Nasdaq improve team performance & efficiency with Smart Test
Project Requirements
1. Enhance team efficiency and Workday usage
2. Eliminate human error during testing
3. Reinvest SMEs’ time into higher-value activities during updates
Project Results
In past year*:
1. Comparative FTE: 8 people
2. 205,197 tests ran annually
3. 2,017 hours saved during update testing
About Nasdaq
Nasdaq is a holding company founded in 1971, which engages in trading, exchanges, clearing, securities listing, regulatory, information, and other services involving public and private companies. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 4,800 employees spread over 39 offices throughout the world—in Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Investing in innovative technology
As one of the world’s most prominent multinational financial services corporations, Nasdaq stands as a leader for private and public companies, international markets, and investors across the globe. As such, the company needs to ensure that its own internal operations operate at peak efficiency.
To help achieve this, Nasdaq made the strategic decision to invest in Workday, beginning the deployment journey in late 2017, before going live with HCM in 2018 followed by Financials in April 2019.
“Nasdaq made the move to Workday, choosing a cloud-based solution that aligns with our values of innovative technology, driven by insights and forward thinking. Fittingly, Workday was also listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange,” explains Kai Bono, Senior Director & Project Manager of Nasdaq’s Finance Advisory Office.
Paving the way for Financials testing success
Shortly after going live with Workday HCM, Nasdaq recognised that testing its configuration would be critical to ensure seamless continuity of operations. Initially engaging Kainos to deploy Smart Test for HCM, news soon spread to Nasdaq’s internal financial function about the positive impact that the market leading, automated Workday testing tool had made.
Kai comments, “From the outset, we were committed to thoroughly testing our Financials configuration and with Workday already up and running for the HR side of the business, we entered conversations the technical people there to understand how we could achieve increased efficiencies across the board. They kept referring to Smart Test; I didn’t know what this was at the time, but I soon found out—it was exactly what we needed. So, just after going live with Financials and right before our first Workday release, we engaged the Kainos team to deploy Smart Test for Financials.”
The Impact of Smart Test
In the span of just one-year, Smart Test has saved a tremendous amount of time and expense for Nasdaq by automating testing efforts that, undertaken manually, would exceed that of eight full-time employees. Running 205,197 tests for Nasdaq, Smart Test has saved over 11,000 hours of work for the organization.
“Smart Test’s impact is huge, it’s an incredible time-saver—especially during the update windows. It’s reassuring for us that the test packs are executed weekly, so we don't have to worry about it at all. Quantifying that, if the same people were doing the same things that Smart does for us, they would have to work nearly ten times harder. In addition to this, the added expertise that Kainos brings to the table, gives us peace of mind that we know everything works as expected,” Kai confirms
"Smart’s impact is huge...it is a big time saver during the regression testing window, a very big time-saver. Kainos also provides expertise, so everything works as expected.”
“Currently maybe six people are involved in the integration testing, and that's pretty much it. Kainos does the packs and some custom report comparison; if we didn’t have Smart Test, we’d have to do everything that Kainos does manually. The same six people would have to spend three or four times more work on the regression testing than they do today.”
“Beyond the Smart Test tool, Kainos also provides us with the expertise of their team—I know I have a point person who is invested in my own team's success, and is always available to answer any questions about new features, bugs, or offer best-practice advice."
Letting SMEs be SMEs leads to update window success
Smart Test has also played an even greater strategic role in improving how end-users engage with Workday at Nasdaq—increasing efficiency, freeing up subject matter experts from exceptionally demanding update window activities, and so removing the opportunity for human error.
“Taking SMEs away from their areas of expertise to test a platform they have no intimate technical knowledge of, obviously you’ll run into issues. For instance, if you test the same thing 20 times in a row and you always get the same result, you’ll probably think that everything is okay. Cutting corners here and there can snowball. But Smart Test obviously doesn’t—it does exactly what we want it to do. Plus, because Kainos execute the test packs for us, as well as communicate what’s coming in the latest Workday releases, we’ve developed a better process for how we do the regression testing during the major updates. We have five or six windows behind us now, and our time is better spent exploring the new features on offer thanks to Smart Test saving us around 2,000 hours of testing during the update windows.”
A partnership evolves beyond the solution
Smart Test has given Kai and his team at Nasdaq increased peace of mind because they know they have Kainos experts on-hand to provide advice and support with updates, bugs, and anything else that arises—forming a truly ‘one-team’ approach to testing.
“Even though Smart Test is a technology solution, I feel that we are working with a person and not against some faceless machine. Beyond the tool itself, Kainos supplements our team with one of their testing experts who knows Workday inside out. I can chat with her about Workday—whether it's the items in the new release, a bug or whatever else I need. That added value was unexpected but most welcome.”
Achieving maximum Workday value with Smart Test
Thinking about the needs other companies may have when implementing or optimizing Workday, Kai shares some salient points that, in hindsight, may well have provided Nasdaq an even greater Workday experience with Smart Test.
“I would definitely bring Smart Test on before go-live. In an ideal world, where people just have an unlimited amount of time, they could be ready before go-live. But when you have to work with reality, then I would say be ready before the first new release after go-live.”
“It worked out very well for us, that we worked with Kainos on the test scripts right after go-live, before the first new release. I would feel for the company who wouldn't have a plan going for the first new release. Smart Test has been a fantastic investment for Nasdaq that is paying dividends when it comes to updates and general testing—it saves time, money, and we’re consistently coming up with better end results.”