The UK Post Office has confirmed it is ending in-house efforts to replace the troubled Horizon accounting and point of sale system as it launches a £410 million (c $540 million) procurement for alternative suppliers.
The intention to build a new system, now known as New Branch IT (NBIT), began in 2021, with the state-owned company wanting to move away from the Horizon system, which became the focus of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent British history.
A spokesperson told The Register: “Plans to replace Horizon with NBIT will not proceed as originally envisaged. However, it’s important to remember that significant aspects of what had been developed for NBIT have already or will be repurposed to improve the technology in our branches, bringing benefits to postmasters and strategic partners. We are moving away from the ‘big bang’ launch which was envisaged as part of NBIT so postmasters will begin to see improvements in stages.”
The statement comes hot on the heels of the UK Post Office’s decision to seek new suppliers to support and eventually replace the troubled Horizon IT system at the center of a national scandal.
In a notice published last week, the Post Office said it was looking for a supplier to “walk in and take over” support for Horizon datacenters, applications, and connecting infrastructure in a contract pegged at £269 million ($355 million).
On the same notice, the publicly owned body said it was looking for a supplier of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic point of sale (EPOS) software in a deal that could be worth up to £141 million ($186 million). Both projects are set to last 12 years, including extensions.
First introduced to the Post Office in 1999, Horizon is a point-of-sale and back office accounting system. It was implemented by ICL, a UK technology company majority owned by Fujitsu in the 1990s and taken over completely by the Japanese giant in 1998.
Horizon was later found to have made mistakes in calculating finances of retail branches run by subpostmasters, who were initially blamed for the errors. Hundreds faced prosecution based on data from the flawed system. The consequences were devastating for many involved, leaving some bankrupt and others feeling suicidal, with several ending their own lives. Sixty people died before seeing any form of justice served. It is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent British history. A public inquiry continues.
Last week’s “planned procurement notice” – necessary under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force in February – calls for a vendor to manage the migration from Horizon’s on-premises datacenter to the cloud, “enabling modernized counter capabilities.” It also asks for the vendor to build a “modern, cloud-native back office and channel platform” to allow for “omni-channel customer journeys.” This is on top of the “walk in and take over” support for the current system.
The second lot of the procurement calls for a vendor to provide a new branch EPOS system, designed around off-the-shelf software tailored to the Post Office’s future needs.
The procurement notice, published late last week, is the latest in a series of attempts to determine what to do after Horizon and how to support the beleaguered systems currently in use.
In March this year, the Post Office granted Fujitsu another extension to its contract with a £63 million ($83 million), one-year deal to continue supporting the Horizon point of sale system. The total value awarded to the Japanese supplier by the Post Office since 1999 has reached £2.44 billion ($3.22 billion).
The Post Office said the contract extension was necessary because of delays to its project to replace NBIT.
“By the time significant delays to the NBIT project had become apparent in October 2023, any alternative tendered solution to replace Horizon would not have been mobilised and transitioned to prior to 31st March 2025,” the notice said.
In April 2024, the Post Office tendered for a vendor to help build NBIT in-house as part of its Strategic Platform Modernisation Programme (SPMP), in a deal set to be worth around £75 million ($94 million).
In October 2024, it published a £10 million “prior information notice” to engage with suppliers about support for Horizon datacenters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and some test environments at other UK locations.
The Register understands that, following feedback from the market engagement exercise, the Post Office changed its approach and launched the new procurement.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “Post Office has a five-year plan to transform the organization and deliver a ‘new deal for postmasters.’ We are looking at Post Office’s technology and data strategically, to ensure that we reduce central costs and provide postmasters with the tools they need to serve their customers and run profitable branches. We are committed to moving away from Fujitsu and off the Horizon system and we have a plan in place to introduce a new IT system in stages for postmasters and strategic partners. We will continue to ensure we comply with public procurement regulations as we transform our technology.”
The Post Office added that it was continuing ongoing communication with Fujitsu about its procurement process and the safe transition of the Horizon service to a new supplier. ®
