Post Office extends Fujitsu Horizon contract until September 2027

Extension provides additional time to transfer operation of the troubled Horizon system to Accenture

The Post Office has agreed another extension of its Fujitsu Horizon contract, beyond the March 2027 expiry, so that day-to-day operation of the system can be safely handed over to Accenture.

The Post Office’s existing agreement with Fujitsu is due to expire in March 2027, but the organisation has agreed a short-term extension intended to ensure continuity while Horizon's operations are handed to Accenture. The transfer will take place between 1 June and 1 September 2027, with the final date to be confirmed in March.

The extension means Fujitsu will remain involved with Horizon beyond the scheduled March 2027 end of its current contract, but the Post Office describes the arrangement as time-limited and focused on ensuring a safe transition to its new supplier.

Accenture takes over

Accenture is taking over the day-to-day running of Horizon as part of the Post Office's efforts to move away from its 30-year relationship with Fujitsu and modernise the technology supporting its approximately 11,500 branches.

The consultancy will initially take over the existing Horizon environment on a "walk in, take over" basis. It will also work on the back-end of the replacement platform, alongside suppliers OneView Commerce and Escher.

The transition marks a significant step towards ending the Post Office's decades-long relationship with Fujitsu. Horizon was introduced in 1999 and became central to one of the UK's most infamous miscarriages of justice after accounting discrepancies generated by the system were used to convict sub-postmasters.of theft.

Post Office response

"Ending our contract with Fujitsu is a critical milestone in Post Office's transformation, and today's agreement secures the transition away from Fujitsu and over to Accenture safely and responsibly to achieve our target of summer 2027," said Post Office CEO Neil Brocklehurst.

He added: "In addition to ending our contract with Fujitsu, we are also working at pace with our leading technology suppliers, Accenture, OneView Commerce and Escher, to build a modern, resilient platform able to make everyday life easier for customers and postmasters for years to come."

Sub-postmaster and Post Office non-executive director Sara Barlow said: "For me, appointing the new suppliers felt like a genuine milestone. It represented an opportunity to learn from the past while building something better for the future. There is still a lot of work ahead, but it is encouraging to see the focus on getting this right."

A long road to replacement

Replacing Horizon has proved a lot harder than it probably should have been. The project was first planned almost exactly seven years ago, after the Post Office admitted defeat in the Alan Bates and Others versus Post Office group litigation, when it was proved that Horizon errors caused the account shortfalls for which sub-postmasters were blamed.

However, as we know it took an ITV dramatisation of the scandal in January 2024 screened over the New Year to make things start to happen via the engine of public outrage.

This culminated in the £1.8bn New Branch IT project, which ran into trouble and was axed in May 2024, before being replaced by the current approach of procuring technology and services from external suppliers.

Contracts and delays

In May, Accenture won a £322.8m contract to run Horizon over an initial five years, while the electronic point of sale (EPOS) system from OneView Commerce was chosen in a £169m deal. The wider contracts awarded to Accenture and OneView were worth nearly £500m.

Delays have been a feature of the migration. As revealed by Computer Weekly, Escher threatened legal action after its bid to win the EPOS replacement contract failed. The EPOS contract was agreed with OneView in May and due for formal signoff in June but was delayed no fewer than six times.

Amid the Escher challenge, on 7 August the Post Office created a new contract and awarded it directly to the supplier. The contract covers Escher's proprietary Product Journey Engine (PJE), but the contract is limited to just one year of development and configuration. Licensing and support for later years will be the subject of a different contract.