Brock University saves $330,000 annually with Kainos Smart Test for Workday
$330,000
7,250
5
98%
"The business case for Smart Test almost wrote itself. Adding up the team members’ salaries across the weeks they would each spend per year on testing, it was clear the payback would be quick. But on the other side, it was about risk mitigation as well, because the team simply didn’t have capacity to carry out the level of security testing required."
About Brock University
Founded in 1964, Brock University is one of Canada’s top learning institutions. Although a relatively new university, Brock has quickly expanded to become one of the most respected higher education bodies in the country. Today, the university boasts world-class facilities, hosting over 900 staff and more than 19,000 students across seven diverse faculties.
Sleepless nights on the journey to Workday adoption
After the retirement of a key staff member in charge of the upkeep of financial systems, an urgent decision was taken to replace Brock University's legacy software. The team began looking for suitable solutions, with a scalable, cloud-based product recommended by the university’s auditors. After a rigorous procurement process, it chose Workday and went live with Workday Financials six months later.
“Overhauling our legacy, on-premise system to Workday’s cloud-based offering was both absolutely necessary and incredibly daunting,” explains Josh Sekel, Workday Project Lead. “Having previously run the IT department at the School of Business for 13 years, I was brought in to oversee implementation. But with a small team of just 10 people, it was a challenge to stay on top of testing.”
Testing times for Brock University
Brock was the first university in Canada to migrate a major back-office system to the cloud. This meant the team had to contend with additional scrutiny from auditors so a through testing strategy was imperative.
“Because we were the first higher Ed in Canada to move to the cloud for any major system, there was an extra bit of scrutiny to make sure that things were working as expected. I think if we were to redo things today, there wouldn’t be any concerns, but everyone was nervous and that put a lot of pressure on us to make sure everything was working and secure,” Josh added.
Extensive regression testing was a must to ensure any updates or organisational changes didn’t impact existing functionality. This challenge was exacerbated by the fact that this process required the input of directors and senior managers from multiple teams and faculties. This increased costs and prevented senior staff from focusing on high-value tasks during testing windows.
Brock University also encountered numerous problems while running manual tests using spreadsheets. “Testing was probably the hardest part of the project. For that first year, senior members of the team did all the testing, and it was all manual and spreadsheet-based,” Josh explains. “This meant that we’d lose a couple of weeks’ worth of work across the senior team every six months. So, the testing alone was extremely expensive and inefficient.”
Hunting for an automated solution
It became clear that the university needed to take responsibility for testing out of the hands of senior directors and automation was key to this. Saving time and resources were high on the list of drivers for a new testing solution. After meeting Kainos at a Workday event, Brock University saw that Smart Test was a best-in-class solution.
As a public sector organisation, the university had to go through an official tendering process but found no suitable alternative to Kainos Smart Test. It signed on with Smart Test for finance and security testing.
“The business case for Smart Test almost wrote itself,” Josh explains. “Adding up the team members’ salaries across the weeks they would each spend per year on testing, it was clear the payback would be quick. But on the other side, it was about risk mitigation as well, because the team simply didn’t have capacity to carry out the level of security testing required.”
Seamless onboarding for maximum efficiency
There was a high level of collaboration between Brock University and Kainos to set up and begin running tests as quickly and efficiently as possible. The relevant stakeholders from within the university consulted with Kainos’ testing experts to ensure a comprehensive testing approach.
To ensure tests were set up and running as efficiently as possible, Brock opted to work with Kainos’ team of Workday testing experts. The Kainos team consulted with relevant stakeholders to produce a comprehensive set of testing requirements. Kainos configured tests to ensure that all business process were accounted for. This approach allowed the university to enjoy the full benefits of Smart Test as quickly as possible, streamlining the process and avoiding any potential delays.
Fast, efficient testing saves time and money
With Kainos Smart Test in place, Brock University was able to drive immediate and significant cost savings. Finance testing now takes under five hours from start to finish. In total, the team runs in the region of 45,000 automated tests each year, saving an estimated 7,250 hours of work, the equivalent of five people’s roles. Overall, the university saves nearly $332,000 per year compared to the previous manual testing process.
The benefits don’t just amount to cost and time savings. It’s also about being able to support the university and its people, and ultimately preserve reputation, whilst providing peace of mind for the testing team.
"If you have downtime on Workday because of a lack of testing, it has the potential to implicate critical areas of the business i.e. payroll,” explains Josh. “But now I can go to bed on a Friday without setting an alarm for the Saturday, because I can be confident the system will work as tested. Preventing these kinds of issues is less expensive than the Smart Test license.”
Signing on for the long term
Josh and the Brock University team have been so impressed by the benefits of Smart Test that they’ve just entered into a long-term partnership with Kainos. This will ensure that they continue to have end-to-end testing and peace of mind well into the future.
“The fact that we wanted to sign on for five years is a good indication we’re really happy with the product, because typically most of our agreements are three-years,” Josh concludes. “The level of customer service, the peace of mind, and money saved by Smart Test made committing to an extension a no-brainer for me.”