Aptiv strengthen their global strategy with Smart Test
Project Requirements
- Global approach to testing to support strategic objectives
- Increase quality control for audit, compliance & risk management
- Expand testing beyond updates
- Reinvest SME’s time into higher value activities
Project Results
- 112,000 tests ran annually
- 1,500+ hours saved during update testing
- 80% reduction in testers required
About Aptiv
Aptiv is a global manufacturing and technology company at the forefront of solving mobility’s toughest challenges, designing and building innovative technology for a safer, greener, and more connected world. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Aptiv operates a 160,000 strong work force to support efforts across 126 manufacturing sites and 12 major technical centres throughout 44 countries.
Taking HR on a journey of global processes
With several disconnected legacy systems across HR and recruiting, Aptiv sought a consolidated and streamlined approach. In 2012, Aptiv purchased Workday as part of the company’s strategic objective to transition to one global, centralised system for HR.
Alison McLachlan, Global HRIS Operations Manager at Aptiv, comments “Our goal for implementing Workday was to achieve a global system with transparency of data across all countries for HR, enabling the leadership team to drive key business decisions.”
Global roll-out intensifies resource pressure
During the Workday update periods, Aptiv would find themselves facing several obstacles with people capacity and time, stretching their team to maximum capacity to test their new Workday configuration.
“Our dedicated Workday team has six people, so we only had bandwidth to test thoroughly during Workday update periods—we weren’t achieving any weekly coverage. It was simply unachievable for six people on a global scale,” Alison explains.
Alison adds, “We’d have to put lot of other work on hold during the update windows, which required a reassessment of priorities to fit it in. Because we operated a wholly manual approach to testing– we divided up test cases between us and tracked them in Excel spreadsheets. This sort of manual testing was never welcomed because of other conflicting priorities. How much time is this going to take me? And what do you need me to do? How long do I have to do it? Our team was completely maxed, we needed a way to test smarter with the resources that we had available.”
Workday growth limited by test coverage risks
The challenge of manually testing across multiple countries presented Aptiv with concerns of increased risk around quality, security, and compliance. Alison describes, “Knowing that we had numerous different hands testing across different countries and different languages, made it harder to assess whether there were any manual risks or errors taking place. It also posed the challenge of being unable to verify the quality of every test case being executed.”
Krysta Hartwick, HRIS Security & Configuration Lead, comments, “As we’re a large public company, one of our top priorities is audit and compliance. It’s what we pride ourselves on—successfully navigating all of our internal and external audit procedures. And so, we understand that we need to give a lot of attention to controls and audits, but Workday security is complex. Couple that with the natural human error that comes with manual testing, and there’s an elevated risk of something being missed or not tested as thoroughly as it should be.”
It became clear, Aptiv needed to safeguard their Workday configuration to allow them to scale their operations on a truly global level.
The impact of Smart Test
In 2015, Aptiv went to market for a test automation product for their Workday system. Searching for a solution to alleviate resource constraints whilst also increasing their test coverage, Aptiv decided to purchase Smart Test.
“We met Kainos while networking at Workday Rising a number of years ago, it was obvious they were the leading experts in Workday testing. The real selling point for us was learning that Workday was a Smart Test customer. We thought to ourselves—if this product is good enough for Workday, it’s got to be good enough for us!” says Alison.
Since going live with Smart Test's HCM, Security and Integrations in 2015, Aptiv has reduced their update testing time by 80%, transformed their weekly testing reaching over 1,500 tests per week, and reduced their update-testing costs by $80,000.
Increased efficiencies free up HRIS team
Since implementing Smart Test, Aptiv have benefitted from reduced testing costs, efforts and time spent on updates. Furthermore, it has allowed the team to refocus their efforts into strategic activities and utilise bandwidth to capitalise on each update’s new functionality.
Alison describes, “We run a very lean operation, and so prioritisation of time is critical. Utilising our team’s expertise in the combination of Workday knowledge and the ability to work with our business leads on the right items at the right times, having their time be focused on work that is critical versus doing manual test cases.”
Today at Aptiv, SMEs contribute to testing only in cases where their functional expertise adds genuine value, meaning that projects and business priorities are better supported to stay on track. “Because we have Smart Test packs for updates, we no longer need to pause or slow projects down to accommodate the update periods.,” Alison adds.
Comprehensive testing safeguards security and compliance
With security and audit high on the agenda, Aptiv were keen to join forces with a trustworthy partner who could support their global strategic objectives. Krysta explains, “We worked with the Kainos Smart Test team to outline how we take a global and complex company, but also narrow down to what’s the right start and the right foundation of our key business processes and how we look across our tool at the right things to focus on and test.”
Krysta continues, “Smart Test instills confidence and peace of mind for us—it’s a reassurance that we’re not missing anything. Although we are meticulous on how we handle security and configuration changes, there are Workday updates that Smart Test continues to catch for us on a weekly and monthly basis which we wouldn’t be able to pick up. Smart Test provides us with a lot of comfort and reassurance all year round, not just the big updates. The reporting tools and the ability to not just run tests, but the ability to articulate what we’ve done, and how, is also important for us. That full history and audit trail which Smart Test provides, means we can satisfy audit and compliance at the click of a button.”
“Kainos is a key partner for us being able to feel confident, in the quality of the product that we secure and maintain, and the accuracy with which we test, in which we ensure the security, in terms of data and data integrity, and data security are all maintained,” Krysta concludes.
A great partnership built for future success
Smart Test has provided the HRIS team with increased confidence and enhanced control over their Workday configuration, security and resources. The team is impressed by the level of customer service delivered by Kainos and looks forward to continuing the expansion of testing beyond updates.
Alison comments, “We utilise Smart Test as an extension of our team, but with the ability to be automated, accurate and secure, without having to worry about the limitations of doing those test cases manually. Kainos are what we consider to be the best in breed, and we believe Smart Test is the tool of choice and the best one to be using. We’re so pleased with the Kainos team. Whenever we need it, we’ve always had leadership support. We’ve probably connected with almost every layer of their Workday Practice – everyone has been so approachable and hands on supporting us. In particular, what works really well for us is the global network at Kainos which enables us to work alongside people that are on the ground and local to us.”