A leader in the Enterprise Software market for DevOps and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM): Validata Group

"Enabling Digital Transformation through Agile Test Automation and DevOps"

The traditional methods before DevOps were time-consuming and lacked understanding between different departments of software development, which lead to more time for updates and to fix bugs, therefore ultimately leading to customer dissatisfaction. Testing and banking industry in general, was lacking innovation and organizations had to adopt immature solutions with limited large-scale integration capabilities, preventing fast ROI and resulting in an increased total cost of ownership. Older banks were faced with the challenge of how to adopt a consistent approach to testing across multiple channels of engagement and integrate digital with their legacy systems. That is a real issue both in terms of technology and culture.

Vaios Vaitsis saw the need for a model-driven, integrated ALM solution with automated testing capabilities. Based on his vision he established Validata in 2004. The company’s vision was to make automation work, and turn the manual testers into automation experts and become the specialists for automated Temenos functional, technical and Regression testing. All in one integrated platform!

Validata integrates with all major CM systems, adapts to complex processes with high scalability and orchestrates the full Temenos T24 software stack supporting all platforms and all methodologies. It provides the only unified DevOps and ALM platform for the financial services sector that can address all DevOps initiatives such as Continuous Testing, Integration across all platforms and environments, Deployment and Agile Developer Operations including real-time Analytics.

Initial Project and Success

Validata launched its Quality Suite in 2004 for end-to-end test automation and validation of core banking system implementation and upgrades. Many organizations were testing their systems manually which was very expensive or using traditional tools that did not have any innovations underway and were failing to achieve what was expected from a test automation tool. Unlike these tools, the company created Validata Quality Suite on an entirely different approach focusing on the analytical aspects (the context and the content) and operating through a unique model-based test automation approach which predicts delivery, manages risks and costs and drives operational efficiencies and agility over traditional QA tools.

The project went live successfully on time and within budget, so that made the Validata client happy and a reference site for future business. The challenges it faced were quite a few. Validata was selected by the bank for their Core banking upgrade project to replace IBM’s Rational. Running mostly manual and script based testing with little automation was not meeting their needs, and their legacy testing platforms and approaches were holding them back resulting in high cost of testing, lengthy test cycles and lots of production defects.With Validata they switched to a Continuous Testing, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment model that allowed for end-to-end test management, increased risk-based coverage by 98%, faster time to market, improved quality and test coverage. The team worked after hours to make it happen and prove themselves. The experience gained and lessons learnt were also very important for the team to move on to the next project.

Stumbling Blocks

Validata faced many challenges, but was successful in overcoming them. Some of them were:

• Banks reluctant to initiate a cultural shift and embrace change
• Banks reluctant to adopt new technologies and new ways of doing things especially from a new company
• Competing against established technology companies at the time like HP, IBM etc.
• Clients in different countries, with different cultures and language
• In-house developed legacy systems

Distinguishing Factors

“I believe that what has differentiated us from our competition is that we are passionate and committed to delivering real value and innovation to our clients.”

- Vaios Vaitsis, CEO

• Enhanced productivity & cost saving of QA Operations as a result of faster processes, shorter cycle times and ability to meet processing windows and maintain SLAs
• Ease of use as business users with no technical background can now design and execute test scripts and Reusability as scripts created can be re-used and easily maintain for future projects
• Accelerated time to market for new implementations because of faster development cycles and support of continuous development, test and release
• Improved business agility because of faster insight and ability to analyze across many projects
• Increased decision making from faster completion of key processes such as reducing the time to close and reconcile daily/monthly financial reports.

The Road Map Ahead

Validata’s goal is to double and even triple in size over the next 3 years. The company’s upcoming projects include testing for the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile testing and machine learning. Its promise is 10 times improvement in time to market, in efficiency and productivity when you use the power of Validata, and help clients in their journey to evolve from manual testing to adopting DevOps and Continuous Testing practices.

Illustration of Validata Group’s Success

“Our Banking System Transformation project is driven by our commitment to enhance and deepen member relationships in a competitive, and increasingly mobile, market. The Validata SAS platform ensures that Integris’ systems are high-performing, stable and reliable, so we can focus on our members’ needs.”

- Jeff Anderson, VP of IT, Integris Credit Union

“We opted for Validata after a rigorous and exhaustive selection process, where Validata demonstrated its core values as a trusted partner prepared to support us now and in the future. Our choice was based on the quality of the solution, their proven coverage of all of our existing applications and infrastructure and their domain knowledge which gave us the confidence that they have the necessary experience to support us through the challenges of this migration project.” 

- Anand Singh, Head of IT Management Office at Royal Bank of Canada, Caribbean

The Esteemed Founder

Vaios Vaitsis: Vaios has deep domain knowledge in data lifecycle management, BI and test analytics software, with 30+ years of experience having worked on two successful software startups. His software and operational experience with startups, his vision and strategic mind, his passion for listening to customers and his collaborative style of leadership makes him well qualified to lead and grow Validata. Validata has a combination of loyal marquee customers, innovative market tested products and amazingly talented people.

“I am honoured to continue working with such talented people dedicated to technology, innovation and passionate about listening to our clients.” - Vaios Vaitsis, CEO.

“Our goal is to enable our clients to implement, simulate and test systems that conventional virtualization fails to address. We want to continue to offer the best Dev-Test-Ops solutions our clients can buy.”