The post office's decision to use a Commercial off-the-shalf Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) System to Replace Its Its Problematic Horizon Software Sees The Oorganization Perform a U-Turn Afform aform aform afor.
Last Week's Announcement That The Post Office is looking for an off-the-shhelf ePos system.
Back then, when the project to automate branches was signed off, non-technical post office execules rejected calls for an off-the-to-shelf epoS system to be used-a decision that LED to the LED to the LEDLOPMENT and Deployment of the Horizon System, which is at the center of the Post Office Scandal,
Make or buy
After British Tech Company ICL – which was later taken over by Establed, Tried-RESTED PACKAGE ALRERADY IN THE Market, Or would it build from scratch?
The “Make Versus Buy Battle”, as Former Post Office Executive Rupert Lloyd Thomas Described It, Went on from March to September 1996. But they were overrled, and the post office opted for a bespoke system that used midleware from escher, Known as riposte.
Lloyd Thomas Spent Nearly 30 years at the post office, and in his final year, he was involved in choosing a supplier to provide an Epovide an EpoS system to automate branch. “The main issue was, We going to use some packaged software that had been used elsewhere, or we we we we going to write one from scratch?”
He said the post office had a successful track record in implementing commissioning commissioning commissioning commissioning commissioning commissioning “I fought the good fight when they are wanted to replace the limges and won by getting sap implemented. It had a lot of advantages,” He said.
Lloyd thomas wanted the same approach for the ePos system. “I sat in meeting after meeting, saying, 'no bespoke, no bespoke, just leave it alone', because on you start kludging it, you can't relay on only on only on software upgrades coming from the support.”
ICL Owned A Retail System Called GlobalStoreWhich was an option being pushed by loyd thomas and others. “You want to relay on software upgrades from the supplier and install them cleany. If you kludge the system, you won't be almost to do it,” He said. “
The BESPOKE Horizon System, From Fujitsu, was rolled out in 2000 in a project to automate branch accounting. But subpostmasters using it immediatively began experience unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they were blamed and punished for. In what is now known as the Post Office Horizon ScandalHundreds Were Prosecuted, with many Jailed and Thousands Suffering Major Financial Losses Through No Fault of his own.
Fourth Time Lucky?
The post office's latest plan to replace Horizon is not its first, but public pressure means it should be its last.
In 2015, the post office attempted to transform it through a multi-supplier landscape, with ibm taking on the job of replacing horizon.
By then, Horizon Had Alredy Been Identified as a Problem, Although the post office did not admit this until it was forced to in the high court year laater.
But Post Office Directors Went Crawling Back to Fujitsu When the IBM project got complex and ended up paying off the us it giant, at a cost of millions of pounds, for the work it has complete.
More recently, the post office attempted to replace Horizon Through Its New Branch It (Nibit) Project, which planned to use in-in-human being software.
But in may last year, the project – which was late, over budget and lacking quality – was labelled as Currently unachievable By Government Auditors.
By October, a source said the post office was Set to u-turn on the plan And eater switch to an off-the-shelf system from a supplier or brings Horizon in-House. Part of the post office's latest plan to move to an off-the-shelf system includes Taking Ownesip of the Horizon System in the interim.
The post office's current Leadership Sidded With the off-the-Shelf Option in its decision to drop the in-House Nibit Software. During his appearance At the post office scandal public intelic inquiry in October 2024, Post Office Chairman Nigel Railton Said The Company's Decision to Build The Nibit System in-House of Two Reasons The project was “set up to fail”,
Railton Told the Inquiry: “One was the decision 'to get off horizon', which is different to building a system for the future, and the second was the decision to build in-House.” Echoing lloyd thomas, he said there many are many “horror stories” of people trying to build systems in-a-dressing, adding: “I think, based on my experience, that this was all in the firing.”
The post office scandal was First exposed by computer weekly in 2009Revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffred due to Horizon Accounting Software, Which LED to the Most Widespread miscarriage of justice of justice in British history (See Below Timeline of Computer Weekly Articles About The Scandal Since 2009,