Submit Workplace delays signing Horizon alternative for third time
The Submit Workplace has delayed the formal signing of a contract to interchange Fujitsu’s controversial Horizon software program for a 3rd time since agreeing to the deal.
The most recent replace to the tender discover for the contract, which types Lot 2 of the Fujitsu Horizon alternative tender, states that whereas US retail specialist OneView Commerce stays the profitable bidder, the standstill interval earlier than formal signing has been prolonged. The earliest time the contract will be signed is 8 July.
The £169.2m deal for an digital level of sale system (EPOS) is a part of the plan to take away Fujitsu and its controversial Horizon system from the Submit Workplace enterprise.
The OneView Commerce deal was introduced on Might 21 alongside Lot 1, the £322.8m contract awarded to Accenture to run Horizon, however whereas the Accenture contract was signed off, there was a proposed standstill interval earlier than the contract with OneView Commerce might be formally signed.
The contract with OneView Commerce was initially set to be signed on 3 June, however this was prolonged to June 15 after which once more to June 26, earlier than the newest extension taking it into July. The Submit Workplace stated it has nothing so as to add to what seems within the authorities contract discover.
On the time of asserting the offers in Might, the Submit Workplace stated: “In parallel, each Accenture and OneView Commerce will probably be working collectively to construct the alternative methods to ship a contemporary answer that meets the wants of postmasters and our inner groups into the longer term. These contract awards are a part of the broader five-year Submit Workplace transformation plan which is able to ship a digitally enabled, extra sustainable enterprise.”
The Submit Workplace Horizon contract the suppliers will exchange is believed to have been Fujitsu’s most profitable ever contract within the UK, incomes the Japanese-owned agency greater than £2.5bn over its 25-plus years period. Practically 1,000 subpostmasters had been wrongly convicted after Horizon erroneously recorded accounting errors brought on by bugs within the software program, and an extra 10,000 are eligible to assert compensation after the Submit Workplace compelled them to make good on phantom losses out of their very own pockets.
To exchange Horizon, OneView Commerce will present a software-as-a-service (SaaS) utility hosted within the cloud, which the Submit Workplace specified should use a contemporary microservice structure. The software program will present point-of-sale capabilities and different performance required for an end-to-end retail platform. The transfer to standardised, off-the-shelf software program represents a change in technique for the Submit Workplace, which all through the Horizon period had insisted on utilizing bespoke software program designed for its personal functions.
The OneView Commerce deal will run for no less than 10 years. The shedding bidder was Escher Software program, which offered middleware as a part of the unique model of Horizon, first rolled out in 1999. Each contracts are anticipated to be signed early subsequent month.
The Submit Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, when it revealed the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of Horizon, 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).
