Quality Service Delivered Everytime

Software Testing Solutions's testing experts deliver another high quality Oracle implementation

Overview

The professional Services team within Software Testing Solutions was summoned again to participate in another cutting edge software implementation featuring Oracle's E-Business Suite

Rand Merchant Bank, a forerunner in the South African investment banking arena aimed to add high levels of efficiency by implementing a reliable, scalable and highly efficient system to manage procurement and internal expenses. Being an organization that is always at the cutting edge of technology, RMB had made the decision to expand on th existing Oracle platform. For a seamless solution with strong integration capabilities the Oracle Advanced Procurement suite was the chosen instrument featuring iProcurement and iExpense.

Rand Merchant Bank is a quality driven organization and realises the need for software quality as a means to reduce implementation costs, "getting it right the first time", and maintaining competitive edge through the deployment of high quality technologies.

iFactory Consulting, an Oracle certified advantage parner, was scoped into the implementation from a business analysis, configuration and tchnical enhancement perspective. Software Testing Solutions deployed its testing experts to work closely with iFactory Consulting and ensure that quality was built into the implementation at all stages to ensure RMB with the maximum value of the Oracle product and to enhance their financial services.

The Mission

The mission which was deemed as, the "Procure to Pay" project was focuesed on the integration of My Market Travel, Oracle iProcurement, Oracle iExpense, and Approvals Management Engine including integration to the existing Orale Accounts Payable module. An associated objective was to manage all the relevant approvals through the Oracle solution and to decommission the lagacy ImageNow system.

The feature set of the new platform needed to include distribution of requisitioning, approvals, receipting of goods and services, accrual accounting, matching of payables invoices to Purchase orders and visibility of the entire process

Business Challenges

Increased control and governance over the procurement process

• A consistent data model which represents a true picture of performance (accuracy & control) accross all the lines of business in the branch.
• Increased information control and efficiency
• Imporved decision support due to a single version of the truth, more timly information and more accurate planning and forecasting.
• A scalable operating platform.
• A reduction in reputational risk,operational losses and the finance cost base.
• Accurate and timely approvals.
• Standardised and predictable processes

High quality implementation to ensure immediate delivery and value to business in line with the original value proposition identified with the Oracle solution.

A sustainable long term QA and Testing framework to support future implementations, enhancements and releases.

Testing Objectives

STS introduced Quality assurance and testing with the following objectives:

• To introduce a structured approach to testing and implementing an SQA (Software Quality Assurance) lifecycle to support the project.
• Define and Implement Testing Standards, Best Practices, Methodologies and Templates
• Investigate and Acquire the Tools required to support the testing
• Remove the risk of post implementation defects

Functional and performance testing during the implementation were focussed on:

• Functional and Regression testing during the implementation (3 cycles, defect management, environmental and configuration management).
• Performance testing ensured that the systemmet with users expectation in terms of system response time.
• Efficient load testing ensured that the usage spike when going live did not negatively impact system performance

Implemented Solution

The software quality assurance function at Rand Merchant Bank was implemented successfully in parallel to the oracle implementaion. STS functiona and performance testing standards, processes and best practices were customised to suite RMB's needs. These included Testing Standards, Maintenance Process, Issue Management, Defect Management Process, Management and Reporting Dashboards, Signoff Reports, Test Plans, Test Environment Management Processes, Build Processes, Data Sheets Standards and Data Management Process. The Oracle solution was implemented with zero production defects. Automated workflows facilitated the controlled approval of expenditure and drastically improved cost based reporting to business units.

The testing proved successful in that the desired functionality was achieved with the application being stable and with high levels of performance. The project covered three Functional Test Cycles, a regression cycle and with no urgent defects. The user acceptance testing was planned around getting all the suers from the relevant business units to perform their daily tasts on the iProcurement environment. This was to ensure that the users were completely satisfied with the functionality and were comfortable with signin off UAT. The perormance of the system was deemed acceptable from a user perspective with individual high priority business processes also being performance tested. Response timesalso were well within expected for all scenarios. In many cases, response time were below 2 seconds and for some transaction the response times were 2 and 4 seconds.

In Conclusion...

"Efficient, bulletproof and robust" were some of the adjectives used to describe the implementation of the Oracle procurement solution at RMB. A key note from the banks technology head echoed the sentiment: "efficient step by step quality assurance when deploying our procurement system was the difference between success and failure". Software Testing solutions and Rand Merchant Bank continue to enjoy a highly successful relationship ensuring High Quality. Everytime.

About Software Testing Solutions

Software Testing Solutions (Pty) Ltd (STS) is a South-African Organization (BEE AAA+), who operates within Africa and the UK. STS is a market leader in terms of Software Quality Assurance and has successfully engatged with and completed many projects within the South African Banking & Financial Services industry.