Nasdaq improve team performance & efficiency with Smart Test
Project Requirements
Project Results
About Nasdaq
Nasdaq is a financial services business which engages in trading, exchanges, clearing, securities listing and regulatory information. Headquartered in New York City, Nasdaq 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,” 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, it was clear that it could have a massive impact on for Workday Financials.
Kai comments, “From the outset, we were committed to thoroughly testing our Financials configuration. With Workday already up and running for HR, we entered conversations with our HCM team to understand how we could replicate this.
"Smart Test 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
Smart Test has since delivered massive time and cost savings by automating testing efforts that, previously would have taken eight full-time employees. Running 205,197 tests for Nasdaq, Smart Test saves over 11,000 hours of work annually 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."
Update window success: Letting SMEs be SMEs
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. Smart Test does exactly what we need it to do.
"Because Kainos build the test packs for us and communicate what’s coming in the latest Workday releases, we’ve developed a better process for how we regression test during major updates. Smart Test saving us around 2,000 hours of testing during the update windows so, our time is spent exploring new features on offer.”
A partnership evolves beyond the solution
Smart Test has also provided increased peace of mind. Nasdaq 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.”