UK Post Office axes plan for EPOS system, seeks new supplier to run Horizon

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https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/n ... n-horizon/

The UK Post Office is looking for a supplier to take over the running of its scandal-ridden Horizon accounting system from Fujitsu, after cancelling a plan to build its own electronic point of sale (EPOS) software.

It had intended to replace Horizon with an EPOS system, dubbed New Branch IT (NBIT), but unresolved issues led to its development being halted in November of last year.

Now it seems NBIT will be fully abandoned. A tender notice with an estimated value of £492m ($654.3m) (inclusive of VAT) published on May 8 seeks a “replacement service provider” that will “take over the existing Horizon Services… be responsible for maintaining and supporting IT infrastructure within the data center” and “execute key transformations such as cloud migration.” This portion of the tender will last from 5 June 2026 to 4 June 2031, with a possible extension to 4 June 2033.

A previously failed migration in 2023 cost the Post Office £31m ($41.23m).

A second lot, issued as part of the tender, specifies that the Post Office is looking for commercial-off-the shelf EPOS software provider. The contract will last from 7 July 2026 to 6 July 2036, with a possible extension to 6 July 2038.

The award decision date is estimated to be 5 June 2026.

However, the current contract with Fujitsu, the developer of Horizon, will expire in March 2026, leaving four months in between the old and new contracts. Worth £63 million ($83m), Horizon’s contract was extended in March 2025 for a period of one year.

It has extended its contract with Horizon on several occasions, including in 2021 and again in 2024, citing issues with the feasibility and cost of migration.

The Register, which first reported the story, confirmed with a Post Office spokesperson that “plans to replace Horizon with NBIT will not proceed as originally envisaged.”

Horizon, developed by Japanese tech company Fujitsu, was the software responsible for producing errors that caused the wrongful prosecution of 700 Post Office workers for fraud between 1999 and 2015.

Up to March 2024, 102 convictions had been overturned, and the Post Office has paid out more than £86m ($109.4m) in compensation.

Fujitsu is estimated to have earned over £2.5 billion ($3.2bn) from the Horizon contract over its lifetime. A BBC report previously estimated that, since the department planned to ditch Horizon in 2012, it has spent £600m ($798m) on bridging or extension contracts.