Time Machine® Accelerates Debt Management Application Testing at Wescot, Providing Peace of Mind and Confidence

Friday, November 15, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT

Providing the level of confidence they need to commit to on-time client deliveries for long-term test scenarios within a tight schedule

Topic:

When the IT team at Wescot was tasked with upgrading their existing Collections and Recovery software due to the increasing complexity of the debt collection process, they selected FICO's Debt Manager Application (DM9) to sustain Wescot's position as a leader in collections space.

Challenge:

Prior to the DM9 implementation, the Wescot team realized that it would be almost impossible to complete the thousands of test scenarios and workflows across their multi-vendor system within their clients' ideal timeline. Just a single test would require several days to complete; ­they had over 1,500 tests, each with stringent requirements to follow. For this reason, Wescot didn't have the confidence to commit to: 1) on-time client deliveries and 2) their critical, time-sensitive logic functioning as expected into perpetuity.

Furthermore, Wescot decided to adopt agile testing methodologies across all non-production environments in order to support its application transformation. Those environments consisted of Dev, Test, UAT, Training, and Volume. Sharing the licenses across multiple environments seamlessly was another potential challenge, as each agile cycle could go through different environments at different paces, making needs dynamic and hard to plan for in advance.

The team needed a solution that would be fast, flexible, secure, and reliable as well as automated. Changing the system clock was risky, would take too long, and would result in only a small percentage of test cases being covered. It also contradicted its test automation process.

Time Machine Works:

Chosen for being fast, flexible, and safe, Time Machine delivered the confidence Wescot needed by testing all test cases within the time frame required.

Fast and Safe:

Time Machine eliminates all the friction and risk associated with changing the system clock (i.e. change requests, logging off users, shutting down and restarting servers, potential file time stamp corruption or impacting other shared systems and processes). With Time Machine, testers can set their own virtual clock to be immediately productive without application/database shutdown and restart; there's no need to wait for administrators to approve each time change. In addition, applications, processes, and users can be isolated, meaning end-to end-test cases can be executed with no risk of harm to other components.

Wescot's testing required daily processing of batch components (i.e. file ingestion, file production and internal workflows). The workflows spanned over complex processes that could take over 200 days to run. Time Machine allowed Wescot's team to run up to six days’ worth of processing per day, accelerating all testing scenarios.

According to Alastair Rennie, IT Director, "Time Machine enabled us to be part of a wider, multi-vendor delivery, and work within the time frames set by the client. We could not have completed sufficient testing without Time Machine; it has given us the confidence that the long-term scenarios are working as designed. There were no feasible alternatives, and Time Machine did all that we have expected

Flexible:

Wescot's deployment of the Time Machine Floating License Server (FLS), enabled Wescot to automatically provision Time Machine license keys from a pool of License Units (LUs), cutting out the need to manually apply license keys. The pool of LUs enabled Wescot to leverage a limited number of Time Machine licenses across all environments, providing on demand flexibility for both waterfall and agile teams.

Furthermore, with the Time Machine Sync Server, the team fully automated utilizing test scripts built in URL API.

Customer Support - Customer Satisfaction is a Key Priority for Solution-Soft:

"Solution-Soft's customer service and support has been excellent. We've had a fantastic response whenever we have requested support. Definitely geared towards the needs of customers," added Alastair.

Without Time Machine, it was literally mission impossible for the Wescot team to cover all test scenarios before going live. Time Machine continues to enable 100% test coverage,” what if” analysis, and gives customers the highest level of confidence that all releases have been adequately tested.

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About Wescot:

Wescot Credit Services (Wescot) is a leading provider of receivables management services in the United Kingdom, providing services to many of the UK largest companies across financial services, telecoms/media, utilities and home retail sectors.<

About Time Machine:

Time Machine saves ten-fold or more on resources and costs associated with temporal testing of applications. It enables you to finish your large scale software projects on time and under budget. Some other usage scenarios of Time Machine include Cloud migration, time zone adjustment, data aging, Big Data analysis and online training. Time Machine is the original date and time simulation software for Unix and Windows since 1997 and it is Cloud ready. Thousands of customers worldwide utilize Time Machine successfully across all industries on a daily basis; including 47 of the Fortune 100 companies.

About Solution-Soft:

Solution-Soft is the leader in virtual clock, time shift testing software solutions for the ever-changing digital world. Our flagship and market proven product, Time Machine, opened up brand new possibilities in the application testing landscape upon its release in 1997. Today, thousands of applications have been tested with Time Machine, and IT professionals recognize that using a virtual clock is the ideal and safest way to conduct date and time testing. As pioneer in our field, we've created the Time Machine Product Suite and Time Machine for Container, a collection of cutting-edge testing software that augment Time Machine to further streamline enterprise cloud initiatives, containerization, micro services, and IT modernization for end-to-end integration testing, cloud migration, test automation, Agile/DevOPs, Continuous Operation, and Test Data Management.

We proudly provide our 2000+ domestic and international customers, including 47 of Fortune 100 companies, with our advanced solutions to optimize their testing and help deliver projects on-time. Solution-Soft's customers are across all market sectors including 3M, AMEX, AIG, Australia Tax Office, BBC, Boeing, British Gas, Covered California, Dept of Works & Pension, Deutsche Bank, Discover, FedEx, Federal Reserve Bank, Orange, National Australia Bank, SNCF, and Zurich Insurance. We bolster our market presence through robust partnerships with companies including Accenture, Capgemini, DXC, HPE, IBM, Infosys, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat, and RedMane.

Founded in 1993, Solution-Soft is privately held and based in Santa Clara, CA.