So Post Office's new N-BIT the dust!

I have written about The Post Office's new computer system which would replace the discredited Horizon several times, and the very limited trial at just a few branches.

As recently as October Computer Weekly suggested that with an already massive £1 billion overspend and over-run the plug might be pulled - leaving Horizon in place, and Fujitsu still supporting it.

Now that same journal reports that the system is being abandoned without sufficient care being taken over retention of important data.

According to a source close to the project, the Post Office is ending its Strategic Platform Modernisation Programme (SPMP), which the Horizon replacement project known as New Branch IT (NBIT) sits within, and is letting staff go.

and

Last week, a large group of staff on the SPMP were told they would not be needed beyond Friday 13 December, giving the Post Office about a week to secure the data they hold and ensure it can be accessed in the future. 

The data could be vital for future inquiries into the project, the Post Office and why SPMP spent hundreds of millions of pounds more than it budgeted for but still failed to deliver NBIT. It includes data in emails, messaging apps, working documents and technical information documents. 

The source told Computer Weekly: “Over the next couple of weeks, the SPMP is concluding its decision to let go of contractors and third parties, but without adequately completing a credible data safeguarding activity, the Post Office’s response to the risk is very weak. Something is not right about this.”

Read the full piece here.

And then

A source with inside knowledge of the project said it is now “nearly certain” that a fusion of Horizon, in-house NBIT and off-the-shelf software will replace the current system. This would involve the Post Office buying the Horizon system from Fujitsu rather than renting it as it does now.

This was a previous proposal that had been scrapped, according to the source. “There is nothing new about it and there were reasons why it was rejected in the first place,” they said.

Another source said teams at the Post Office have a “vested interest in Horizon staying around” and that some have been vocal about it. He added that “change is a difficult thing and a lot of people object to it”. 

Second story here. 

This must mean the end - soon or already - of the trial which produced labels such as those at the head of this piece.  Whilst we know that a number of these have been produced by collectors and possibly by dealers, there certainly can't be many.  And for anybody who has collected Horizon labels and wants to continue through to replacement systems, inclusion of these is essential.

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