCS
71 No. of OBCS Transactions by Type - February 1998
Encash Encash Issue/Receive I Issue/Receive I Re-Direct I Total
Local Foreign I Local Foreign Transactions
300,284 4,409 55,971 1,290 296 362,250
7.2 No. of OBCS Transactions by Month
No.of OBCS Transactions by Month
450000
400000
350000 325101
300000 21
243643 0868 —s1795
250000
200000
150000
100000 eal
i I
0
Se er ee eee ee
He < 3 S 3 3 <
Bra cou Tigsd S80 SOS, Gale See
Month
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 7 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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8. Horizon System Helpdesk Volumetrics
8.1 Categories of calls to HSH during February 1998.
Analysis of Calls to HSH
wHerdware
Netw ork
Software
tg Documentation
= *plimentation
1 Operations
I mAdvice & Guidance
I Environment
\m inappropriate
I gq Other
Volume
1
Call Categories
NB: This graph includes all calls from POCL, BA & ICL Pathway
Breakdown of calls to HSH
Category
NB: There has been a noticeable reduction in the volume of call to the HSH, especially in the categories
of ‘Advice & guidance’ and ‘operations’.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 8 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWiW 0AB er fae
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8.2 Source of Calls to HSH
Source of Calls to Horizon System Helpdesk
1. Pathway
28%
Benefit Agency
4%
Post Office Counters
Ltd
68%
Calls for December 1997
9; Payment Card Helpline
Calls to Payment Card Helpline
2000
ey BA Cals
.
g 1000 mw POCL Calls
See a Qustomer Calls (Eng)
—
1
February 1998
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB
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Dec 97 Jan 98 Feb 98
NB: The volumes of calls to the PCHL have increased in line with the volumes of active payment cards.
44.2% of the calls to the PCHL are general cardholder enquiries.
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
Lost transactions - card problems
Lost transactions - printer failure
Lost transactions - correct permission not assigned to user
Lost transactions - user exited prematurely
e oooeoeee eee
(full details are provided in previous reports).
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 10 of 12
3nd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ether fd
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11. Concerns
There is growing concem in various domains of the Horizon programme Tegarding the’
consistency and timeliness of the management information supplied by ICL Pathway.
These inconsistencies reported will have-a serious impact on the integrity of the data
supplied to the programme. Service Management has now furnished these concems to
“ICL Pathway for investigation.
12. De-commissioned Post Offices
As of 26 March 1998, there is one de-commissioned outlet.
1. Hewelsfield (346523) - ISDN line not available at the new telephone exchange.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst . Page 11 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW OAB ate fttae
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Appendix ‘A?
ACCOUNTING AND RECONCILIATION MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
¢ RELEASE 1C STATISTICS AND SETTLEMENT ADJUSTMENTS . .
Of the 40 incidents received this month 26 were cleared.
Rel Ic. From 4/11/97 to From 1/2/98 to 28/2/98
31/1/98
Tota I Cleare I Outsta I B/ {New Cleared I Outstanding
1 d nding IF Receiv
ed
PO reported incidents 52 51 1 1 18 18 1
CBOS reported incidents 22 1 21I 21 5 0 26
CA/ABED mismatches 12 2 10{ 10 14 8 16 :
Rejected records by 0 0 0 3 0 3 ‘
CAPS :
TOTAL - 86 54 32I 32 40 26 46
[Total4Nov-28Feb I 32[ 126] 80] 46 I
Total Number of 30,343
Transactions from 1
February to 28 February.
* GENERAL RECONCILIATION PERFORMANCE
An increase of 59% in the volume level of transactions occurred since the last reporting period.
Despite this, performance levels of reconciliation work were still good.
¢ IMPROVEMENTS
This period - ratio of incidents to transactions were 1:704 (last period 1:358).
_* CONCERNS
Incidents of lost transactions are still being reported despite a software fix during February.
Phil Tumock, Performance Analyst Page 12 of 12
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON SWIW OAB ete frie I