An extension to the standoff period means the Post Office and supplier OneView Commerce are yet to sign the contract that will see the latter’s software replace Horizon across the branch network.
Meanwhile, the Post Office and Accenture have finalised the £322.8m agreement for Lot 1 of the Horizon replacement contract, which will see the outsider transition support of Horizon away from Fujitsu on a “walk in, take over” basis.
The £169.2m deal between the Post Office and OneView Commerce is for Lot 2 of the contract aimed at removing Fujitsu and its controversial Horizon system from the Post Office business.
OneView Commerce will provide a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application hosted in the cloud, which the Post Office specified must use a modern microservice architecture. The software will provide point-of-sale capabilities and other functionality required for an end-to-end retail platform.
In February, South Somerset-based subpostmaster Jim Gordon, who is part of a team known as Adopt a Function, which advises the Post Office in relation to the project, said Post Office branch business is rapidly changing and it requires an EPOS [electronic point of sale] to suit it.
“The sort of things that I was doing a year ago are starting to die off now,” said Gordon. “I can’t tell you what a Post Office branch is going to look like in 2028 or 2030, but I know I need a platform that can give me the information I need to deliver a customer journey that’s flexible and adaptable.”
The contracts with the supplier and Accenture were announced on 21 May and, according to Publictechnology.net, there was a proposed standstill period before contracts were formally signed. While the Accenture contract is signed off, the agreement with OneView Commerce is yet to be approved.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “The standstill period for Lot 2 has been extended, and we will share further information as soon as we are able.”
One IT services legal source told Computer Weekly that the delay could be for several reasons – serious or not – and it is “too early to jump to conclusions. These things happen and I am not sure I would read much into it at this point.”
In a recent interview with Computer Weekly, Post Office CTO Paul Anastassi said that Fujitsu will be out eight to 12 months after both contracts are signed with suppliers this summer. He added that by 2030, “we will have eradicated what we now know as Horizon completely from our estate. It won’t be there at all.”
In February, the UK government announced it will provide £483m in funding towards the Post Office project to replace Fujitsu’s Horizon system and transform in-branch technology. This is in addition to funds previously provided for the project, including aborted attempts to replace Horizon, which takes the total to more than £700m.
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, when it revealed the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).
