CONVERGYS LAUNCHES TESTING PRACTICE

This week, Convergys will launch a new consulting practice backed by homegrown software that addresses the needs of service providers and large enterprises to automate software testing and verify quality assurance in their IT and business process organizations.

Using a software solution developed for testing its own methods of procedure and the integrity of its systems along with five core competencies, Convergys' Testing Solutions practice will provide a value-added service to help organizations shorten time to market, reduce costs and ensure data integrity.

The competency is not new, but the practice is, said Ted Irani, director of professional services for Convergys' Information Management Group.

“The automated testing and large-scale data management process we go through rolling out our billing system is something we have done for a long time, but making that into a packaged consulting offering and a software tool that is license-ready is something we think could provide significant value for our customers,” he said.

To date, Convergys has employed these practices with six customers, including a major RBOC undergoing consolidation and in need of support for the convergence of multiple systems and an overall test plan for one unified system; a major ISP undergoing ordering and billing system conversion in need of quality assurance management and execution services as well as test automation software; and a regional wireless carrier that used Convergys' automation tool to reduce the time needed to build new price plans.

Convergys will apply its consulting practice initially to five aspects of software quality assurance testing. The first is basic testing and test support. It also will conduct testing environment assessments that result in a business case analysis, training on test automation and migration services for large data migration projects. The vendor also will act as a test management office through which it assumes end-to-end responsibility of managing the testing life cycle for enterprise IT applications.

“It's all about shortening time-to-market, improving quality and just getting more bang for the buck for your quality assurance efforts,” Irani said.