HR Tech | Lessons learned from Post Office's Software Deployment Disaster

HR leaders who are outsourcing their workforce management should be taking urgent note of the implications of the Horizon IT scandal, says Crown Workforce Management’s Technology Director Harish Rao, who is calling for businesses to review the delegation of control of their data with service providers.

On the face of it, the Horizon IT scandal will rightly be remembered as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history, but lurking underneath the life-changing damage is a warning sign for every business that has vast and complex software deployments.

With hundreds of branches across the UK, Post Office understandably sought a third party to supply accounting software and services. The issues that emerged from the failures within this arrangement have been well-documented over recent months.

Many have blamed faulty software for this, but that would be an oversimplification. The reality is that any significant body of software will have latent problems, which could surface when the software is operated in large scale with a complex network of computers and systems. Software by itself cannot anticipate all possible problem scenarios.