POL00407939 - Post office ltd - executive committee branch support programme
Evidence on official site
POL00407939
POL00407939
Strictly Confidential
POST OFFICE LTD Executive Committee
Branch Support Programme
1. Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to:
1.1 Update the Post Office Executive Committe on the progress of the Branch
Support Programme.
2. Background
2.1 Following the up-date to the Post Office Board in March 2014, the Branch
Support Programme has been successful in securing £8.678m of investment
(£4.678m exceptional and £4m Voluntary Redundancy costs) which was
approved by the Finance Committee on the 16"" May 2014.
2.2 The Programme will end formally as a Programme by the end of March 2015 and
the payback for the business case investment will be 3.2 years.
2.3 The funding will be used for investment in the following areas:
e Internal resource costs to manage the Programme
e Appointment process to attract and recruit higher quality subpostmasters
e On-line training modules to replace 80% of classroom training
e Development of IT software to create unified case management system
for all support functions
e On-going running costs, licences and hosting for IT software for case
management
e Annual hosting costs for agent recruitment and on-line training portals
e Re-writing of Horizon transactions to remove opportunity for errors and
losses
e Investment in internal training and communications to support culture
change
e Commissioning of resource to support with the revised operating model
e Legal fees to review appointment and contractual processes
24 The improvements are being delivered through the 9 work streams, all of which
have milestone plans, along with the associated costs and benefits.
3. Key Performance Indicators
3.1 The Programme will track performance against the following Key Performance
Branch Support Programme Update — Jun 2014 Gayle Peacock/Angela Van-den Bogerd
Page 1 of 4
25" June 2014
POL-BSFF-0231937
POL00407939
POL00407939
Strictly Confidential
Indicators:
e Reduction of operating costs by £3m per annum
e Reduction in net agent debt by £1m
e Reduction in subpostmaster suspensions as a result of audit shortages to
a level of 60 per year
e Reduction of calls into NBSC by 25%
e Reduction of audit losses of £10k of over by 50%
e Satisfaction with on-line training models of 95%
3.2 The Agent Engagement Survey will also be used to track agent satisfaction with
the support functions. The initial survey was carried out in September 2013 and
a PULSE survey is planned for July 2014.
4. Programme Progress
44 Subpostmaster Contract Breaches
e The suspended termination approach was launched in April to deal with
subpostmasters where mitigating circumstances are such that it is
inappropriate to terminate the contract. The subpostmaster remains in
post on the condition that if a further material breach of contract occurs in
an agreed period (set by the nature of the first breach and typically a
year) then the contract termination may be triggered.
4.2 Training
e A prototype web-based solution for new subpostmasters and Crown
colleagues to complete Regulatory Compliance Training on-line has been
built and is currently being tested by a group of branch and business
users. This functionality has been replicated by Saba, the owners of the
Post Office ORBIT system, and will also be tested by the same group.
Following the pilot, a review will be undertaken to agree which solution
will be used going forward.
e The Network Support Field Team have been making changes to the
support offered to branches. A revised checklist for branches to ensure
they are operating correctly has been produced with input and is currently
being trialled.
4.3 Support
e¢ The Branch Support Team are continuing to support branches with loss
and discrepancy issues and resolving them appropriately.
e The Branch Support Team are also now pro-actively calling the
branches who call the Network Business Support Centre (NBSC) more
than any other branch to understand what extra support can be offered
and whether any changes need to be made to training etc. The
response has been positive from the branches contacted.
Branch Support Programme Update — Jun 2014 Gayle Peacock/Angela Van-den Bogerd
Page 2 of 4
25th June 2014
POL-BSFF-0231937_0001
POL00407939
POL00407939
Strictly Confidential
« Calls into NBSC have been reviewed and the top areas which account
for the most calls have been identified. A root cause analysis will now be
undertaken to understand what activities need to happen in order to
stop those calls going into NBSC.
« Improvements continue to be made within the Finance Service Centre.
Changes have been made to the letters sent out by the Agents Debt
Team to improve the tone and also to include a name on the bottom of
the letter.
44 Horizon system transaction improvements
e The transaction for customers paying by debit or credit card for bureau
transactions will change as part of the next Horizon software release,
which is scheduled for end of July. The transaction will include the
automatic re-print of the receipt which includes the card and
identification details of the customer, which needs to be presented in
case of fraudulent use of the card. Previously, the branch would have
to remember to request a reprint and would be liable for the loss of
they failed to provide it to Finance Service Centre.
e¢ The end of day cheque remittance process has been reviewed and a
new solution to drive out errors has been identified. This will be
scheduled for the next software release in October 2014 will reduce
the calls into NBSC and the Transaction Corrections issued by Finance
Service Centre.
e Reviewing the effectiveness of the balancing work-aid to help
subpostmasters identify and hopefully resolve balancing problems
earlier.
e Longer term, we are considering options on how best to optimise e-
learning in our initial training to subpostmasters and on an ongoing
basis.
4.5 Case Management Tool
e Requirements have been identified from all business stakeholders
and these have been shared with ATOS for formal evaluation. In
anticipation of the response, a pilot is in train with certain teams in the
Finance Service Centre to use Microsoft Dynamics to assess whether
this tool would meet the business requirements going forward.
4.6 HORIce — real-time data tool
e Formal change requests were made to Fujitsu via ATOS in order to
start the required pilot. However, due to resource issues within this
area, there has been a significant delay in providing an official
response and getting the pilot started. Fujitsu have now confirmed
Branch Support Programme Update — Jun 2014 Gayle Peacock/Angela Van-den Bogerd
Page 3 of 4
25th June 2014
POL-BSFF-0231937_0002
POL00407939
POL00407939
Strictly Confidential
they can meet the requirements on the condition that Post Office
prioritise the change activity in this area.
4.7 Internal efficiencies
« The Network Support Field Team have introduced efficiencies in their
processes with the support of the Branch Standards Team. A revised,
automated way of logging branch compliance and financial audit
results has reduced the average follow-up administration time from 2
hours to 5 minutes per audit and has eradicated the errors made by
replicating information manual across a variety of data fields.
5. Governance
5.1 The Branch Support Programme is one of the key strategic programmes
that reports into the Transformation Committee. A Steering Group and
appropriate working groups have been established in line with the Post
Office governance guidelines. The most recent up-date to the
Transformation Committee has been attached.
@)
Branch Support Slide
June 2014 final. pptx
5.2 The Programme is also closely aligned with the Business
Transformation Programme and Network Transformation. The
Programme Director is part of the Business Transformation Steering
Group and the Programme Manager is also one of the Subject Matter
Experts. We are currently sharing information to avoid duplication and
double counting of benefits.
11. Recommendations
The Board is asked to:
11.1 Note the update and actions set out above.
Gayle Peacock
25'" June 2014
Branch Support Programme Update — Jun 2014 Gayle Peacock/Angela Van-den Bogerd
Page 4 of 4
25" June 2014
POL-BSFF-0231937_0003