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e, OPERATIONAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT
BA/POCL Programme
CONGO 4
(ICL Pathway Release 1c)
Full Business Continuity Status Report
( The Full Monty )
Number 1
Period - November 1997
Distribution: PeterCrahan Kevin Lenihan
Bruce McNiven Vince Gaskill
Paul Rich Paul Hanson
John Holroyd Ruth Holleran
Phil Shingler PDA Team Leaders
Andy Radka National Audit Team (POCL)
Bill Kerr PMT Board
Author: Phil Turnock
PDA Operational Service Management Team
3rd Floor
Terminal House
Phil Tumock, OSM Page I of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
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LONDON sWiW oan ave antite
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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 give rise to considering a
suspension of the Congo 4 roll-out or regression from ICL Pathway services.
For ease of reference, the report utilises a traffic light system with the following
keys -
o
Immediate Threat to Business Continuity
Potential Threat to Business Continuity
No Threat to Business Continuity
NB Any comments about the content, format or value of the report
would be welcomed by the PDA Operational Service Management team
at Terminal House.
2. End to End Business Continuity
There are no matters that need escalating for consideration of suspending the Congo
4 roll-out and/or regressing from ICL Pathway services.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 2 Of 14
3rd Floor, Tenminal [louse
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3.1
3.2
4.1
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Report Format
ABBREVIATIONS
BA Benefit Agency
CAW Cash Account Week for Post Offices
CSU Card Support Unit
HSH Horizon System Helpdesk
IGL Initial Go-Live
OBCS Order Book Control Service
OSM _ Operational Service Management
PCHL Payment Card Helpline
POCL Post Office Counters Ltd
RLM Regional Liaison Manager
POST OFFICE CAW
Post Office cash account weeks run from Thursday to Wednesday.
ie: Week 32 = Thurs 30 Nov - Sth Dec 1997.
Headlines
Volumetrics.
Payment cards issued to date = (Data not available at present )
Payment card customers = 4,294
Offices migrated to release 1c = 205
Offices de-commissioned ( not migrated to Release 1c ) = 6
Manual Foreign Encashment support Post Offices = 1,492
Average number of encashments per week, since Release 1c = 687
Average value of each encashment = . £40
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 3 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW OAB ovetise
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5. Core Elements of the Live service
Infra- BES I OBCSI PAS CMS I ABED I Fraud & I Account ‘
structure Security ing
5.1 INFRASTRUCTURE
5.1.1 ICL Pathway are continuing their investigations and testing of the release 1c
printers, OSM are awaiting a further update.
5.2 BES
5.2.1 With reference to transactions being lost after printer failure. ICL Pathway have
investigated their system in a testing environment and have concluded that after the
user produces a manual receipt and ‘exits out’, the system returns back to the
transaction to be committed. However, OSM believe in the ‘live’ environment the
system actually return to the main menu and does not prompt the user to commit the
transaction. OSM will seek further clarification.
5.2.2 Incidents have arisen this week where payment cards have been incorrectly issued
to customers in five Post Offices in the NE Region, this has left the customers with
unactivated cards,
ICL Pathway, CAPS and OSM have contained the situation by identifying and
isolating the possible customers concerned (eleven ), and making arrangements for
new cards to be distributed to them.
OSM has produced and arranged distribution of a special notice to ALL 205 Post
Offices operating release Ic.
The CSU has made contact with the said customers, explaining the situation and the
impact on them.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 4 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal Htouse
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW OAB . aes
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5.3
5.4.1
5.5:
5.5.1
5.6
5.6.1
5.7
5.7.1
OSM has logged the incidents on the problem management database with purpose
of identifying the route causes.
PAS
ICL Pathway are considering improvement opportunities to various aspect of the
Bath Road duplicate payment problem;
monitoring of communications with outlets;
PAS acceptance of duplicate transactions harvested on the same day;
inclusion of these in CBoS and the CPCS and ABED interfaces;
PAS validation to minimise file rejections by CPCS;
CMS
The PUNs for IGL card swap-out were scheduled for distribution in week
commencing Ist December and is expected to continue for the duration of
December.
The reason for'the IGL cards to be replaced are:-
. PAN checksum incorrect.
. Livery change on Card reverse ( Rollout Card is different from that for IGL)
° Word change on Card reverse ( Helpline telephone number, Freepost return
* address & referral contact for information about the benefit ).
To date there has not been any problems with the card replacement process, OSM
will obtain further update at the end of December 1997.
ABED
There has been no new problems to report this week. All outstanding conceins /
problems continue to be monitored and awaiting resolution via the problem
"management process.
Fraud and Security
Proposals for the authentication of users to the Payment Card has been submitted to
the parent organisations, however there was need for further clarification from ICL
Pathway.
Accounting & Reconciliation
Please see appendix ‘A’ for summary on accounting & reconciliation.
Phit Tumock, OSM Page 55 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminat House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
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6. Offices Migrated to Release 1c
6.1 The table below totals the number of offices migrated to release 1c per day.
Date No. of Offices
01/11/97 9
02/11/97 1
05/11/97 2
07/11/97 20
10/11/97 I” 19
11/11/97 20
12/11/97 16
13/11/97 17
14/11/97 21
17/11/97 21
18/11/97 20
19/11/97 19
20/11/97 20
Total 205
NB: The 10 IGL offices were the first to migrate.
7. BES: Volumetrics
7.1 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 weck, or for four weeks ( in case of
a four- weekly allowance).
Anencashment 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.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 6 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB. Oana
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7.2 Payment Card Customers.
BES: Number of Payment Card Customers against Forecast »
4000 II —e— Forecast Pay
Qustomers
3500 {I _@ Actual Payment Card
3000 Qustomers
3
Post Office Cash Account Week
7.3. _ BES Transactions against forecast since release Ic.
é —e— Forecast No. of Payments
BES:Actual Transactions against Forecast Actual No. of panei
Forecast No. of Encashments
—x— Actual No. of Encashments
Volume
Cash Account Week No's
NB: It was forecast that payment cards would take four weeks to be issued, it transpires that the
process is quicker and therefore, BES transactions are being performed from CAW 34.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 7 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ered
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7.3.1 BES Transactions this period
CAW I CAW I CAW] CAW
Transaction sxe owl meas to
Number of 857] 823] 916} 964
payments
Customer 656I 633} 705} 757
encashments
Value (£) TIT] BE I TES I EES
7.4 BES transactions for the last 21 week period.
Number of BES Transactions
1400
—o— No of payments
1200 —a— Encashments tansactions
1000
5 800
2
5
2 600
400
200
47 49 51 01 03-05 07 09 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 35 35
‘Cash Account weeks
NB: The purpose of this graph is to graphically show trends between payments and encashments
over the given period. ( week 32 is when migration to release Ic started)
7.5 Stop / Expired BES Payments
7.5.1 Stops & Expired BES Payments this period
CAW I CAW I CAW I CAW
32 33 34 35
Stops 12 Sear 9
Expired 3 2 z 3
Total: 15 T\19]- 2
Stops & Expired
Phil Tummock, OSM Page 8 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
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7.6
8.
8.1
9.1
Pik
BES Foreign Encashment Transactions
Problems with ICL Pathways data warehouse has prevented data being SS! in
time for this report.
OBCS Volumetrics
ICL Pathway were not requested to provide OBCS data for Release 1c. The PDA
has recognised that there is still a requirement for this data and are in consultation
with ICL Pathway to produce this information. As an interim measure, data can be
extracted from invoices provided by ICL Pathway on a monthly basis, however
Novemeber’s invoice has not been received in time for this report.
Helpdesks Volumetrics
Horizon System Helpdesk
POCL calls to HSH.
POCL calls to Horizon System Helpdesk
200 Advice & Guidance
—e— Hardware
—a- Software
—<— Other
No. of calls
8
47 49 Si O1 OF 05 O7 09 11 15 15 17 19 21 25 25 27 29 31 33 35
Cash Account weeks
NB: Data relates to the past 21 weeks to graphically view trends. ( migration started from CAW 32)
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 9 Of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
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9.1.2 Call this period.
CAW I CAW I CAW I CAW
32 aS: 34 =
Advice & Guidance 14] 40] 47 53
Hardware 10 19 13 12
Software 22I 69) 47 16
Other 41I 163} 181 57
Installation 15{ 103] 120 25.
Documentation 0 0 0 0
Environment 1 4 6 6
Inappropriate es) 4 4 3
Network 12 44 42 6
Operations 4 8 9: 17
NB: The lower six categories are a breakdown the main category ( Other )
9.1.3 Calls to the HSH have increased since CAW 33, this is in line with migration to
release lc. Inparticular, calls relating to installation increased during CAW 33
and 34. These were the two main weeks for migration to release Ic ( see 6.1 ).
9.2 BAcalls to HSH
Jy 5 I
BA calls to Horizon System Helpdesk Advice & Guidance]
—e— Hardware
—a— Software
—— Other
No. of calls
47 49 51 01 03 0S O7 09 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Cash Account weeks
&
NB: Data relates to the past 21 weeks to graphically view trends.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 10 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB eh tte
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9.2.2 Calls this period
CAW I CAW I CAW I CAW : 4
Area 32 33 34 35 ‘ 3
Advice & Guidance 0 0 0 1 3
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Software 0 0 0 0
Other 2 5 > i
NB: Since release 1c, BA calls to HSH remain minimal.
9.3. Payment Card Helpline
O31
Calls to Payment Card Helpline
100 —— Cistorer cals
I
—t—BA Cals I
80 Poct.cats I
as
No. of calls
47 49 S101 O3 05 O7 09 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Cash Account weeks
NB: Data relates to the past 21 weeks to graphically view trends
9.3.2 Calls this period.
CAW I CAW I CAW I CAW
Call source 23 24 25 26
Customer 4s S24. SO0ISE 77,
BA 12 9 9 g
POCL 43 30I 44] 41
NB: As with the HSH, call to PCHL have increased as expected.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 11 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ed
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10.
11.
11.2
Key Incidents / Problems during the period of November
ICL Pathway ‘maestro’ scheduler failed over a weekend period, affecting 10 ex
IGL offices. 8
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.
De-commissioned Post Offices
The following 6 Post offices have been de-commissioned from the ‘Horizon’ and
did not migrate to release 1c.
1. Birdlip (SW/SW)
2. Bristol Road (SW/SW)
3. Gloucester Street (SW/SW)
4. Lawrence Hill (SW/SW)
5. Salisbury Avenue (SW/SW) °
6. Westfield (SW/SW)
There has been 2 Post Offices temporarily closed during this period, both have now
been re-commissioned.
1. Felton (NE)
2. St.Andrews (SW/SW)
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 12 of 14
* 3nd Floor, Terminal House
52 Grosvenor Gdas
LONDON SWiW oAB . efeenttte
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APPENDIX ‘A’
EXTRACT FROM BA/POCL PDA RECONCILIATION - OPERATIONAL
REPORT _ 4
SUMMARY OF RECONCILIATION FOR THE PERIOD
IGL
Two IGL incidents were carried forward for which ICL Pathway provided credits on
its October invoice, These incidents were closed on 12 November.
Release 1c Statistics
There were 10 new reconciliation incidents representing nine cases - one was
prematurely cleared and a new incident raised when new evidence emerged. Eight
were cleared and two remain open, one related to a registered “Known Problem”.
* New Not Cleared*
Exception Type & Exception Number No. £s I No. I fs
Authorisation of a non-existent Payment (30) 3] 87.15 1} 29.05
Stop not confirmed to CPCS (“marooned”) (330) 1I 60.15 1] 60.15
Transaction data lost - BES time-out (465) 3] 81.35
Transaction data lost - counter printer failure (523) 2I 33.15
Transaction data lost - user set-up error (530) 1I 38.05
Totals [10 I 299.83 2{I 89.20
* Cleared = reconciliation work complete but not closed (perhaps any credits due not yet issued).
Not cleared = reconciliation work (including data and financial resolution) not complete.
General Reconciliation Performance
General reconciliation performance was good. In particular, recovery of lost
transaction data was prompt and effective.
Improvements F
Improvements are being made to reconciliation processes:
. all parties now get notification of all incidents and a weekly summary;
. forms and reports are being revised to improve text and cross references;
. original encashment id to be recorded for lost transaction data recovery;
¢ "inks to associated “software” incidents for BA COPS are under discussion.
Concerns
The duplicate payment on 17 November in Bath Road Post Office included a series
of compound errors and is a “Problem”. Resolution of the reconciliation and data
aspects is decided but not yet complete.
A software fix is scheduled for next month to clear and prevent “marooned stops”.
Phil Tumock, OSM Page 13 of 14
3rd Floor, Terminal House ,
$2 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON SWIW 0AB ene Iabe
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A system fault at the Payment Card Helpline caused a duplicate encashment that
was compounded by a failure. This caused loss of transaction data that was
recovered,
aba
Incidence of transaction data loss is much higher than forecast for the 10 active post
offices. Recovery has worked well, but there is a need to review causes.
The overall exception rate (1 per 310 encashments) is 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
52 Grosvenor Gdns
LONDON sWIW oA ee entite