Minutes
Horizon Service Review Forum
Wednesday 17 February 1999
Conference room 1 Terminal House, London
Attendees:
Chair
APOLOGIES:
NOTES:
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David McLaughlin Post Office Counters Ltd, Business Service Management
Jerome Brice Post Office Counters Ltd, Commercial
Sue Harding Post Office Counters Ltd, Transaction Processing
Dawn Mitchell Benefits Agency, CAPs Operations Live Support
Stephen Chandler Benefits Agency, CAPs Operations Live Support
Peter Burden ICL Pathway
Paul Westfield ICL Pathway
Martin Riddell ICL Pathway
Deirdre Murrow ICL Pathway
Peter Robinson ICL Pathway
Eszter Meszaros Secretary
Andy Radka Post Office Counters Ltd, Business Service Management
Phil Lewis Benefits Agency, CAPs Operations Live Support
Stephen Muchow ICL Pathway
Kit Cox (for Item 7) Post Office Counters Ltd, Business Service Management
Phil Turnock Post Office Counters Ltd, Business Service Management
1. REVIEW OF ACTIONS/ACCEPTANCE OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
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1.2
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The minutes of the meeting held on 16 December were agreed and
accepted.
Action Point Update
CALL CATEGORISATION
Andy Radka to confirm whether the ICL Pathway proposal is
acceptable for Post Office Counters Ltd.
David McLaughlin confirmed on Andy Radka’s behalf that the
proposal was acceptable for Post Office Counters Ltd.
Dawn Mitchell to confirm whether the DSS accepts ICL Pathway’s
proposal
Dawn Mitchell stated that that proposal was acceptable for DSS.
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Andy Radka
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Dawn Mitchell
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‘SLAM’ Peter Robinson
Tt was agreed that ICL Pathway would produce a prototype of the
SLAM for the next meeting. Subsequently POCL and CAPS would
review the prototype and comment as appropriate.
16/12 Prototype SLAM tabled at the meeting. Initial discussion took Closed
place and the forum agreed to arrange for an informal review:-
1) Eszter Meszaros will send out an electronic ‘comments sheet’ to
POCL and BA.
2) All to send comments electronically to Eszter Meszaros by 13 Jan.
3) Comments collated and passed to Peter Robinson by 15 Jan.
4) Peter Robinson to report back on the comments received at the
next meeting.
Action carried forward. Agenda item at the next meeting.
20/01 Points 1-3 discharged. Point 4 carried forward due to not
passing comments to ICL Pathway on time.
Action carried forward.
Peter Robinson to send a copy of the prototype SLAM to Dawn Peter Robinson
Mitchell.
Done. Closed
INCOMPLETE TRANSACTION Andy Radka
Andy Radka to talk to David Miller regarding the incomplete
transaction rate target.
UPDATE: ONGOING
Action ongoing. Carried Forward
ORGANISATION Andy Radka
Andy Radka to send a current BSM organisation chart to ICL
Pathway and BA COLS.
Done. Closed
Dawn Mitchell to send a copy of the current BA COLS organisation Dawn Mitchell
chart to ICL Pathway and Horizon BSM.
Done. Closed
Andy Radka to consider how BSM could join up with Regional Andy Radka
General Managers and report back at the next meeting.
Andy Radka will attend the Regional General Manager meeting in Carried forward
March and he will meet with the South East and North East
Regional Managers separately to promote closer working,
relationships.
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End to End Service Management Report Update
In future it would be possible for Kit Cox to keep his report to the
maximum of 5 pages. Noted he would do a special report for the
next CAPs Board for Andy Radka.
Done.
Kit Cox to remove the copyright note from the document.
Done.
SECURITY
Kit Cox will obtain the statement from DSS and will progress the
POCL security issues.
Security is to be discussed at the service management development
group on 17/02/99. This will lead to be exercising of the action
point AP990110 and will be presented at the HRSF.
REFERENCE DATA
Noted the need to get a joined up view on Reference Data and
agreed a proposal to set up a group consisting of Carol Japlan (DSS),
David Fletcher (ICL Pathway) and Edward Inches (POCL BSM) to
feed back any issues to the RDS/ITIP/ICL Pathway steering group
for consideration.
Kit Cox to arrange meeting.
Edward has met with Geoff Derby from the Horizon Reference Data
project and agreed to arrange a meeting with BA and ICL Pathway.
CROSS-DOMAIN PROBLEM MANAGEMENT FORUM TOR
Kit Cox to circulate the latest version of the Terms of Reference.
Update: A copy of the Terms of Reference to be circulated at the Feb.
meeting.
Done.
Faulty bar-codes on OBCS books
Issue copy of the BA/POCL communication to Steve Muchow.
Done.
CONFIRMATION OF PURPOSE
The meeting agreed the purpose of the meeting being as worded in
the Terms of Reference v.1.0
Eszter Meszaros to place a single sentence purpose statement on the
agenda for each meeting.
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Kit Cox
Closed
Kit Cox
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Kit Cox
Carried Forward
Kit Cox
Carried Forward
Kit Cox
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Phil Turnock
Closed
Eszter Meszaros
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3.1
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3.3
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ISSUES ARISING FROM SERVICE REVIEW BOOK -
PERFORMANCE STATISTICS
Horizon System Helpdesk
Deirdre Murrow reported that whilst the call volume remained
steady the HSH experienced a significant decrease of Advice and
Guidance calls from December in relation to faulty bar-codes on
some OBCS books.
During January there were 57 calls to Horizon System Helpdesk to
record the planned counter refurbishment.
David McLaughlin to liaise with the Horizon Implementation Team
to ensure that they are aware of the calls made to the Horizon
System Helpdesk on refurbishment.
David McLaughlin asked for clarification on whether there was a
contingency for power failures after Live Trial for the HSH.
Martin Riddell in response confirmed that there would be two sites
for Release 2.
Call Resolution - Printer (Hardware) Calls monitoring
Peter Robinson handed out supporting notes report on:
1) Horizon Printer Calls monitoring
2) Keypoints Analysis
3) Detailed Monitored Analysis
The analysis highlighted that a single outlet (277511) generated the
22% (4 out of 18) of the printer related calls in January. The route
cause analysis did not identify any trends. Two of the calls have
been resolved without visits and the other two calls were resolved
after visits.
Andy Radka asked ICL Pathway to notify Business Service
Management immediately once a particular outlet has been
identified as a problem office i.e. the outlet accounts unusually high
proportion of the calls.
Call Resolution - Software Calls
David McLaughlin asked whether ICL Pathway identified why the
software calls were increasing in the last four months (Oct 98’- Jan
99")
Deirdre Murrow responded that login problems i.e. users forgetting
their login password can account for the increased number of calls.
Andy Radka asked David McLaughlin to model the current trends
for Live Trial.
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D.McLaughlin
Peter Robinson
D.McLaughlin
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5. REVIEW OF THE EXISTING LIVE SERVICE
5.1 Incomplete Transactions
David McLaughlin expressed concern that a fix introduced to the
system did not work e.g. Time-out fix.
AP990205 David McLaughlin to liaise with Horizon Testing team to arrange =D. McLaughlin
verification that Release 2 fixes were effective through testing.
5.2 Incomplete Transaction meeting
David McLaughlin asked for clarification regarding continuation
of the Incomplete transactions meetings between Post Office
Counters Ltd. and ICL Pathway.
In response Martin Riddell confirmed that the group ceased the
meetings with the caveat of arranging workshop when the need
rises and the parties agree through the HSRF that it was
appropriate to do so.
5.3 Faulty Bar codes on OBCS books.
Dawn Mitchell updated the forum regarding the situation
surrounding this problem. At the present Authorised Temporary
Procedures are in place and the outlets are aware what to do when
to book does not scan i.e. the clerk will stamp across the barcode
and revert to manual procedures to pay the benefit. The ATP will
expire on 27 March. By that time it is hoped that the Benefits
Agency has solved underlying cause of the problem.
AP990206 Faulty bar-codes on OBCS books. D.McLaughlin
The Authorised Temporary Procedures expires on 27 March.
Decision needs to be taken whether the underlying problem has
been removed or there is a need to extend the ATP.
54 Data Migration weekend - foreign encashment availability
Dawn Mitchell raised concern that foreign encashments would
available during Data Centre migration in May ona Saturday
afternoon. Dawn pointed out that security risk associated with the
potential encashments was smaller than the potential business
risks, especially in the present politically sensitive situation and
asked ICL Pathway to consider the other to options available.
Martin Riddell in response said that the principles of such a
migration were previously accepted by all domains i.e. the service
not being available at post offices.
Dawn Mitchell restated that there is a significant business from
CAPS point of you if the customer is not able to withdraw benefits
during the migration period.
David McLaughlin added to the discussion that all the three
options have been discussed at the Migration meeting and no
decision has been made to date.
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Andy Radka asked to forum to keep in mind the following
principles:
1) The purpose of service management is to ensure end customer
service standards are maintained and improved wherever
possible.
2) The HSRF must be involved in any decision regarding service
availability
DATA CENTRE MIGRATION - FOREIGN ENCASHMENTS, Martin Riddell
AVAILABILITY
Martin Riddell to confirm the status on the 3 options, discuss with
Dave McLaughlin & report back on ICL Pathway / POCL
positions.
DATA CENTRE MIGRATION - FOREIGN ENCASHMENTS Dawn Mitchell
AVAILABILITY
Dawn Mitchell to report back on Benefits Agency position
ISSUES FOR REFERRAL TO THE IMPLEMENTATION
BOARD
No new issues were referred to the Implementation Board.
END TO END SERVICE MANAGEMENT REPORT UPDATE
The draft report was handed out at the meeting. The Service
Development Group meeting took place on the same day as the
HSRF therefore it was not possible to produce the final report for
the meeting.
Priority 1 Observations Kit Cox
Andy Radka to arrange for a trend analysis to be undertaken on
the priority 1 incidents in preparation for the Release Authorisation
Board meetings. Kit Cox to action.
Kit Cox to provide weekly report on the status of Priority 1 Kit Cox
observations to all three domains.
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7.2 Scalability
Andy Radka asked all parties to consider that is vital for the
successful running of the service that all the parties work together.
In particularly to ascertain that the system is scalable for National
Rollout and have end to end visibility.
Information channels between Post Office Counters Ltd. and
Benefits Agency allow undertaking the work to provide assurance
that the system is scalable.
Andy Radka said that he was aware of the commercial and
contractual situation surrounding this issue but asked ICL.
Pathway - based on the discussion late last year with Stephen
Muchow and Paul Hanson - to participate.
AP990211 Paul Westfield agreed to progress this within ICL Pathway.
Contingency Testing
AP990212 David McLaughlin to circulate Phil Turnock’s note on contingency D.McLaughlin
testing.
7.3 Stephen Chandler highlighted that sections 2.2 of the main report
and 1 of the highlight report did reflect correctly the Benefits
Agency’s position.
AP990213 Kit Cox will contact Stephen Chandler to discuss the wording of Kit Cox
the sections in question.
Contractual status of the Framework Documents
The contractual status of the framework documents is not agreed.
Stephen Chandler said that the joint BA/ POCL Contract team
strongly advocates making the documentation contract controlled.
BA similarly supports this view.
The forum agreed that the contractual status of these documents
would not prevent Live Trial & that ownership rested with the
HSRF.
Dawn Mitchell added to the discussion that having the Framework
Documentation contract controlled is a good opportunity to clarify
ownership issues.
AP990214 Andy Radka to discuss the status of the Framework documentation Andy Radka
with the joint BA/POCL contract team.
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8. PREVIEW OF SERVICE CHANGES
8.1 War pension book will joint OBCS
ICL Pathway confirmed that they did not have operational issues
with this change.
David McLaughlin said that the Operational Business Change
process was missing to implement the change. The appropriate
operational change control process will be developed separately
through the walkthrough process.
AP990215 WAR PENSION BOOK JOINING OBCS D.McLaughlin
David McLaughlin to present at the next meeting how this
change will be implemented in the post offices.
9. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES
91 Andy Radka had agreed with Benefits Agency at the CAPS
Board meeting the following improvement initiative: Both
parties would consider swapping someone into each others SM
work area on secondment.
Other initiatives under consideration between BA & POCL were:
1) Andy Radka and Dawn Mitchell will visit the respective SM
locations & meet teams.
2) A seminar to be held with POCL/BA business management
function to generate better understanding of the respective
business and build better working relationships
POCL & BA would welcome ICL Pathway involvement in all
three initiatives.
AP990216 Stephen Muchow to consider whether ICL Pathway would join Stephen Muchow
the initiatives outlined.
9.2 Discussion took place regarding the timing of the improvement
initiatives. The group agreed that 2 good times would be to hold
the seminar:
? After the contract had been signed and/or
? During Live Trial before the beginning of National
Rollout
AP990217 Andy Radka will propose process and dates for Service Andy Radka
Management Seminar after contract agreement.
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10. ANY OTHER BUSINESS,
10.1 Paul Westfield asked Andy Radka to share POCL position on the
planned POCL Business Support Centre and how it would
impact on the Horizon System Helpdesk.
In response Andy Radka said that he fully appreciated the need
for starting discussion on the subject with all involved parties
when appropriate. At the present the POCL vision was to
achieve a support structure which provided a ‘one stop shop’
with one call number for all outlets. This vision had to be finally
agreed & authorised and current call handling arrangements
would continue until then. In particular the HSHD would
operate as contractually agreed for live trial and the start of
National Roll Out. The current planning assumption in POCL is
that the primary Business Support Centre would be operational
by December 1999. It would only be for after then when
consideration of routing all calls to the POCL centre would be
evaluated. In the meantime appropriate & scalable support for
live trial & for NRO were being planned for one centre in Leeds.
Pathway & BA would be involved in planning the interface
procedures and links.
10.2 Martin Riddell suggested that at the next meeting the group
should discuss readiness for Live Trial.
AP990218 Eszter Meszaros to add Live Trial to the agenda for the future Eszter Meszaros
meetings.
10. MEETING REVIEW
10.1 Pros:
? Continuous improvement
? Better agenda
? More focused
Cons/Improvement Ops
2 None identified
10. HORIZON SERVICE REVIEW FORUM REVIEW DATES IN 1999
10.1 Wednesday 17 March, 13:00-15:00, Terminal House
Wednesday 21 April, 13:00-15:00, Terminal House
Wednesday 19 May, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 23 June, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 21 July, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 18 August, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 22 September, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 20 October, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 17 November, 13:00-15:00
Wednesday 22 December, 13:00-15:00
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ACTION SUMMARY
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INCOMPLETE TRANSACTION
Andy Radka to talk to David Miller regarding the incomplete
transaction rate target.
Update: Ongoing
Action ongoing.
Andy Radka to consider how BSM could join up with Regional
General Managers and report back at the next meeting.
Andy Radka will attend the Regional General Manager meeting
in March and he will meet with the South East and North East
Regional Managers separately to promote closer working,
relationships.
SECURITY
Kit Cox will obtain the statement from DSS and will progress the
POCL security issues.
Security is to be discussed at the service management
development group on 17/02/99. This will lead to be exercising
of the action point AP990110 and will be presented at the HRSF.
REFERENCE DATA
Noted the need to get a joined up view on Reference Data and
agreed a proposal to set up a group consisting of Carol Japlan
(DSS), David Fletcher (ICL Pathway) and Edward Inches (POCL
BSM) to feed back any issues to the RDS/ITIP/ICL Pathway
steering group for consideration.
Kit Cox to arrange meeting.
Edwards has met with Geoff Derby the Horizon Reference Data
Manager and they agreed that Edward would arrange a meeting
with BA and ICL Pathway.
Eszter Meszaros to place a single sentence purpose statement on
the agenda.
David McLaughlin to liaise with the Horizon Implementation
Team to ensure that they are aware of the calls made to the
Horizon System Helpdesk with relation to refurbishment.
Andy Radka asked ICL Pathway to notify Business Service
Management immediately once a particular outlet has been
identified as a problem office i.e. the outlet accounts unusually
high proportion of the calls.
Andy Radka asked David McLaughlin to model the current
trends for Live Trial.
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Andy Radka
Carried Forward
Andy Radka
Carried forward
Kit Cox
Carried Forward
Kit Cox
Carried Forward
Eszter Meszaros
D.McLaughlin
Peter Robinson
D.McLaughlin
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Andy Radka asked David McLaughlin to liaise with Horizon
Testing team to arrange verification that Release 2 fixes were
effective trough testing
FAULTY BAR-CODES ON OBCS BOOKS
The Authorised Temporary Procedures expires on 27 March.
Decision needs to be taken whether the underlying problem has
been removed or there is a need to extend the ATP.
DATA CENTRE MIGRATION - FOREIGN ENCASHMENTS
AVAILABILITY
Martin Riddell to confirm the status on the 3 options, discuss
with Dave McLaughlin & report back on ICL Pathway / POCL
positions.
DATA CENTRE MIGRATION - FOREIGN ENCASHMENTS
AVAILABILITY
Dawn Mitchell to report back on Benefits Agency position
PRIORITY 1 OBSERVATIONS,
Andy Radka to arrange for a trend analysis to be undertaken on
the priority 1 incidents in preparation for the Release
Authorisation Board meetings. Kit Cox to action.
Kit Cox to provide weekly report on the status of Priority 1
observations to all three domains.
END TO END SCALABILITY ASSURANCE
Paul Westfield agreed to progress this work for ICL Pathway.
CONTINGENCY TESTING
David McLaughlin to circulate Phil Turnock’s note on
contingency testing.
END TO END UPDATE REPORT
Kit Cox will contact Stephen Chandler to discuss the wording of
the sections 2.2 of the main report and 1. of the highlight report.
Andy Radka to discuss the status of the Framework
documentation with the joint BA/POCL contract team.
WAR PENSION BOOK JOINING OBCS
David McLaughlin to present at the next meeting how this
change will be implemented in the post offices.
JOINT WORKING
Stephen Muchow to consider whether ICL Pathway would joint
the initiatives outlined by Andy Radka.
JOINT WORKING
Andy Radka will propose process and dates for Service
Management Seminar after contract agreement.
Eszter Meszaros to add Live Trial to the agenda for the future
meetings.
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D. McLaughlin
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Martin Riddell
Dawn Mitchell
Kit Cox
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Paul Westfield
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Kit Cox
Andy Radka
D.McLaughlin
Stephen Muchow
Andy Radka
Eszter Meszaros
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