Business Service Management - Problem Management
POL00178062
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Problem Management
Status Report
For Month - October 2001
Author Des Hansbury Reference BSM/PM/SR/OCT/001
Version 1.0 Classification Status Report
Date 9 Nov 2001 Status Final
Authority Signature Date 09/11/2001
POCL Kevin Lenihan
Distribution
1. BSM Lead Team
2. Dave Hulbert
3. Richard Ashcroft
4. _BSM Problem Management Team
5. Problem Co-ordinators
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Table of Contents Pages
Section 1 :- Introduction 2
Section 2 :- Management Summary 3-5
Section 3 :- New Problems 6-9
Section 4 :- Problem Management Volumetrics 10-11
Section 5 :- Problem Management Development/ Initiatives 12
Section 6 :-Performance Measures 13
Appendix : Problems Over 3 Months Old 14-21
Section 1 - Introduction
11
1.2
13
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to provide Business Service Management with a status report of problems managed by the
Problem Management team for the month of October 2001.
Context
The report will focus on the management of ‘open’ problems and provides details of ongoing development and operational
activity during the month.
Problem Definition / Classification
A ‘Problem’ :-
¢ isa record of an underlying cause which may result in Incidents;
¢ potentially exists when a defect in the specification, design, production, implementation, or use of any of the service
components results in any aspect of the service not meeting expectations;
e will be raised when the impact of the defect (e.g. the level and severity of the related incidents) is substantial enough to
warrant action to eradicate it.;
e will be deemed to exist when it is logged on a PON or ICL Pathway Problem Management system;
¢ will be closed when it has been agreed that the underlying cause has been fixed or removed.
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Section 2- Management Summary
21
2.1.2
2.1.3
2.2
The number of problems opened in October (27 ) was a bit above the recent average, primarily due to ‘Your Guide’ issues
(7 = 26% ). As usual, ‘Problem Offices’ accounted for a high percentage of the new problems (11 = 41% ). The “Your
Guide’ problems, whilst large in number do not reflect a major concern however - more an improvement in the visibility of
issues which are largely resolved quite quickly.
The larger pieces of work that Problem Management are involved in - often driving business conformance / activity have
not yet been included in our statistics. The process to deal with these is currently being defined, but for information
purposes, the main areas of activity have been :-
¢ Bad debts - involving Territories, Legal Services and Transaction Processing ;
e Part Time Outlets Data - establishing baseline info. and involved in establishing change control processes;
¢ Training for Holiday Relief staff - gathering baseline data to support case for National Training to deliver;
¢ Centralised reference points for Business policy - to improve visibility for PM and NBSC use.
On top of all the above, there has been a lot of activity this month in relation to the reorganisation of the Your Guide (YG)
centre and we are getting to grips with process changes that are necessary to support the reshaped infrastructure.
The key problems and issues which have provided the main focus for us this month were in relation to :-
Non Polling
The numbers have levelled out a bit and remain relatively low although still unacceptable - pending implementation of the
‘rectification plan’. A ‘lap top’ solution has been tested in a development environment and the ‘live environment’ test will
being carried out at one office during November. If all goes well, there will be a pilot in the South East involving 4200
offices (test will be at the worst 5 non poll offices per day in that region) and a full roll out (if the pilot is successful) in Jan -
March 2002.
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23
2.3.1
2.3.2
24
24.1
Your Guide (YG ) Issues
As mentioned in the opening paragraphs, YG issues were more prevalent this month. The main problems were :-
e P10000592 White Screens
White screens picked up again after a major incident on 28 September, when Energis, concerned about network congestion,
invoked a service-related contingency and reduced the bandwidths - too far! 90% of the Horizon network was affected at
one stage, with a commensurate effect on Your Guide kiosks. Since then, Energis have continued to monitor the network
and have agreed to restore bandwidth to the previous level, except between 3 and 4 am, which is when the YG Kiosks all
reboot and try to contact the web server then white out when they can't.
¢ P10000632 Service Interruption 26/09/01
Meantime, two other causes of white screens were identified. The service interruption on 26 Sept related to a corrupt rules
base on the firewall; the security feature which determines access to the server failed, thereby forbidding access to
legitimate machines. An eventual hardware swap appears to have solved this one.
e P10000643 Failure of YG Network 06/10/01
The failure of the entire network on 6 October was due to another hardware problem, in that an entire comms switching
panel at Bootle data centre failed, therefore denying any communications at all between kiosk and server. Although
Horizon could continue to function via Wigan, there is no such back-up for Your Guide. In the absence of a report from
Nortel, the owners of the kit that failed, Energis have been asked to provide assurance that they have a plan to deal with
any such recurrence.
First Rate Issues
P10000567 Customers unable to contact First Rate
P10000571 ~~ Non receipt of pre-order currency in outlets
P10000630 Offices receiving incorrect First Rate orders
After a bit of stalemate and no real movement on these problems, a meeting took place on 8 October to get both visibility
and action.
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2.5
¢ 567 - First Rate (FR) have had problems with the system crashing, but aren't in a position to renew the system due to lack
of funds associated with the current contract (Investment appraisal process is part of potential new deal). A suggestion
was made that they have a contingency plan and that NBSC would be that contingency and be paid accordingly - that is
now being looked into.
¢ 571 - Due to the low numbers of outlets being affected by this problem, the amount of failures falls within the failure rate
for the Special Delivery service, so although it is disappointing, it looks as though there isn't any more we can do.
¢ 630 - The database used by First Rate will be validated to make sure all office details are correct, and the process used at
the pick and pack centre will be checked to see where the failures are occurring and how they might be stopped.
Slow Running At Counters
The problem has been ongoing for a considerable length of time. The day to day slow running (navigating from screen to
screen etc.) has been difficult to prove and could be user perception. However, the Adjust Stock & Slow Rollover has been
known about since April.
e A fix was devised for the problem but a side effect of this was that the order of reports generated would be different.
POL therefore said that the fix was unacceptable as it stood.
e ICLP began working on the side effect to the fix. This had the effect of making the fix 'bigger' in size to the system.
¢ The Counter_S10R_DELTA package, which contains the 'Slow running Adjust Stock/ Balance snapshot' fix as one of its
components was piloted on 30/10/01. The pilot offices were to be monitored over the balance period and if the fix
proves successful, it will be released to the rest of the live estate - we are currently waiting for details of the success of
the fix.
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Section 3 - New Problems
Open Problems Raised between 01/10/2001 and 31/10/2001
Problem Id ICL Problem Title
Closure Criteria
Target Date Date Raised
P10000634.
Action
Resolution
Resolution
P10000644
Action
Resolution
P10000641 Training- Calls to reduce to an average of 4 per month. 31/12/2001 I 08/10/2001
[Dunkeswell
1173519- Problem
Office
PXetoumem The office has been making a higher than average amount of calls to both help desks. These calls have been regarding basic advice and guidance,
iNeseitieam which after the amount of time the office has been live, should not really be a problem. Training has been requested for the outlet from the region.
Awaiting response from the RLM/AM
/P10000642 Training- Weoley I Calls reduced to an average level of 4 per month. 31/12/2001 I 08/10/2001
Hill 418201-
Problem Office
Natoma he office has been making a higher than average amount of calls to both help desks. These calls have been regarding basic advice and guidance,
Pathway
Problem Id
Office 02/10/2001
transfers/closures
Measures in place to close the gap and decide whether an automated solution is 31/1/2002
appropriate in light of known plans ic. ERA
The final cash account figures at an office transfer/closure are reported on a manual Final Account form ( P242 ). This form is normally printed as
part of the annual revision process but as there are no plans to revise/reprint manual CA forms this leaves a gap as far as a final balance is
concerned. Still awaiting information from legal services as to the requirements of the Business. No update from FSA team as this problem is not
being discussed until 7 November at their team meeting.
which after th
Awaiting res
@ amount of time the office has been live, should not really be a problem. Training has been requested for the outlet from the region.
onse from the RLM/AM
Datestamps - Knowledge Base case to advise offices how to proceed with an inoperable datestamp.
broken or with
incorrect date
Discussions with the Retail Line and Network Transformation teams indicate most areas make local arrangements such as using a generic "Territory"
stamp or one from a closed outlet. The Network Change Mgr. is looking at whether a new process is needed or whether these local practices can
become standard practice. The security arrangements will need to be looked into so that there is an audit trail of where each stamp has been used.
Due to the NCM's commitments with other issues, some of which have a higher financial priority, the next update has been agreed for 30/11/01.
30/11/2001 I 15/10/2001
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Problem Id Ic Problem
Pathw
Problem Id
1P10000646 I PC0070864 I*YG* - Your Guide I Legible prints delivered to the u:
Printer Failures &
Spares Supply
pXeteumem There are two identified causes of failure. Firstly, there is a buildup of static that does not earth properly, causing the printer to fail, and secondly
the printer heads are found to be dirty, perhaps as a result of being shipped in that condition. After a Divisional Alert was raised in ICL Pathway,
delivery of the spares that had been requisitioned was expedited, giving a total of 12, Whether this will be sufficient is being monitored. The printer
heads issue is being tackled on two fronts; the paper is no longer being pre-loaded, enabling a visual inspection of the heads before the printer leaves
the factory, and the engineers have been equipped with airspray canisters and will clean the heads as part of routine maintenance..
1P10000648 I PCO070809. IS10 Girobank Root cause identified, and a fix produced and delivered to all S10 outlets. 17/11/2001 I 17/10/2001
reversal
03/12/2001 I 16/10/2001
Resolution
After the S10 software drop five outlets were having problems reversing Girobank transactions on the Horizon node that they were originally
processed through. They did however manage to reverse them on the gateway node. Potentially, all outlets with more than one terminal could be
affected, but to date it seems that only these five have . We haven't been provided with any reason why it should have only affected these outlets
nor has the root cause been identified.
/P10000650 I PC0070940 I Training Calls to reduce to average of 4 per month.
Pontardulais
253642 - Problem
Office
The office has been making a higher than average amount of calls to both help desks. These calls have been regarding basic advice and guidance,
Action
Resolution
31/12/2001 I 17/10/2001
Action
iNese)tieam which after the amount of time the office has been live, should not really be a problem. Training has been requested for the outlet from the region.
Awaiting response from the RLM/AM
/P10000651 Training Weeting I Calls to reduce to on average 4 calls per month. 31/12/2001 I 17/10/2001
136112 - Problem
Office
Pata The office has been making a higher than average amount of calls to both help desks. These calls have been regarding basic advice and guidance,
which after the amount of time the office has been live, should not really be a problem. Training has been requested for the outlet from the region.
Awaiting response from the RLM/AM
Resolution
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ProblemId ICI Problem Title Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Pathway
Problem Id
10000652 I PCO070939_ITraining: Brockley I Calls to reduce to average of 4 per month. 31/12/2001 [17/10/2001
Road 070007 -
Problem Office
Natoma The office has been making a higher than average amount of calls to both help desks. These calls have been regarding basic advice and guidance,
INSSe team which after the amount of time the office has been live, should not really be a problem. Training has been requested for the outlet from the region.
Awaiting response from the RLM/AM.
P10000653 I PC0070875— I*YG* - Mark IIT 1) Determination of cause of the print sticking to the roof of the hopper 19/11/2001 I 17/10/2001
Printer Hopper 2) acure.
Orientation
yXer@omes [he change of the orientation of the hopper from vertical to horizontal, required by the development of the Mark III kiosk, resulted in prints being
eve ttaeam stuck to the roof of the hopper from where they could not easily be extracted. Work by Barcrest identified the cause as being the internal fan which,
lonce switched off, allows the print to descend to the bottom of the hopper, as designed.
/P10000655 Unavailability of _IAmendment to process maps made and T1 Admin. & Retail Line informed of 30/11/2001 I 18/10/2001
nominated offices _Ichanges.
yXarumem Phe key concerns of the Retail Line seem to be:1. Offices being made aware of the fact that a Cash Centre is closing or that Rems. have failed for
Nee Ute Whatever reason, along with a view on when the situation is likely to be resolved. This should if possible include an instruction on how to
Iproceed/who to call if in difficulty. 2. RLMs need to know which outlets have sufficient cash. CHD could have a link into this in terms of
information on which Rems have failed.3. Outlets need to know whether to accept Royal Mail premium services.
IP10000656 Girobank data not IIn the event there are differences , Post Office Limited should be in a position to 30/11/2001 I 18/10/2001
matching CTS Data inform clients of the difference. ICL Pathway should provide timely BIMS to TP with
full scheme breakdown
Actic ICL's Problem Manager is trying to establish whether there are others in Pathway/PON who are already progressing the matter.
Resolution
/P10000658 I TBA Little Eaton FAD I£108 refunded if system discrepancy claim is proved in favour of office. 9/11/2001 I 22/10/2001
231207 USI
ICL have admitted a software error, The amount made good by the PM needs to be reimbursed, Currently with ICL MSU (Mike King).
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Problem Id ICL Problem Title Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Pathway
Problem Id
1P10000659 OPTIP File 3 months without further occurrences of OPTIP file rejections caused by this problem I 30/11/2001 I 22/10/2001
rejections caused
by Ref. Data
[Mismatches.
aoa A number of files from ICLP were rejected by OPTIP because there was a mismatch between the products’ end dates. The files eventually got
INSSe Ul toam (hrough to the CBDB which enabled the clients to be paid. This occurred back in August and once in September, but to date there has been no further
occurrence.
P10000661 Problem Office - _ I Visit to be undertaken by the retail line to discuss the problems to avoid any further I 30/11/2001 I 23/10/2001
The Oval (324227) Icomplaints/ incidents being raised on the same issue.
Nato [he office has called in again raising the same issue of AP transactions making all other transactions disappear from the stack. This was previously
ee) teeam shown to be user error due to the Postmaster not looking at what he was doing at the time of the transaction and, when a card failed, proceeding
lwith the same key strokes as if the card had scanned. These key depressions are enough to take the postmaster into the settlement screen and finish
to fast cash. The RLM/AM was made aware of the situation, and informed me that the Postmaster has been given his notice because of this and
other numerous related issues.
}P10000662 Increase in calls to [Solution to offices not able to get through to Inventory Teams to be sought. Standard I 30/11/2001 I 24/10/2001
INBSC due to response to all the complaints which have arisen.
rollout of SAPADS
4.6
PXoroemem Since the SAPADS 4.6 software upgrade cash centres are having problems processing remittances. I am awaiting information as to why this has
Nese) teem occurred. Outlets are also suffering because they are having difficulties contacting certain cash centres, so are unable to alter remittances.
P10000664 I TBA Holiday Relief Produce a report & recommendation about whether to pursue the matter or drop it. I 16/11/2001 I 31/10/2001
Subpostmasters
Btetemes 1 he perception is that Relief Subpostmasters ( cover for holidays ) are a drain on resources (increased demands on help desks, more errors ) . It has
ISSO team been suggested that improvements could be achieved by creating some sort of training programme. A report and recommendation on whether to
pursue this notion is currently being considered by the Head of Service Operations.
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Section 4 - Volumetrics
No. of Problems Open No. of Problems Open No. of Problems Open No. of Problems Open No. of Problems Open No. of Problems Open
21 - 40 Days 41 - 60 Days 61 - 80 Days 81 - 100 Days 100
4.1. Ownership of Open PON Problems
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4.2 Breakdown of Services Affected
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Section 5 - Problem Management Development/ Initiatives
¢ Adopt an Office
¢ Problem Co
ordinator
Liaison
° Staffing
e PM Process
Changes
¢ Recognition
The results of this month’s visits are currently being summarised.
Theresa Walsh has again been out and about on her PC liaison visits this month and feedback received
continues to be very positive. There are some interesting learning points arising for us and we are striving to
tackle these. Another initiative, linked to the ‘Service Charter’, is the establishment of OLAs to improve
links, accountability and ownership. It’s perhaps a bit early for this yet, but nevertheless it’s an opportunity
to build on what we have currently.
No changes this month !!
As outlined in both this month’s and the September PM status report, there are a few larger pieces of work
that Problem Management are involved in - often driving business conformance / activity. This activity is
largely invisible however to the statistics and as a result, we need to alter the way we approach this work to
ensure that it is recorded. We are looking at this during November as I feel it’s an essential change and
compliments the change activity arising from recent discussions with Business Continuity.
¢ I gave Paul Smith written recognition for his comprehensive work on the Data Extraction Tool user guide
- it was a very thorough and professional piece of work which will definitely benefit the team;
¢ Theresa received recognition at the PC meeting for her liaison visits which are proving to be very helpful
to them;
¢ I gave verbal recognition to both Michael Dadra (Network Audit) and Ijaz Bhatti (IAM) for their excellent
input and activity as Problem Co-ordinators. Indeed, Ijaz was one of the ‘founder members’ and has
continually played a very valuable and active role which has been vital to the success of the PC
infrastructure.
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Mechanism
Problems opened, having,
previously been rejected
Problem Management Performance Measures: October 2001
<10% of problems opened having,
been previously rejected.
Performance
© Achieved; 0% of problems
opened had previously been
rejected
Comments
This measure has been achieved every month since
measurement began.
ATPs Implemented
100% implemented within 3 days
of the problem being opened
N/A
No ATPs implemented this month.
Problem Impact Assessment :
Problem Manager's Performance
100% problems sent to Impact
Assessors within 24 hours of
status change to Open.
© Achieved; 100% sent for
Impact Assessment to
timescale.
Achieved for the second month ina row.
Problem Impact Assessment :
Impact Assessors’ Performance
100% of assessments completed &
closed within 48 hours of being
sent by Problem Manager
® Notachieved; 84% of
problems sent for Impact
Assessment completed to
target.
Improvement on last month (68%). The three worst
areas for failures were National Communications,
Network Policy and Security & Investigation.
Duty Manager's assessment
100% proposed problems assessed
& either allocated to a Problem
Manager or rejected within 24
hours of proposal
© Achieved; 100% allocated
or rejected to target.
Improvement from last month (90%)...
Average number of days a
problem remains open before &
after root cause analysis (RCA)..
This measure is in 2 parts:
Days from problem raised to root
cause identified.
Days from root cause identified to
problem closed.
No baseline target exists at
present.
88% of closed problems,
raised in the year to
31/10/2001, had a root cause
annotated.
Average time from raised -
RCA = 17 days
Average time RCA - closed =
59 days.
Overall %age improved from last month (81%).
Average time both before and after RCA is virtually
identical to last month; time before RCA has now
been stable for 4 months.
Time after RCA had increased every month up to
September.
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Appendix 1; Problems over 3 months old
Problem Id ICL Problem Title Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Pathway
Problem Id
10000073) PC27145 Pathway Non Non-polling incidents managed in such a way as to provide transaction data within I 29/3/2002 24/01/2000
Polling of Offices ISLA.
Natomas The outlet manager at High St. CFPO, Stevenage (066 129) has agreed in principal to the testing of the ISDN emulator/laptop solution. A date will be
eve)ttteeam agreed when the CCN has been signed off. ICL Pathway are purchasing the hardware in anticipation of this so as to keep the timescale to a
minimum. Earliest expected trial date is the end of November.
P10000186 Late delivery of ref.] Proof that ICLP can specify the offices that have received any item of ref.dataand — I 30/11/2001 I 31/05/2000
data. changes to __Ispecification of a process that ensures timely identification of problems from the HSH
some outlets call logs
Patou I he requirement that ICLP can specify the offices that have received any item of ref. data was put to ICL P in a CR along with several other
INSSe item requirements. The quote for the changes was seen as excessive. In past discussions with Pathway, POL had understood that there was originally a
possibility that POL's enhanced Reference Data reporting requirements would be met in CSR+; more recently, ICL Pathway suggested that to meet
IEPOSS enhanced Reference Data reporting requirements would not require costly development and testing.
/P10000202 I PC0060430 IInadequate Improved procedures for outlet closures to include a check for any non polled 30/11/2001 I 27/06/2000
procedures for transactions / cash accounts
office closures
Atetoame Pathway say they have amended their closure procedures to include a check for any non polled transactions - awaiting process documentation.
ieveitienm There have been no further incidents reported.
1P10000227 I PC0052508 IUnmatched Complete eradication of this fault ensuring AP transactions: a) cannot be reversed 30/11/2001 I 27/07/2000
reversed / reversing Iafter or during end of day process b) all reversals which are accepted refer only to
jat EOD transactions completed on the same working day.
PXetoame Reversals completed over end of day causing unmatched transaction to reversal. Fix involves barring any reversals which would be completed over
evetttaeam end of day marker and providing an error message explaining why it has happened. Fix to be applied in release $10.
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Problem Id ICL Problem Title Closure Criteria
Pathway
10000228
Problem Id
Action
Resolution
Target Date Date Raised
When the printers use the full potential of paper.
31/12/2001 I 01/08/2000
Latest position - Mike Balmer (Benefits & Bus. Case Team Leader) had established that Dataform were not supplying the rolls to the correct
specification and he has now made arrangements for them to do so. However, it is understood that this may not necessarily reduce the amount of
wastage. Pathway also confirmed that they cannot alter the setting, of the printers to help with the problem and as far as the Horizon Service Review
Forum are concerned they have done as much as possible to rectify this. The PON Prob. Mgr will now liaise with the Problem Originator and the
Benefits & Bus, Case Team Leader.
}P10000258 [PLU numbers 1.[Improvement to procedures followed by the Change process.2. Communication to I 23/11/2001 [17/08/2000
removed from go out to outlets to inform them of the reasons why the numbers were removed and
horizon system jalso to let them know about the system speeding up after a few weeks.
Bvetames A report & recommendation to the BSM Lead Team, on the change processes employed by BSM, has been produced and is now being considered by
IeSelttieam the Service Quality Manager.
1P10000274 Outlets unable to I All Cash Centres, Hemel Stock Centre and all Outlets using the correct pouches. 31/12/2001 I 31/10/2001
follow Inward Rem
Procedure
ieee New labels were printed. However, it was discovered that they had an incorrect digit and therefore could not be recognised by the Horizon system.
ese) teem Consequently, the NSSC was unable to use the labels. We are currently awaiting information on when a new supply of labels will be available.
/P10000293_ I PC52508 (CSR+) All differences are satisfactorily resolved 30/11/2001 I 12/09/2000
Differences
between TPS
harvested AP txns:
I& OPTIP.
PNGtOumem Fix is scheduled for $10.
Resolution
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Problem Id ICL Problem Title Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Pathway
Problem Id
P10000299 Incorrect postal 1, Reminder Counter News article 30/11/2001 I 26/09/2000
order paid 2. Reduction in PO QPA errors
summary docket 3. TP data input compatible Horizon report developed
used
FRET The TP Service Improvement team have submitted a change request and circulated it for internal review. So far only minor amendments have been
INeceitleeum suggested to the proposals outlined. We hope therefore to be in a position very soon to announce planned implementation of the new Postal Order
Office weekly report.
1P10000302 I PC0060137 IMessage store Documented / agreed procedures in place 16/11/2001 I26/09/2000
amendments - no
process
atom Mecting with Richard Brunskill (ICLP) w/c 12/11/01 to go over the proposed process.
Resolution
/P10000303 Horizon outlets Documented contingency instructions produced 28/2/2002 I 26/09/2000
producing manual
cash accounts:
FRTREEE A waiting an update on the progress against implementation of the Operational Performance & Reporting Manager's recommendations.
Resolution
}P10000304 Contingency for Contingency arrangements for passing information to Clients agreed and 28/2/2002 26/09/2000
AP txns when documented
outlet reverts to
manual
PNat ame A waiting an update on the progress against implementation of the Operational Performance & Reporting Manager's recommendations.
Resolution
1P10000340 INBSC acc Clearly defined route brokered & signed off, by which NBSC can access written 30/11/2001 01/11/2000
Business Policies _ Irecords of Business Policy on all issues.
yorum National Audit have advised that most Consignia policies are on the web site; for Post Office Ltd policies, the relevant directorate should be
ese)taeam contacted.
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Problem Id ICL Problem Title
Pathway
Closure Criteria
Target Date Date Raised
Problem Id
P10000342 LFS Remittance A delivery process to be brokered which is acceptable to both PON & CH&D
receipt at open
plan offices.
31/01/2002
03/11/2000
details of the open plan outlets. Once this has all been set up, a communication will be required.
Exar CHD have stated that distribution of the new labels should start early next year. However, targeting the open plan outlets first will cause problems,
eveitiaeem as the labels are all ona roll. To change the roll every time that an open plan outlet’s Rem. is processed would be time consuming Next Steps: CHD to
Contact printer to arrange this; CHD to obtain some samples from the printer; CHD to arrange for some testing to be completed; POL to obtain
P10000358 I PC0058014 ICSR+ slow running] Investigation undertaken by ICL. The root cause and solution identified and fixed.
problem on.
counters
16/11/2001
17/11/2000
will advise you of the plans for the rest of the estate as soon as I have any information.’
yXa (ame Branches have complained that the system is particularly slow when running Adjust Stock/ Balance snapshot. Latest information from Eric Hillier;
INeSetiteam With reference to my mail last week I can now confirm that the 'slow counter' fix was yesterday distributed to 239 counters. The commit exercise
failed on two of the counters (reason being investigated) and so the fix is live on 237 counters. The offices will be monitored over the next few days. I
}P10000361 I PC0061694 IOBC Process - A process to prevent this happening to be put in place
‘Unplanned
(Closures
30/11/2001
17/11/2000
Natoma Pathway's revised end to end closure process has not been completed to timescale due to staff absence. Update promised
Pathway.
at the end of the week. In
Nee item the meantime Pathway have provided examples of POL failures to follow the OBC process. These have been pursued direct with the Retail Line and
Net. Transformation teams in order to understand the reasons why OBC forms are not always completed. Subject of ongoing discussions with
}P10000370 Persistent power I Knowledge Base updated with a Business policy to enable advice to be provided for I 23/11/2001 I23/11/2000
supply future requests.
interruptions
FREE A Change Request covering the installation of Uninterrupted Power Supply devices has been submitted in agreement with ICLP but has been
eve itaeam returned from the PON commercial team asking why a CR needs raising. Kevin Cox is having to re-submit the CR. No further update.
}P10000384 Criccieth 164604- I All transactions downloaded successfully to the office to enable balancing.
Problem Office Identification of Root Cause and solutions provided and implemented.
30/11/2001
30/10/2001
Natu Still being pursued by the Commercial Team. The letter they expected from ICL Pathway has not arrived. Sue Stewart has asked them to chase
eet team again. This has now been going on for nearly a year.
[PAGE]
POL-BSFF-0016125_0016
POL00178062
POL00178062
Business Service Management - Problem Management
Problem Id ICL Problem Title
Pathway
Problem Id
IP10000386 Inter-Office Communication to all offices stating that Inter-Office Transfers can ‘t be done on 31/12/2001 {19/12/2000
Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Horizon. Also to state that using the offices cash to purchase items is not permitted.
Action
Nese tteam delivery failure due to industrial action that is in place at the moment only goes as far as escalating the problem to Dermot Martin if the outlet has
not received a satisfactory solution from Cash Handling. There are no instructions on the Knowledge Base to deal with calls from outlets ie. How
would the requesting outlet's request be verified? Who would authorise the transfer? Who would liaise with the outlet that the money was being,
transferred from? Who would physically transfer the cash? How would the outlet giving the cash verify that the instruction was genuine? How
would outlets account for it on the system? What about insurance, security? John Brownsill as Problem Co-ordinator for Stocks Ops. is now
progressing this.
Outlet ‘temporary
closed' procedure
failure
Amendments to existing process is agreed between ICL Pathway and PON and clear
areas of responsibility are defined and agreed. NBSC and ICLP non-polled
procedures amended and approved.
Btetemem Work on Pathway's revised end to end closure process was delayed due to staff absence. Therefore, the list of any outstanding issues requiring POL
NSO Meeamaction has not yet been received as promised.
30/11/2001 I 04/01/2001
IP10000401 Non conformance I Communication and action plan agreed to address non conformance. Non 31/12/2001 I 12/01/2001
relating toOBCS —_ Iconformance errors to be included in TAM/STAM Non conformance to be addressed
operations via bau procedures i.e. PIAs, RLMs. Achievement of targets agreed by OBCS Working,
Group for each area
yXarumem A Counter News article, explaining payment of the last foil in an order book at the same time as issuing the customer's new book, published week
Nese 52.Further article submitted explaining screen message recalling a book "Pay all valid foils up to and including (date) then impound..." The need for
the article was driven by an increasing number of incidents raised by DWP plus liability cases after PM had handed a book back in error. Articles on
IOBCS non conformance have also been prepared to target different audiences within the Network. These will be published in the Heads of Area
editions of Focus Plus, in Trademark for the RLMs and Newsbrief Monthly for senior managers. All will have a general overview on current levels of
Inon conformance plus information on the positive impact of the OBCS Workaid published week 12, as well as proposed next steps. The editions of
Focus Plus will also each contain relevant statistical information relating to non conformance in offices in each area
[PAGE]
POL-BSFF-0016125_0017
Business Service Management - Problem Management
POL00178062
POL00178062
Problem Id
P10000416
ICL
Pathway
Problem Id
Problem Title
INorthwest
Securities business
cheque encashment
Develop and deploy a process for the encashment of the business cheques.
Closure Criteria
Target Date Date Raised
9/11/2001 I 02/02/2001
Action
Resolution
P10000444.
Action
Resolution
P10000453
Action
Resolution
P10000457
requires a prov
closed.
This service is being withdrawn from branches at close of business on 31st October 2001. A letter was sent to the branches affected by the withdrawal
lon 16th October 2001, and a follow up article has been submitted to Counter News and will appear in WK33. As the closure criteria for this problem
cess to be developed and deployed for the encashment of the business cheques, this clearly will not be met,
so the problem will be
[No clear policy for
Issues.
Clear process, responsibilities and ownership established for environmental issues.
dealing with OutletIThese should enable PON and ICL to efficiently and effectively deal with office issues
Environmental which are caused by environmental factors
1/2/2002] 01/03/2001
The problem has been tackled on a case by case basis, but there has been no progress on agreeing a policy to cover future
cases.
PC0063140
Llanbedrog 269604
Further provision of training and a marked reduction in calls to the average for a
I- Problem Office —_Imature office of 3 per month.
16/11/2001 I08/03/2001
Call volumes
have reduced considerably. The error rates do not cause concern. Waiting for the AM and old RNM to discuss the situation. If they
agree he has improved he will be allowed to continue, with monitoring.
Action
Incorrect Cash
Declarations
All outlets correctly declaring cash both daily and weekly
30/11/2001 I 12/03/2001
There is currently confusion about the correct procedure for cash declarations which has led to non-conformance. A small number of outlets have
eso ttoae been monitored for some time. The initial level of non-conformance was approximately 80% which was clearly ignorance of the correct procedure,
but there are also cases where outlets are refusing to follow the procedure. One problem that has been made clear is that of the cut-off time involved.
Solutions are now being looked at to address the issues.
[PAGE]
POL-BSFF-0016125_0018
Business Service Management - Problem Management
POL00178062
POL00178062
Problem Id
P10000485
ction
Resolution
P10000486
Action
Resolution
}P10000520
P10000522
Action
Resolution
P10000524
Action
ICL Problem Title Closure Criteria Target Date Date Raised
Pathway
Problem Id
PC0064429 [Screen freezes Root Cause Identified and resolved. No more calls made regarding this problem. 30/11/2001 I 03/04/2001
when charging,
Quantum cards
Awaiting the release of $10 for dia;
gnostic software to be downloaded to counters. Information from the diagnostics should give a better idea of the
full problem and possible solutions.
PC0064430 {Quantum cards:
Incorrect amounts.
charged
Root Cause Identified and resolved. No further calls from affected offices.
30/11/2001
31/10/2001
A fix containing enhancements to
the system is available but due to problems during regression testing the release date was rescheduled for S10.As
soon as the final 100 outlets have moved to $10, monitoring of calls will be undertaken to gauge the success of the fix.
PC0066318 ILost Data from Ideally, the recovery of the lost data. Fallback; a change to ensure this does not occur I 30/11/2001 I 22/05/2001
ICLP Data again.
IWarehouse
Archived audit data at ICLP's data warehouse has been corrupted & no new process has been put in place to prevent re-occurrence. Still awaiting
notes of the meeting (26/09/01) from Mike Hannon. ICLP have built pseudo audit servers in the hope that the missing data can be recovered.
IGamesley 279432 -
Problem Office
Diagnosis and fix of the problem.
30/11/2001
23/05/2001
Head of Area ( HoA ) has decided
to offer a 50/50 settlement to the office. PM. to pay 50% and POL pay 50% (for stress etc.). RLM to set
office w/c 29/10/01. Agreed to contact HoA in two weeks regarding PM's response.
nd letter to
PC0066995 I Noise levels of
Imobile & PES units
Each Office known to be experiencing problems with either a noisy Mobile Kit or
(PES) Personal Earth Station to be investigated and resolved.
lon Horizon system
30/11/2001
24/05/2001
Isle of Jona 144858
There have been complaints from 39 offices about the noise levels of both the Horizon mobile solution & PES units during the Horizon
ieee team Implementation Project. There are now only 9 outstanding issues.. Most of these outlets are awaiting a quieter fan solution from ICL Pathway, whilst
some may be resolved by having their kit replaced for a standard one. Out of the 16 PES Problem Outlets, 2 remain unsolved; Ballykilbeg 373704 &
[PAGE]
POL-BSFF-0016125_0019
Business Service Management - Problem Management
POL00178062
POL00178062
Problem Id
}P10000535
Action
Resolution
P10000567
Action
Resolution
}P10000568
Action
Resolution
/P10000581
Action
Resolution
R10000571
ICL Problem Title
Pathway
Problem Id
PC0066391 IPhantom
Transactions
Closure Criteria
Reasons for the transactions investigated and if a system fault, fix implemented.
Target Date
24/11/2001
Date Raised
06/06/2001
INo more branches have reported Phantom Transactions and all the cases that have been investigated to date have been resolved, apart from one, At
this branch the postmaster does not believe that his queries have been investigated properly. He has been asked to provide specific incidents of
alleged Phantom Transactions, but has only provided 2. which have been classed as user error. The Postmaster is not hap}
has received and refuses to close the call with HSH because he thinks that the system is still not functioning properly. Once this case has been
resolved, and assuming no more reports of Phantom Transactions are raised, the problem will be closed.
py with the explanation he
(Customers unable
to contact first rate
As the Business is to promote the Tele ordering service for the entire network, First
[Rate must ensure that they have sufficient resource in place to meet the demand at all
times. Especially when promotions are on offer.
17/11/2001
06/07/2001
The calls to NBSC to request exchange rates have dropped off.- this is probably due to the time of the year. Calls are being monitored in order to
clients
delayed AP txns to}or manual intervention by ICL to resolve.
build up a profile of calls and also highlight when there is a problem with the First Rate call lines. First Rate are still considering their options with
regard to a new telephone system.
PC0068195_ IFailure to deliver I ICLP electronic solution for this type of incident obviating the need for TP resource I 31/12/2001 I09/07/2001
written by Adele Kilcoyne regardit
Fix is likely to be to the process rather than a change to the system. Options available are either using the recommendations outlined in a report being
ing, offices needing to operate 100% manually, or for TP to provide extra staff to input manual transactions if
required. Awaiting the completion of these reports before OSG (as was) can produce a final recommendation.
PO Local Collect
packages without
bar-code labels
An ATP to be formulated & a clear procedure for Outlets to follow to be delivered to
the Network. As a temp procedure we have been given bar-code numbers to issue to
outlets.
23/11/2001
30/07/2001
parcels/ packages.
There is an article in Counter New:
November. The ATP was originall
's week 33 which tells outlets what to do after the ATP for this problem is withdrawn al
ly put in place to aid outlets during the early days of the POLC product - outlets are now to revert to refusing the
it close of business 17th
Non Receipt of pre
order currency in
Outlets.
Action
Resolution
To find the cause of the service failure, and for currency to be delivered to Outlets
within the delivery timescales.
17/11/2001
12/07/2001
The levels of Service Delivery failures are well within the limit which is set for this service. Although it is disappointing that outlets/customers are
still suffering due to the SD failure, it looks as though there is little more that we can do. I
instances of SD failures increase significantly.
Il put this problem on monitor to see whether the
[PAGE]
POL-BSFF-0016125_0020