Area | ||
Open book accounting | Unfettered access. | A comprehensive list of reports available for National Savings' scrutiny audited by EDS's auditors. |
Regular benchmarking on both service levels and its underlying cost base against best practice. Reductions in costs would go directly to the unitary charge. | Periodic future benchmarking of the service but related to average market service levels as opposed to best practice. Any reductions in cost would be shared through the profit sharing mechanism. | |
Profit sharing | 50:50 over base margin requirement calculated annually. An element of the deal reported separately for profit sharing. Any savings in contingency provision would be shared 30:70 with National Savings. | 50:50 share over base margin requirements calculated cumulatively over time and across cost areas. EDS would give National Savings a credit note to be offset against additional and/or changed EDS services. Savings in redundancy costs would feed through to the profit sharing mechanism. |
Telephone call centre | Capacity: 2 million Additional calls: 80p each | Capacity: 2 million Additional calls: £1.80 each |
New products | Cap of £600,000 for each product even outside the number contained within the unitary charge. Rebate of £600,000 for each new product not introduced within the unitary charge. | Not clear. Cost of additional new products not capped. |
Fundamentally different products | Accepted National Savings' definition. | Proposed a more restrictive definition. Potentially National Savings would have difficulty classifying products as new as opposed to fundamentally different and thus have them included within the unitary charge. EDS also reserved the right to refer National Savings' decision on a new product to the dispute resolution procedure. |
Accommodation | SBS has taken leases on the whole estate and will pay market rent of £4.1 million a year, recovered in the unitary charge, leaving National Savings with a saleable asset. SBS will keep a presence at each of the three locations for at least five years. | EDS proposed to transfer purchased properties to another company and lease them. It also proposed to sell the Durham site within 2 years of contract commencement. EDS proposals required National Savings to underwrite a 10 year lease on required accommodation. Weak clawback provisions included, leaving National Savings little chance of sharing in windfall gains from property development. |
Third party business | At least 1,200 jobs underwritten. Indicated a greater potential for job growth. Contingency provision £45 million spread over three years. | At least 1,900 jobs underwritten. Contingency provision £31 million spread over four years. |
Limits on liability | £250 million with a cap of £120 million for any 2 contract year period. Includes banking losses, value added losses, customer compensation and customer overpayments. | £50 million. Excludes banking losses, value added losses and customer compensation. |
Fraud | Accepted responsibility for all internal fraud and any customer fraud in excess of £250,000 in any one year. | Accepted responsibility for internal fraud but not for customer fraud. |
Post Office Counters Automation project | No additional charge if the project was not implemented. | Additional charge of £60 million if this project was not implemented during the life of the contract. |
Millennium compliance | Took the risk on all systems. | Would not accept the financial risk of failure of legacy system. |
Unitary charge | All of the monthly unitary charge would be at risk for poor performance. | Required a guarantee of 20 per cent of monthly unitary charge. |