Post Office seeks more Horizon support as it continues hunt for replacement
(2024/10/15)
- Reference: 1728992767
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/15/post_office_horizon_dc_support/
- Source link:
The beleaguered UK Post Office has begun conversations with suppliers to help support its controversial Horizon system in a set of contracts which could total £100 million ($131 million) as it works to replace the EPOS and back-end finance technology.
In a procurement advertisement, the government-owned retail post office company says it is seeking tech suppliers to help "provision the Horizon Data Centre Operations related to both the two datacenters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and some test environments at other locations in the UK, for example Stevenage & Bracknell." The [1]Prior Information Notice confirms this contract award is estimated to be worth up to £45 million ($59 million).
How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu [2]READ MORE
Work is set to involve onsite support at the primary and secondary datacenters in Belfast. This is intended to include datacenter building, physical security and datacenter operations such as patching, hardware upgrades, incident resolution, and systems management.
At the same time, the Post Office is also looking for a tech supplier to provide network services for its datacenters, again those based in Belfast, in a project worth up to £10 million ($13 million).
Lastly, the organization wants to bring on board fresh support for the Horizon application. The contractor might be expected to provide incident and problem management, manage the development, change cycle and testing for codebase supporting Horizon (primarily in Java) as well as Oracle database support. This element of the procurement is also worth £45 million ($59 million).
[3]
The contract notice for all three procurements is scheduled to be published in June.
[4]
[5]
Horizon is an EPOS and back-end finance system for thousands of Post Office branches around Britain, first implemented by ICL, a UK technology company later bought by Fujitsu. From [6]1999 until 2015 , around 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongfully convicted of fraud when errors in the system were to blame. A statutory [7]inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 and is ongoing.
While the Post Office ponders spending £100 million supporting Horizon, it continues to plan a replacement.
[8]Post Office CEO tells inquiry: Leadership was in 'dream world' over Horizon scandal
[9]UK government's bank data sharing plan slammed as 'financial snoopers' charter'
[10]Fujitsu wins spot on £600M framework after vowing to sit out public sector
[11]With billions in UK govt IT contracts about to expire, get the next vendors to act right
In April, the Post Office kicked off procurement to help build the system replacing Horizon. A [12]tender notice said vendors interested in working on a replacement system should sign a non-disclosure agreement.
"Post Office is in the process of replacing its existing EPOS system, known as Horizon," the notice said, putting the contract price at around £75 million ($94 million).
[13]
However, Neil Brocklehurst, interim chief executive, [14]said in a memo to staff the organization was "reassessing and reprioritising" the replacement system, known as the New Branch IT (NBIT) program, according to The Telegraph. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/032866-2024
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/fujitsu_public_procurement/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/post_office_scandal_fujitsu_convictions_quashed/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/29/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/post_office_ceo_inquiry/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/uk_benefits_bank_accounts/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/fujitsu_contract_win_horizon/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/government_it_contracts_expiring/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/11/uk_post_office_epos_procurement/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/03/post-offices-horizon-replacement-in-doubt-following-delays/#:~:text=This%20has%20spurred%20calls%20from,Post%20Office%20declined%20to%20comment
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In a procurement advertisement, the government-owned retail post office company says it is seeking tech suppliers to help "provision the Horizon Data Centre Operations related to both the two datacenters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and some test environments at other locations in the UK, for example Stevenage & Bracknell." The [1]Prior Information Notice confirms this contract award is estimated to be worth up to £45 million ($59 million).
How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu [2]READ MORE
Work is set to involve onsite support at the primary and secondary datacenters in Belfast. This is intended to include datacenter building, physical security and datacenter operations such as patching, hardware upgrades, incident resolution, and systems management.
At the same time, the Post Office is also looking for a tech supplier to provide network services for its datacenters, again those based in Belfast, in a project worth up to £10 million ($13 million).
Lastly, the organization wants to bring on board fresh support for the Horizon application. The contractor might be expected to provide incident and problem management, manage the development, change cycle and testing for codebase supporting Horizon (primarily in Java) as well as Oracle database support. This element of the procurement is also worth £45 million ($59 million).
[3]
The contract notice for all three procurements is scheduled to be published in June.
[4]
[5]
Horizon is an EPOS and back-end finance system for thousands of Post Office branches around Britain, first implemented by ICL, a UK technology company later bought by Fujitsu. From [6]1999 until 2015 , around 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongfully convicted of fraud when errors in the system were to blame. A statutory [7]inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 and is ongoing.
While the Post Office ponders spending £100 million supporting Horizon, it continues to plan a replacement.
[8]Post Office CEO tells inquiry: Leadership was in 'dream world' over Horizon scandal
[9]UK government's bank data sharing plan slammed as 'financial snoopers' charter'
[10]Fujitsu wins spot on £600M framework after vowing to sit out public sector
[11]With billions in UK govt IT contracts about to expire, get the next vendors to act right
In April, the Post Office kicked off procurement to help build the system replacing Horizon. A [12]tender notice said vendors interested in working on a replacement system should sign a non-disclosure agreement.
"Post Office is in the process of replacing its existing EPOS system, known as Horizon," the notice said, putting the contract price at around £75 million ($94 million).
[13]
However, Neil Brocklehurst, interim chief executive, [14]said in a memo to staff the organization was "reassessing and reprioritising" the replacement system, known as the New Branch IT (NBIT) program, according to The Telegraph. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/032866-2024
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/fujitsu_public_procurement/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/post_office_scandal_fujitsu_convictions_quashed/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/29/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/post_office_ceo_inquiry/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/uk_benefits_bank_accounts/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/fujitsu_contract_win_horizon/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/government_it_contracts_expiring/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/11/uk_post_office_epos_procurement/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zw6RpyqfLBQIO550D_8PTwAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/03/post-offices-horizon-replacement-in-doubt-following-delays/#:~:text=This%20has%20spurred%20calls%20from,Post%20Office%20declined%20to%20comment
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
elsergiovolador
Wouldn't they just add "-" to the bill and say PO owes them?
A project worth up to £10 million
abend0c4
I wonder how much of that is provision for potential reputational damage.
Not to worry, the Post Office have the answer
Dan 55
[1]Post Office explores taking branch owner-operators to court again
State-owned body writing off losses of £12m a year after stopping practice, inquiry told
And as far as I know Horizon is still not fixed.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/13/post-office-explores-taking-branch-owner-operators-court-again
Re: Not to worry, the Post Office have the answer
elsergiovolador
Why would it be? It's famous, they make TV series about it and can generate money out of thin Post masters,
Tubz
NBIT paused, yeh probably wondering if they will have any budget left over after paying compensation and legal costs and if they can offload the costs to taxpayer. I'm sure the post office directors, shareholders and Fujitsu can afford to do this!
Version 1.0
How much better (£100 million) would the UK be if the project was only implemented and maintained in London?
What company in their right mind…
Anonymous Coward
I wouldn’t deal with those PO head office spivs at any price.
Ol'Peculier
Sightly off-topic, but I hope El'Reg will cover what Mike Young has been saying in the inquiry today, because the guy is talking out of his arse...
June
Anonymous Coward
Which June? We were told we'd be rolling out the new system in January 2025. But even the pilot roll-out of replacement hardware this January March July September went kabloowee. "2025" has been pushed back to "summer" and now "2026". I don't see any end in sight.
Should replace it and hand Fujitsu the bill.