How many EPOS systems does the country need?

Why can't the PO ask ASDA or Tesco (or someone else in retail) for help building one?

I'm fairly sure most retailers will have got the bugs out of their own systems by now.

On another tack, what exactly does the Post Office do that couldn't be done better by the PO sub-postmasters themselves, perhaps arranged into a system like Nisa.

I'm sure there are various big cheeses at POL who would argue that they couldn't POSSIBLY use an off-the-shelf EPOS system, and the idea of trusting SPMs to run it themselves would make them choke on their Chivas Regal.

No no no, it has to be a big centralised bespoke system, ideally one where we can fiddle the books remotely and fit people up for Fraud if we don't like them but can't fire them..

With a bit of luck though, some of those Cheeses will be rooted out by the Inquiry and sent to jail. One can only hope.

Not to mention missing out on the backhanders from build-out.

One thing which I discovered looking through some of the more technical accounts was that the counters provide services for a number of customers. ASDA PoS will not simultaneously be handling sales for Tesco and Morrisons as well as their own.

A slightly more comparable situation can arise with a filling station operating a supermarket branded convenience store: a few days ago I bought petrol at a BP filling station with a Morrisons Local (or whatever they call it) convenience store attached which could handle BP customer cards but not Morrisons'.

The COTS PoS system is too limited when it's asked to stray outside supporting one business at atime. The alternative, of course, is that the PO reorganises the way it does business to avoid all that. Maybe miracles are possible.

I don't think this is so unusual. I was at a large garden center the other day with different concessions throughout. We were able to pay for any item at any till and were not limited to that concession only.

> ASDA PoS will not simultaneously be handling sales for Tesco and Morrisons as well as their own.

Suggest you visit Asda’s, Aldi et al.

Aldi are a concessionary for the National Lottery, to buy a ticket, just scan the bar code and the till will generate a lottery ticket as well as a sales receipt.

Asda etc. whilst being a consessionary for National Lottery, also enable you to top up mobile phones, buy iStore, Amazon etc. vouchers

Just because it goes through a single till doesn’t mean it is handled the same way in the backend and accounts.

Ask Asda? Who is still running on Walmart's backend as 4 years after walmart stopped being the major shareholder their replacement systems aren't ready?

EPOS systems are nowadays just a front end into the entire IT system of a retail business. So systems for stock control, transport logistics, business analysis of sales, etc are all completely integrated with the instant data they get from the EPOS. These are how businesses differentiate themselves and compete with each other, so to have one system only would appear to be a cost saving, but would eliminate competition and innovation and make the retail sector into a cosy cartel.

Furthermore, the systems used in Asda for monitoring sales and reordering stock are going to be very different from the integration required at the post office for renewing passports, currency exchange, parcel tracking, etc. The only thing they really have in common is the fact that you have to hand money over at the till for whatever it is you're doing.

> Furthermore, the systems used in Asda for monitoring sales and reordering stock are going to be very different from the integration required at the post office for renewing passports, currency exchange, parcel tracking, etc

They are just back end integrations driven by the barcode. However, some do require front end integrations, which can be achieve in the same way web browsers run applets for passports, phone credits etc. with the applet selection also being driven by the barcode…

Most of the things that the Post Office sells are things that aren't in stock - if I take a parcel to the post office and ask them to deliver it some place, they work out how much it will cost, and print a postage label for that amount. Then they do things like check passport applications, hand out payments for benefits & pensions, provide limited branch banking services for some banks and so on.

This is very different to what Tesco & Asda do.

It should be noted that Asda have their own problems with de-merging their computer system from Walmart's.

Tesco replaced their in-store IT several months ago and it is a crock from the shopper's point of view. The 'smart-shop' barcode readers are now super-slow as the product lookup process when you scan the barcode has gone from essentially instant to several seconds, and it repeats also when you scan for more than one item. Heaven knows where they got the design team from.

Please remove unrecognised postage from the bagging area....

Undoubtedly the advice given will be "Cloud". If that's taken up we can expect to see all POs in the country being out of operation at the same time fairly regularly.

The "Cloud" of course will be foreign owned and mysteriously not making any profit in the UK thus not paying tax.

Fear not - I'm sure there will be plenty enough up-time to allow data to be compromised via an unsecure bucket

won't go very far after the leeches have their fees

I assume this 75 million is just a deposit?

No public IT system can come in anywhere near budget, it's just the law.

My brother refused a new EPOS system ad at university he worked at, it just didn't work- calculations were worked out manually and found to be different to the system. In the end it got accepted by someone above him. Hate to think what it's like now.

Worse, of course.

Work will be let via mini-competitions within the panels on either a [time and materials workers' wages]

FTFY

I'm surprised to read that the tenders must be submitted by the start of May.

I honestly expected that they'd just extend the whole process indefinitely until the inquiry is finished, then spew out some guff about "valuing the relationship" and "wanting to capitalise on existing working knowledge" and hire Fujitsu for it.

That's the kind of spineless, venal thing I've come to expect from the management at the Post Office.

So I am quite surprised that this appears to be a genuine attempt to break away from the existing contract.

Unless, of course, Fujitsu already knew about this and therefore regard it as as exempt from their ban on tendering as it falls under ongoing projects.

Or the Post Office management decide that the bids are all unsuitable and go for another round... then another... then another... until they get what they want.

Still, there's plenty of time for that to happen yet. I won't believe it until contracts are signed...

" That's the kind of spineless, venal thing I've come to expect from the management at the Post Office. "

As is the NDA. You'd have thought, after what had happened, they'd have wanted to be very open and transparent about the new system and, in particular, it's reliability. This "trust us" shit won't work, they burned that bridge in spectacular style.

Most likely Tories just want to get their bungs before Sunak is forced to call for general elections.

If they didn't know they'll lose, they'd probably keep dragging it.

Or possibly Fujitsu decided that the negative publicity would cost them more than they'd make from the contract.

Either way, if Fujitsu aren't tendering for it, we already know who will get the contract instead: Crapita.

"I honestly expected that they'd just extend the whole process indefinitely until the inquiry is finished"

I think they're targeting "heat death of the Universe" as the finish of the inquiry. They may not have that many new documents to discover but padding things out with discovering previously discovered document has helped thm in the past.

Fujitsu are no tendering for this

Bet they are

I've a mole on the inside, a brand new upstart organisation, Jufitsu are currently in the leading contenders

I was going to suggest that the other company name might be Jujitsu, but you beat me to the punch

Won't Fujitsu get upset if another company win a UK Government contract? Has no one thought about there feeling

Will the Cabinet Office staff dealing in procurement have to negotiate back handers from other companies or is it in the bid requirements?

I'm sure Capita will manage just fine.

(ie they'll take as much tax payer money as they can get while leaving a useless mess in return)

I have no experience at all of large-scale, secure, traceable EPOS systems, so I'm a perfect top-level contractor.

I'll sub it out to someone I've never met, let it be developed for a few decades, and watch the money pour into my account. Then I'll move to my tax haven abroad.

Job done.

Ah, but it appears you DO have experience!

Sorry, we have no record of contributions to the Conservative Party, otherwise you look like just the sort of enterprising person this country needs more of.

Last time a big HMRC contract was out for tender, none of the big outfits bothered pointing out the contract would go to the incumbent and they were not going to waste money tendering.

HMRC had to pay their costs to tender.

Which made me consider setting up a company that only existed to provide tenders at someone elses cost.

The £37 billion spunked on test'n'trace shows how unambitious I was.

What is the difference between a Fujitsu provided data centre and a cloud?

Difference between a Fujitsu provided data centre and a cloud?

In a Fujitsu data centre, the company fiddles with your data; in a cloud, that privilege is reserved for external hackers.

THE platform of choice, natch. After giving his backing to Birmingham Council's migration I'm sure he'd be only too happy to suggest they'd be a perfect fit for this project too. £75m should just about cover project scoping and the basic-requirements doc.

Relax: I'm joking. I think ;)

If they make a decision before the election, then I bet Infosys get the contract.

Fushitesu, Infocyst, Crapgermini or Crapita.

or whichever else those in power have in their "blind" trusts.

How did we even arrive to be in such situation...

"Fujitsu has agreed not to tender for UK public sector work until the end of the inquiry, while the government has promised to accelerate compensation."

Worth a read of

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366577734/Fujitsu-staff-instructed-how-to-bid-for-government-contracts-during-self-imposed-ban

I hear that the Krays are going to bid for this.

After all they have all the right skills - "thugs in suits" :)

Do they have the internet in Broadmoor?

That is weather computers

Cray do well at those

Don't bother submitting a tender. They will only use it to try to bid lower with Oracle. Your company will just be wasting its time.

Did I mention that they have already chosen Oracle again? ;)

As the final phase of the inquiry is to provide recommendations for the future, isn't it best to wait until September?