LTPB Driving Towards Total Customer Satisfaction

Lloyds TSB Private Banking (LTPB) is part of one of the world's largest banking organisations, Lloyds TSB Group. Unlike the typical high street services that are associated with retail banking, LTPB provides high-end asset management services to high-net-worth clients. LTPB provides advice and services to these clients who usually have an excess of £100,000 liquid assets to invest in stocks, shares, insurance and other asset management facilities.

As a business that is changing and evolving at a rapid pace, LTPB is keen to implement change as fast, as safely and least disruptively to the business as possible. At the 'bleeding edge' of the financial services Industry, it cannot afford to make mistakes. The Barings disaster is a classic example of the lack of real-time access to information. LTPB needs to ensure that accurate and timely information is delivered to its clients.

Changes to the Financial Services Industry
In the financial services industry, almost all business processes are now fully automated and systemised. As banking customers, we all want instant access to our accounts and information. The Internet and New Economy financial organisations have revolutionised this demand for instant gratification and a service-oriented culture. The business impact on the ability of a Bank to meet the demands of its customers is enormous. Technology has moved from a back-office requirement driven by the question, 'can it work?' to a board-room decision to 'make it work even better'.

The testing of new technology solutions before 'go live' is now imperative, as is the need for constant access to 'real-time' information. In the financial world, downtime can cost millions!

Background
The IT systems that support the private banking business fall into the mission-critical category. LTPB's IT department develop support and business applications to ensure the smooth running of the asset management business. Managing transactions with funds of this size has ensured that LTPB has very advanced interfaces for processing transactions and capturing account information. LTPB is therefore recognised for its pole position within the Lloyds TSB Group in terms of software development. As the business has evolved, so have the demands on software development and testing.

The Head of IT Development, LTPB comments: - "As IT service delivery has changed, this has meant that the rest of the organisation has become much more demanding of the services delivered by the IT department. This is because we have seen an increase in the complexity of technology and an increase in overall demand owing to changes in technology, the Internet being one of the most obvious examples."

LTPB recognised that it needed specialist help with its software testing and decided to undertake an evaluation of the market, attending a number of relevant seminars to understand who the key players were. Through this evaluation LTPB became aware of SQS-UK, an independent testing organisation, and after a few introductory conversations became convinced that SQS-UK had both the vision and practical experience to develop LTPB's testing methodology, which would help the business evolve more quickly.

The Head of IT Development, LTPB remarked; "SQS-UK looked at where we were and where we could be. SQS-UK then planned a way to get us there and helped us to execute the plan. In other words SQS-UK helped us to articulate our business needs, which at the outset were fairly vague and then provided a pragmatic and disciplined search approach to identify the software bugs in our system, so these could be fixed before they damaged us in the market."

The start of a long-term relationship
The relationship with SQS-UK started in the mid-1990s when LTPB implemented three-tier client/server architecture and realised that this more complex environment would require more sophisticated testing and new competencies for testing.

The relationship has evolved over time as LTPB's needs have evolved. The Test Manager, LTPB, views SQS-UK's strengths as follows:

"SQS-UK had a vision, breadth of services and solid consultancy advice on test strategies that was second to none. SQS-UK offered equally strong support in tools, test automation and resource management and a well managed and administered relationship".

On-line e-commerce transactions
The real test for SQS-UK 's capabilities has emerged over recent months as LTPB was tasked with the challenge of implementing a new e-commerce solution. LTPB will provide an e-commerce channel to all of its customers. This is a very visible solution and it is absolutely crucial that it works. This has resulted in LTPB reviewing not only its testing approach, but also the competency of individuals within the organisation to meet these new demands.

Through this review SQS-UK has helped LTPB to understand the risks associated with this new channel to customers, to understand more about e-commerce solutions and to focus the effort accordingly. In addition, LTPB approached SQS-UK to invite them to help evaluate all third-party test tools on its behalf. SQS-UK completed the evaluation using tMosaic™, the industry's fastest method for producing test automation suites, to ensure that third-party tools were compatible with LTPB's internal applications. In addition, SQS-UK worked with LTPB to help them acquire these competencies internally, to transfer skills from SQS-UK to LTPB.

"Testing as a topic has evolved in the Board Room. Initially, senior managers were sceptical about its cost and value. Now they are definitely interested. They know it is a key differentiator in the e-commerce area and they know the right questions to ask. Customer relationship is paramount. If we can perfect the delivery system we can sell all sorts of services that will deliver a competitive advantage. My testers are the most marketable people in the team today." LTPB's Test Manager concludes.

Moving forward, LTPB will continue to work closely with SQS-UK as an independent organisation, able to provide expert, unbiased advice on business and software development projects, especially in the e-commerce field. LTPB's business is constantly changing and evolving and it needs to feel confident and secure about the steps it implements to take the business into new areas.

Bob Bartlett, Managing Director, SQS-UK says: "We understand that with every business change comes the opportunity for business failure, so we recommend a continuous state of vigilance with our continuous testing strategy so that your business can continue to evolve more quickly than the competition.