Atoma: Taking the worry out of go-lives
Atoma software helps banks speed up the testing of new and upgraded software, cutting not just cost but also risk, writes Chris Li
Banks and financial institutions face significant, unavoidable costs every time new software is installed to deliver new products and services and whenever software solutions are upgraded or enhanced. The controls and management of that software and its testing required takes up resources and can create risks – and often does not, per se, improve the value of the product or service it serves.
Atoma addresses exactly these issues, streamlining the upgrade and testing processes with efficient tools that can speed the time-to-market of new or enhanced applications. During the implementation of new software and upgrades, banks find it difficult to test their systems on real-life situations. It is often uneconomic for them to develop accurate, robust test cases. This is where Atoma comes in.
Atoma provides dedicated Temenos software-testing tools and test cases for banks implementing new systems, changing or upgrading their software that reproduce the real-life conditions banking software faces day-to-day.
Software implementation partners generally limit their remit to project management and may work with multiple vendors. They don’t specialise in developing robust test cases designed specifically for Temenos. When Atoma works on the project, we become a powerful part of the implementation armoury, cutting risk and installation time, and increasing efficiency.
Atoma, in one form or another, has been working with Temenos since 2004. In 2009, we became a Temenos Complementary Partner. Drawing on our technicians’ long experience of testing the Temenos core platform we’ve created a set of tools that use robotic process automation – software that mimics humans carrying out a task within a process – to spot problems before the go-live. These may be set-up requirements based on wrong calculations, for example, errors that are hard to find. Our tools speed up testing and ensure the best possible launch, cutting risk and keeping costs down, too.
Banks using Atoma’s tools typically see a 90 per cent faster test cycle, with financial savings of up to 60 per cent and manpower savings of up to 50 per cent. But the benefits aren’t limited to faster testing; the sooner a bank can go live, the sooner it can offer its customers a better user experience and benefit from greater efficiencies and improved functionality, helping speed up return on investment.
Atoma has two product suites: TestIntelligence is designed for managing, executing, automating and tracking testing; ReleaseIntelligence manages change and release deployment, constantly monitoring software performance. Both can be automated or manual, and have full audit trails as well as security and reporting facilities.
TestIntelligence modules include PerformanceStudio, which allows banks to plan, design and track Temenos testing, while TestAssistant is a dedicated tool that lets them use exploratory, agile or traditional approaches to testing. Using TestStudio, banks can fully automate their Temenos testing and keep detailed execution logs. The tests can be reused to create real-world scenarios to generate stress and load simulation. Finally, TutorialStudio offers programs to help banks build their own simulations for user training.
The ReleaseIntelligence Suite’s ChangeManager is a version and audit control tool. Fully configurable, it works with single, multi and clustered Temenos environments. EnvironmentManager provides a safe and secure home for identifying and accessing development, test, UAT, pre-production, production and disaster-recovery environments. ComparisonTool facilitates the rapid and reliable comparison of any Temenos environment based on code and Temenos parameter files to identify the root cause of any issue identified during testing.
All this adds up to more robust testing cycles that result in lower risks when going live.
Chris Li is Chief Executive Officer of Atoma