Publish Workplace performs pricey 30-year U-turn on Horizon
The Publish Workplace’s resolution to make use of a industrial off-the-shelf digital level of sale (Epos) system to switch its problematic Horizon software program sees the organisation carry out a U-turn after 30 years.
Final week’s announcement that the Publish Workplace is in search of an off-the-shelf Epos system, by a £169m contract, reveals an enormous error of judgement in 1996.
Again then, when the undertaking to automate branches was signed off, non-technical Publish Workplace executives rejected requires an off-the-shelf Epos system for use – a call that led to the event and deployment of the Horizon system, which is on the centre of the Publish Workplace scandal.
Make or purchase
After British tech firm ICL – which was later taken over by Fujitsu – had been chosen because the provider, a key resolution was nonetheless to be made concerning the Epos software program: would the Publish Workplace use a longtime, tried-and-tested package deal already available in the market, or would it not construct from scratch?
The “make versus purchase battle”, as former Publish Workplace government Rupert Lloyd Thomas described it, went on from March to September 1996. Lloyd Thomas was a part of a staff pushing for an off-the-shelf package deal, however they have been overruled, and the Publish Workplace opted for a bespoke system that used middleware from Escher, often called Riposte.
Lloyd Thomas spent practically 30 years on the Publish Workplace, and in his remaining 12 months, he was concerned in selecting a provider to offer an Epos system to automate branches. “The principle subject was, have been we going to make use of some packaged software program that had been used elsewhere, or have been we going to write down one from scratch?”
He stated the Publish Workplace had a profitable observe report in implementing industrial software program after its resolution to maneuver to SAP monetary software program. “I fought the great battle once they wished to switch the ledgers and gained by getting SAP applied. It had quite a lot of benefits,” he stated.
Lloyd Thomas wished the identical strategy for the Epos system. “I sat in assembly after assembly, saying, ‘No bespoke, no bespoke, simply depart it alone’, as a result of when you begin kludging it, you possibly can’t depend on software program upgrades coming from the provider.”
ICL owned a retail system referred to as GlobalStore, which was an choice being pushed by Lloyd Thomas and others. “You need to depend on software program upgrades from the provider and set up them cleanly. If you happen to kludge the system, you gained’t have the ability to do it,” he stated.
The bespoke Horizon system, from Fujitsu, was rolled out in 2000 in a undertaking to automate department accounting. However subpostmasters utilizing it instantly started experiencing unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they have been blamed and punished for. In what’s now often called the Publish Workplace Horizon scandal, lots of have been prosecuted, with many jailed and hundreds struggling main monetary losses by no fault of their very own.
Fourth time fortunate?
The Publish Workplace’s newest plan to switch Horizon will not be its first, however public strain means it have to be its final.
In 2015, the Publish Workplace tried to rework its IT by a multi-supplier panorama, with IBM taking over the job of changing Horizon.
By then, Horizon had already been recognized as an issue, though the Publish Workplace didn’t admit this till it was pressured to within the Excessive Courtroom years later.
However Publish Workplace administrators went crawling again to Fujitsu when the IBM undertaking received complicated and ended up paying off the US IT big, at a price of tens of millions of kilos, for the work it had accomplished.
Extra just lately, the Publish Workplace tried to switch Horizon by its New Department IT (NBIT) undertaking, which deliberate to make use of in-house written software program.
However in Might final 12 months, the undertaking – which was late, over funds and missing high quality – was labelled as at the moment unachievable by authorities auditors.
By October, a supply stated the Publish Workplace was set to U-turn on the plan and both change to an off-the-shelf system from a provider or carry Horizon in-house. A part of the Publish Workplace’s newest plan to maneuver to an off-the-shelf system consists of taking possession of the Horizon system within the interim.
The Publish Workplace’s present management sided with the off-the-shelf choice in its resolution to drop the in-house NBIT software program. Throughout his look on the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry in October 2024, Publish Workplace chairman Nigel Railton stated the corporate’s resolution to construct the NBIT system in-house was one among two causes the undertaking was “set as much as fail”.
Railton advised the inquiry: “One was the choice ‘to get off Horizon’, which is completely different to constructing a system for the longer term, and the second was the choice to construct in-house.” Echoing Lloyd Thomas, he stated there are lots of “horror tales” of individuals attempting to construct programs in-house, including: “I believe, based mostly on my expertise, that this was at all times set as much as fail within the first place.”
The Publish Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of Horizon accounting software program, which led to probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see under timeline of Laptop Weekly articles concerning the scandal since 2009).
