Australia Post's new POS beset by technical problems

Australia Post’s new point-of-sale platform has been beset by multiple technical troubles, including outages and missing transactions, since its launch last year.

The cloud-based point-of-sale platform, known as POST+, is intended to replace Australia Post’s 30-year-old legacy EPOS system.

However, since its staggered rollout began last December, licence holders operating Australia Post branches have regularly complained about till shortfalls, disappearing transactions and system shutdowns -- the longest of which reportedly lasted 90 minutes. [Australia Post disputes that transactions disappeared, arguing that "pending transactions did not originally appear in daily summaries" but this was corrected.]

Complaints about POST+ from franchisees have been regularly escalated to Australia Post’s internal IT helpdesk.

iTnews has seen correspondence that shows complaints were raised about POST+ as far back as January.

In addition to failing transactions, complaints also concerned POST+’s interface and usability; its incomplete, slow and convoluted reporting process and poor observability functionality.

Australia Post brought in Deloitte to carry out a technical review of the issues.

In particular, Deloitte was tasked with uncovering potential errors between POST+’s frontend software and its backend cloud architecture, to pinpoint performance bottlenecks in the end-to-end transaction process.

Deloitte also looked at whether POST+’s architecture is consistent with accepted best-practice standards.

The review, which was completed in September, confirmed "a range of technical challenges and performance issues impact[ed] retail stores" after go-live and business-as-usual transition.

"This included issues with logging in, searching for services, adding items to the cart, and transaction failures as key examples," an executive summary of the Deloitte report, sighted by iTnews, shows.

"The technical review has confirmed the challenges that were identified prior to the review and has further identified the underlying root causes or drivers of those performance issues," the review added.

'Solution architecture fit-for-purpose'

Deloitte's technical review concluded overall that the "solution architecture" of POST+ is fit-for-purpose, but that there are "opportunities to improve performance and enhance the usability of the solution to better enable the business outcomes".

The consultancy said it had seen "nothing insurmountable that cannot be technically resolved".

It also said the system remained "usable and will allow trade" even while being improved.

"However, occasional incidents may still occur, and additional user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) improvements are required to address end user pain points and feedback," Deloitte wrote.

Remediation of known issues had already started, with Deloitte recommending additional actions be taken as well.

"Resource support and funding" would be needed to meet remediation timelines, it added.

An Australia Post spokesperson characterised the outcome of the Deloitte review as "the system has been independently audited and is fit-for-purpose."

Financial impacts

According to the Licensed Post Office Group, which represents the interests of about one-third of the 2800 licensees operating under Australia Post’s franchise model, the new system is causing a “significant financial burden” to licensees. 

“We have evidence that transactions have been missing, or just not completed, for almost 12 months,” said LPO Group executive director Angela Cramp.

“The evidence was gathered due to a number of outlets being continually short in their balance, and they began to print off transaction history reports more often so they had a paper trail when they experienced shortages.”

According to Cramp, the alleged 90-minute outage, which occurred in May, collectively cost licensees $200,000 in lost revenue and downtime.

Franchisees of Australia Post, which make up two-thirds of Australia Post’s overall network, are remunerated on the number of “tasks” they process, such as banking sales and bill payments. As such, if a transaction fails to complete, the licensees are not paid.

iTnews understands that licensees were told by the Australia Post IT helpdesk to make up any shortfalls with their own money, as per the process under the former EPOS system.

However, when questioned in a recent senate estimates hearing, Australia Post CEO Paul Graham strongly denied any suggestion that licensees were asked to pick up the shortfalls.

“We do not ask the post offices to put money back in to balance it out,” he said in response to questions about POST+ from Senator Malcolm Roberts. 

"What we did was provide a report for all those transactions that had not processed through.”

After this story was published, an Australia Post spokesperson reiterated they "do not ask licensees to repay or make up a shortfall that is the result of a POST+ system issue.”

The spokesperson said that Australia Post had also sought "evidence" of missing or incomplete transactions from LPO Group.

In addition, the spokesperson disputed the cost of the 90-minute outage, saying it had "waived monthly technology fees" in response.

'Teething problems' 

Graham added that POST+ is a modern system built on “state-of-the-art architecture” and described the complaints as coming from a "minority" of people.

“It’s fair to say that when you implement a brand-new system at the scale we’ve implemented it, there will be teething problems,” he said.

However, as of this month, iTnews understands that bugs affecting cashflow and reconciliation continue to be uncovered. 

iTnews asked Australia Post a detailed set of questions about the issues.

In response a spokesperson said: "Australia Post has introduced a modern, new point of sale system called POST+ to replace its aging 30-year-old system. It is providing a better experience for team members and customers as well as enhanced transaction security.

"We involved many stakeholders, including licensees and post office team members, at all major stages of the design and implementation. This collaboration has continued including fortnightly meetings with licensees from across the country who are using POST+ in their outlets."

The spokesperson added that the system was independently reviewed and audited, during roll-out and post implementation and found fit for purpose.

"We are constantly investing in the system and developing enhancements collaboratively with our team members, including licensees," the spokesperson said.

Update, 3.20pm: The story has been augmented with topline findings from the Deloitte review, as well as by additional commentary from Australia Post, which were provided after publication.