TBC Bank

Based in the country of Georgia in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, TBC Bank was founded in 1992 with initial capital of US $500. Today, TBC Bank is a leading Georgian bank, serving one million individual consumers and businesses. In 2013, the bank won two global sub-category awards in Consumer Internet Banking: The Best Integrated Internet Bank Site in the World and The Best Bill Payment & Presentment in the World. TBC Bank is the first Georgian bank to gain such world-wide recognition from the prestigious financial publication, Global Finance Magazine. Additional plaudits have come from Euromoney, Global Finance, and EMEA Finance magazines—all of which named TBC Bank as the “Best Bank in Georgia 2012.”

Business Need

One of the key corporate objectives of the Business Analysis and Quality Assurance Department at TBC Bank is to ensure that internal software functions efficiently for all of the 2,900 employees at the bank’s 100 locations. The applications are the lifeblood of the company.

“Employees must quickly access information and transact banking business accurately for our customers,” says Iulia Meladze, a Head of the Quality Assurance Team for TBC Bank. “If applications do not perform properly, we can’t deliver the level of customer service that has turned us into one of the leading banks in Georgia.”

To build and maintain the bank’s internal applications, an in-house development team collaborates with an outside software development company. Internal bank personnel then test and monitor the applications to ensure necessary performance levels. In 2011, the bank created the Business Analysis and Quality Assurance Department to increase the number of resources that focused of this critical task.

“As we launched the new quality assurance team, we wanted to reduce time spent on preparing application test cases, which we found required much more time than running the actual tests,” says Meladze. “Creating application tests is rather complex in the banking industry—loan applications, for example, include many data fields for which we need to test the processing logic.”

In searching for a solution to address this challenge, Meladze and the quality assurance team at TBC Bank specifically wanted to automate regression tests, which the bank runs every time it receives a core banking system application and large system updates.

“Previously, testing was conducted by different bank departments,” Meladze says. “In addition to centralizing the testing function inside the company, we wanted to standardize our testing processes. We thus needed an advanced technology solution to achieve this objective and help us work more efficiently.”

Another key attribute TBC Bank sought within an application testing solution was simplicity—so personnel with limited technical background could write testing scripts easily. The ability to test applications created using the Delphi programming language was also critical.

Meladze conducted online research and discovered SmartBear TestComplete and several other tools offered possible solutions. After conducting extended demos on each of the solutions, Meladze and the quality assurance team then selected TestComplete.

Solution

Effective for advanced and novice testers, TestComplete offers an intuitive software tool for automated testing. Users can create, maintain, and perform tests for any desktop, Web, or rich client software. “For us, another key differentiator was the ability to test our Delphi applications,” Meladze says. “None of the other tools we considered could fully support Delphi to the same extent as TestComplete.”

The automated testing that TestComplete enables allows TBC Bank to measure application performance more thoroughly while also freeing up additional time for manual testing, exploratory testing, and test maintenance. “Another bonus is the informative training and user guide SmartBear provides with TestComplete,” Meladze adds. “Our team quickly picked up how to use the basic functions, but it helps to supplement this approach with formal training and documentation that allows us to capitalize on the advanced features.”

“We thoroughly tested several competitive products, but SmartBear TestComplete was the only solution with the perfect mix for meeting all of our requirements at a cost-effective price,”

— Iulia Meladze, Head of the Quality Assurance Team

Benefits and results

When existing business applications go through changes, the TBC Bank quality assurance team can now more quickly test each application before it goes into production. The entire team, which consists of non-developers, has found SmartBear TestComplete easy to use. “Script creation is very intuitive,” Meladze says. “Even users with limited technical backgrounds find they can create the scripts within a minimal amount of time. We also find it easy to interpret the reports that TestComplete generates. We can pinpoint the cause of problems and provide valuable feedback to our developer partner.”

By leveraging SmartBear TestComplete to create a more efficient methodology for testing the internal applications that drive day-to-day operations, TBC Bank can also efficiently maintain the level of service it delivers to customers. “With more immediate information on how applications perform, we can provide feedback to our development partner that enables higher-quality applications,” Meladze says. “When applications run more reliably and faster, our customers receive service and information faster.”

With the improved ability to test applications before employees rely on them to provide information and services to customers, TBC Bank is well positioned to continue the award-winning success it has achieved in recent years. “We have reduced the overall average application testing timeline from several weeks down to several hours,” Meladze points out. “That means software improvements go into production faster, and the quality of software has also increased significantly. The number service requests we receive from end users has also decreased sharply.”

Business Challenges

Reduce the time required to created application test scripts.
Ensure internal software functions properly so employees can quickly access information and transact banking business accurately for customers.
Enable non-technical quality assurance staff to easily generate testing scripts.
Develop tests for applications created with the Delphi programming language.

SmartBear TestComplete Solution

Allows non-technical personnel to write testing scripts through intuitive interface.
Delivers the only testing solution with full support for Delphi applications.
Offers overall best balance of features and cost compared to other tested products.
Enables users to easily acquire basic skill functions.
Provides training and documentation for users requiring advanced skills.

Measurable Results

Reduces testing process from several weeks to several hours.
Generates reports that easily identify application issues for developer feedback.
Enables software updates to reach end users faster.
Facilitates software enhancements to help improve customer service.

Key Products