Post Office

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Post Office

To cater for the needs of a small number of rural Post Office branches that are only open for a few hours each week, Fujitsu designed a unique mobile counter terminal, as well as a trolley-based terminal for use by sub postmasters who work from their own homes. A satellite connection was also developed for Post Office branches in locations without an ISDN service.

Customer's Challenge

Post Office® Ltd has some 17,000 Post Office branches, making it Europe's largest and most accessible retail network. As such, it is uniquely positioned to provide a wide range of value-added services to the local community, including government information and banking services. To achieve this aim and to pave the way for the development of future product offerings, Post Office Ltd needed a secure, networked counter system that would:

• Enhance the service provided to major clients
• Improve its competitive position
• Enable the development of new business areas.

Fujitsu’s Solution

Working closely with Post Office Ltd on overcoming the many challenges presented by the project, the contract to design, implement and operate the new infrastructure, called Horizon, was awarded to Fujitsu in 1999.

The project, worth £1.4 billion over ten-years, began in mid 1999. It was the largest non-military information technology project of its kind in Europe and was delivered on time, to specification and within budget.

Using Horizon's easy to use touch screen technology, Post Office Ltd is now processing in excess of £900 billion a year in over 2.4 billion transactions, which can be processed at a rate of up to 3,500 a second.

To cater for the needs of a small number of rural Post Office branches that are only open for a few hours each week, Fujitsu designed a unique mobile counter terminal, as well as a trolley-based terminal for use by sub postmasters who work from their own homes. A satellite connection was also developed for Post Office branches in locations without an ISDN service.

Benefits to our Customer

Horizon represents a key step towards modernisation, bringing greater efficiency to customer service and a platform for building new products/services such as expanded banking facilities, access to government information, bill payments, recharging smartcards and online verification.
Horizon is now enabling Post Office Ltd. to:

• Achieve significant cost savings through the automation of its trading environment
• Provide a faster and more efficient customer service, reducing paperwork and making transactions simpler
• Reduce the risk of fraud and payment errors and develop new revenue opportunities.

Our Approach

Over 3.5 million lines of programming code were used to create Horizon's sophisticated functionality. Its rollout involved installing nearly 38,000 counters in 17,000 branches throughout the UK. On average, a terminal was installed every five minutes and a complete Post Office branch every 12 minutes. Training was also provided for 63,000 Post Office workers, aged from 17 to 87 years old.

Alan Barrie said, “Now all our branches - no matter where they are or how small they are - are able to offer this technology and deliver the sort of service our customers have every right to expect in this day and age.”

Our Expertise

Horizon is the culmination of a long-standing relationship with Post Office Ltd, during which Fujitsu has developed an in-depth understanding of its business and delivered a range of innovative and flexible solutions to meet Post Office Ltd's evolving requirements.