An international bank attains 100% stable, scalable, and reusable with automated Model Risk Management System (MRMS) testing.
Automation testing improves efficiency for bank
Common Tag: Cloud
Automation testing improves efficiency for bank
Banking
Model risk system’s automation testing improves efficiency
An international bank attains 100% stable, scalable, and reusable with automated Model Risk Management System (MRMS) testing.
Client
A top international bank
Goal
To acquire a scalable, more efficient testing automation framework for the Model Risk Management System (MRMS)
Tools and technologies
Java, Selenium, Maven, TestNG, and Git
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client’s existing Model Risk Management System (MRMS) application framework was inefficient in handling functional testing aspects and risk scenarios. Built on redundant, hard to debug, and non-scalable code, the system was unreliable for model risk testing. The test cases and controls were maintained and executed in Excel, affecting the parallel workflow abilities and tempering the testing results for the bank. The manual process and repetitious code were affecting the quality of deliverables, and maintaining the system was costing much. Running automated, data-driven/ lengthy, and end-to-end test flows— was the prime challenge for the client.
SOLUTION
Our automation and testing experts developed a lightweight and scalable framework that enabled 100% automated regression testing of the functional test cases for the model risk applications. Catering to the client’s specific needs, we built the new framework using a simplified, customizable code that separated the automation utilities and test functions. The solution eliminated manual effort aiming at faster test case execution and catching the testing issues at integration points. The traceable and easy-to-maintain code allowed seamless adaptability of multiple application areas.
OUTCOMES
The delivered solution helped the client to:
- Acquire a 100% stable, scalable, reusable, and fully automated test framework
- Reduce the maintenance time up to 90%
- Save $18,000 and 720 labor hours per year
- Identify approximately 20% more system defects of the existing system and address those post automation
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Get in touchIT modernization lowers costs for Capital Market
Financial Services
IT modernization lowers costs for Capital Market
Age-old applications built on legacy technologies were affecting the client’s investment banking functions. Iris modernized the existing application architecture and helped the client save tremendous costs and turnaround time.
Client
A major financial institution
Goal
Re-engineer key compliance application for greater efficiency
Tools and technologies
Oracle 12c, 19c, Elastic, Java and Kafka
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client’s existing database application architecture was resulting in poor performance that was adversely affecting 10,000 investment banking functions. The age-old application posture was disrupting the compliance process for the global M&A, IPO, and other financing deals. The client’s customers were encountering problems such as regulations access, inconsistent or unusable data/deal search results, lagging database updates, delayed response time. The need for a capable system to support duplicate searches, and increasing ad-hoc IT redress efforts and costs were other prime concerns.
SOLUTION
Our tech experts re-engineered the entire compliance application and set up a new software system. We upgraded selective elements to improve the infrastructure performance and usage feasibility. The modernized system with new technology architecture streamlined processes and enabled faster, more advanced interactions between the information databases, search queries, and retrieval mechanisms. Complex procedures and the process of viewing features were also simplified.
OUTCOMES
The solution improved the user experience, turnarounds, data quality, deal compliance, and risk management processes while lowering the costs. Major impacts of the solution include:
- Reduced system issues by 93%, while 7% tackled subsequently
- Reduced enterprise-level license costs significantly
- Improved advanced search features
- Reduced costs of multiple searches per document by $200,000 per year
- Enabled views generation for info responses in <3 seconds
- Reduced system maintenance and development efforts by 20%
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Get in touchSFTR solution strengthened market leadership
Risk & Compliance
Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) compliance made easy
A global trading company solidifies its EU market leadership with regulatory solution and supporting to a throughput of 6 million transactions per hour
Client
A leading provider of market data and trading services
Goal
Support complex regulatory reporting with automated solution
Tools and technologies
Java, Spring Boot, Apache Camel, CXF, Drools BRE, Oracle, JBoss Fuse, Elasticsearch, Git, Bitbucket, Sonar, Maven
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client offers an automated, integrated solution to its clients in the European Union (EU) for complying with the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). Effective in recent years, SFTR requires timely and detailed reporting based on multitudes of data, systems, collateral, and lifecycle events. The voluminous data is captured from hundreds of millions of daily transactions made to multiple trade repositories registered by the European Securities and Markets Authorities (ESMA). Non-compliance at any stage is risky, potentially very costly, for all trade counterparties, i.e., broker-dealers, banks, asset managers, institutional investors.
SOLUTION
Experienced in diverse technologies, big data, and capital markets, team Iris developed a streamlined, end-to-end data reporting platform with complex trade matching and monitoring systems. Improving speed, accuracy, and flexibility, the new architecture supports high trade concurrency and acceptance rates with parallel processing of millions of transactions. The delivered solution also enabled optimal load balancing and matched the reconciliation at the trade repository. Built with microservices to accommodate future scalability, standardization, data quality, and security requirements, the system implemented functional enhancements. A Unique Transaction Identifier (UTI) subsystem was also developed for sharing and matching counterparty transactions, enabling plug-and-play setup for new repositories, and supporting any changes in outbound or inbound data report formats required by ESMA or clients. Improved dashboards and search pages helped the end-users in better configuration and tracking of their transactions.
OUTCOMES
The nimble delivery and successful roll-out of the new SFTR platform delivered the desired strategic competitive advantage to the client for maintaining its EU market leader position. The consolidated solution also helped in:
- Generating additional revenue from extending the new reporting services to 17 firms.
- Beating the industry benchmark (~91%), achieving a higher transaction acceptance rate (~97%), and match reconciliation at the trade repository.
- Supporting a high throughput of 6 million transactions per hour which is scalable up to 10 million.
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Get in touchGlobal Standards organization increases business agility
Standards & Membership
Global Standards organization increases business agility
Existing applications supporting the business were built on monolith architecture with high technical debt. Iris transformed over 15 years old monolith applications into microservices with automated integration and cloud deployment to deliver faster MVPs.
Client
A non-profit global organization responsible for developing and maintaining standards, including barcodes with over 115 local member organizations and over 2 million user companies
Business Drivers
To deliver MVPs in shorter cycles, reduce Mean Time for Ticket Resolution (MTTR), and lower the total cost of ownership
Technologies and Frameworks
C#/.NET Core, Python/DJango, NodeJS/Express, Azure WAF, Azure APIM, App Services, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Monitor, Application Insights
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client had a suite of legacy applications to generate barcodes that are scanned globally over 6 million times a day. These applications were built on monolithic architectures using heavy-weight application servers and outdated technologies. This architecture was causing long development cycles, making the organization less competitive. Developers’ productivity was also dropping due to high technical debt.
SOLUTION
Azure cloud offered some of the foundational features like container orchestration, app engine, integration, API gateway, monitoring and others, making cloud-specific modernization a natural choice.
Modernization strategy involved reverse engineering of on-premise applications, domain-specific grouping the product backlogs by, adopting domain-driven design, and using open source cloud-friendly software with CI/CD pipeline. We transformed the applications to a .NET core framework using cloud-native design principles on Azure cloud. The solution was developed using Azure App Services, front door and service bus following the agile development approach with two-week sprints.
OUTCOMES
Iris helped the client realize multiple business benefits, including higher agility, resiliency and cost-efficient IT operations. Key outcomes of this cloud modernization engagement are:
- Reduction in Mean Time for Ticket Resolution (MTTR) by 30%
- Increase in application and infrastructure uptime to 99.9%
- Real-time visibility of application and infra metrics
- Enabled bi-weekly MVP delivery
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Get in touchPandemic pivot from physical to online tests
Education
Pandemic pivot from physical to online tests
System modernization helped a multinational educational testing and assessment organization overcome COVID-19 disruptions to deliver seamless and accurate digital testing.
Client
A leading U.S.-based educational testing and assessment services company
Goal
Switch from in-person to online testing
Tools and technologies
AWS Serverless, Dynamo DB, Node.js, Typescript, Java, Jenkins, and Angular
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Our client, which provides educational testing and assessment services, faced an existential threat with the pandemic-era lockdowns and social distancing
requirements. The testing centers it operated at physical locations were unable to open, leaving thousands of students worldwide in a state of uncertainty.
Our client had to switch from in-person testing centers to a digital-first or online
testing solution almost overnight. To achieve that, it had to migrate rapidly from legacy systems to the cloud. It also needed to ensure the sanctity and accuracy of its tests while delivering a seamless digital experience to its customers. Other challenges included the ability to dynamically scale up or scale down capacity in response to demand, maintain acceptable service levels, and enable thousands of
expert test raters’ to access and evaluate tests.
SOLUTION
Iris Software stepped in to facilitate a strategic digital pivot in the business model to secure the company’s future. Modernization efforts that were underway at the company even before the pandemic were accelerated as a digital upgrade became imperative. We shifted the data stored on legacy infrastructure was to the cloud. Our team developed a new testing interface that would work overnight across devices, geographies, and different internet connections. Switching the testing operations to the cloud with scalable capacity could help manage the surge in the number of users for the tests Iris also deployed automation and AI tools to deliver superior experiences for test raters. Those who faced challenges while attempting to grade tests were provided with an always-on AI-based solution to automate the troubleshooting and ticketing process.
OUTCOMES
The client now has scalable, digital-first testing capabilities to meet all its testing requirements.
- Cloud-based testing ensures that students, evaluators, and employees have access on-demand.
- The remote testing options are accurate, secure and safe from external threats.
- A strong focus on automation and user experience has allowed for optimized online offerings.
- Surges in demand for tests can be met rapidly and at scale with minimal intervention.
- Thanks to the always-on cloud offerings, service levels are easily maintained.
- The successful digital pivot has led to strong interest in a hybrid operating model to safeguard the business from threats in the future.
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Get in touchPowering shop floor efficiency with data analytics
Manufacturing
Powering efficiency on the shop floor
An Iris innovation helped a diesel engine manufacturer eliminate production bottlenecks.
Client
A leading diesel engine manufacturer
Goal
Reduce bottlenecks on the production line that arise from last-minute changes to orders and ensure compliance with build instructions
Tools and technologies
Windows, SQL Server, C#, .NET, ESB, HTML5, Angular, GitHub, JIRA, Visual Studio, and WebStrom
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
A diesel engine manufacturer based in Detroit faced frequent production delays. The cause of the inefficiency was its build book system. The manufacturer used a printed build book to communicate the specifications of the engine being built to the production floor. But, often after the book was sent to the shop floor, the manufacturer had to make changes to specifications. In such cases, those working on the production line would not be able to use the printed build book. Waiting for a reprinted book would halt production. As a result, the changes were usually communicated outside the manual and assumed to be followed. If the new specifications weren’t followed, they would be discovered only in quality assurance, leading to a loss of time and dollars.
SOLUTION
The client wanted a solution to resolve bottlenecks created by the printed build book and ensure compliance with build instructions. Ideally, the build book is dynamically pushed onto a handheld device assigned to the shop floor. The system would allow managers to update the specifications in the build book on the fly and alert the production team to the changes.
The device would also communicate the status of production to managers. For example, they would know which work center is working on an engine so that relevant pages of the build book could be updated and displayed to those work centers.
Iris custom-built an application that allowed real-time updates of the build book. It was designed to push the build book to work center operators on V10 devices (RFID transponders) with screen sizes ranging from 3 inches to 10 inches. The solution included a consolidated dashboard that provided the management near real-time visibility of work centers and the status of the engine production.
OUTCOMES
During Phase 1 of the project, we deployed 250 V10 devices. After a pilot run of four weeks, the client stopped printing build books; the handheld devices with our application were a superior alternative. The solution helped eliminate printing costs and allowed the manufacturer to accommodate last-minute changes in specifications without disrupting production.
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Get in touchThe power of in-sprint automation
Automation
The power of in-sprint automation
A large securities firm sped up time-to-market with end-to-end test automation on the cloud.
Client
A leading securities trading firm.
Goal
Build a cloud-based automation framework to test client’s trading platform.
Tools and technologies
C#, Ranorex, TestRail, Simulators and Selenium.
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Reporting transformation with data science and AI
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BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The client had a legacy trading platform that had a stack of 33 applications built on various technologies and architectures. Testing new features and additions was a challenge. A simple change in one feature would warrant verification of the entire application.
Extensive regression testing and verification were needed to ensure that changes in one feature do not affect functionality elsewhere. This was a cumbersome process with some 30,000 test cases being checked and executed manually by more than 20 people. The client also had multiple squads working on different apps and functionalities that it was a challenge to ensure that changes made by one squad did not impact the overall functionality of the platform. The brief for Iris was to design and deploy a common cloud-based test automation framework to enable faster launch of new features.
SOLUTION
Using its cloud-based ready-to-deploy test automation framework, Iris sped up deployment of new features. The Amazon Web Services based solution featured continuous testing of products on a common framework layer. It enabled capacity planning of spinned cloud instances and need-based shutdowns.
Iris executed the project using acceptance test driven development (ATDD), a methodology that involves collaboration between customers, business and development teams. What was unique about the approach? Typically, automation is introduced towards the end of a development cycle. In most projects, developers bring in automation in Sprint 4 for features developed in Sprint 1, 2 and 3. As a result, return on investment isn’t maximized. Iris introduced ‘in-sprint’ automation, enabling 90% test automation with every sprint. This resulted in more efficient testing and cost savings.
OUTCOMES
The new ability for complete capacity planning through the use of infrastructure-as-code for spinning up cloud instances helped the client achieve end-to-end automation of regression/ functional test cases. The specific gains for the client were as follows:
- 90% faster execution in each sprint cycle
- 80% faster script development
- 100% configurable for on-demand execution on AWS
- 70% reduction in cloud infrastructure
Data consolidation speeds up drug search
Cloud
Data consolidation speeds up drug search
An automated cloud-based consolidation application for R&D data helped a pharmaceutical company improve turnaround time to create Approval for Product Release (APR) documents.
Client
A U.S.-based pharmaceutical multinational corporation.
Goal
Reduce turnaround time for APRs (Approval for Product Release).
Tools and technologies
Amazon’s AWS OPCx, Webmethods, natural language processing (NLP), neural networks, and Python programming
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
In pharmaceutical R&D, data is generated from several sources: the process, patients, retailers, and caregivers, among others. Pharmaceutical R&D organizations that use the traditional way of creating APRs manually consolidate paper specifications into binders across all R&D functions.
Specific regional rules, compliance mandates, and external regulations were slowing down the client’s workflow.
The many spreadsheets in multiple formats were leading to errors from manual entry and duplication of data — the inevitable “swivel effect” that results from data being pulled out from disparate, unconnected software packages.
Iris was approached to improve the process of collecting and using data from multiple sources; the improvement would help the client identify and develop new potential drug candidates faster.
SOLUTION
Iris’s team of 12 specialists designed, developed, tested, and deployed a cloud-based application that integrates data from multiple regions and eight different systems into a single, unified interface for the client’s users. Our application unified the creation and management of the client’s workflows across its lines of business and 20 different product families.
The development environment included Amazon’s AWS OPCx; Webmethods; natural language processing (NLP); neural networks; and Python programming.
OUTCOMES
Within a year of the application’s release, 2,800 users were using the application, with 55% of APRs turning around in 10 calendar weeks or less. Thanks to the in-memory data grid, the response time of transactions across the board has been brought down to nearly 2 seconds.
The cloud-based application developed by Iris ensures that data is automatically and seamlessly shared between systems that were previously stand-alone and required the tedious manual entry of data.
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Get in touchCloud-native app opens new markets
Cloud
Cloud-native app opens new markets
A prominent bonds trading network expands its market reach with new products and geographies.
Client
The world’s leading provider of trading services for fixed income products
Goal
Create an IT architecture to support growth across markets and products
Tools and technologies
AWS Cloud, Java, Springboot, React JS, React, Redis, Kafka, C#, Ranorex and Test Rails
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
A market leader in bonds trading was expanding to new markets, acquiring businesses, introducing products and adding features to existing offerings. To support its growth plans, it needed an agile and modern cloud-based platform.
With the new solution, the client wished to achieve scale with minimal latency in operations and service, integrate new businesses without disruption, roll out features faster to improve customer experience and get a competitive edge, use data to help customers make better trading decisions, and monetize the data.
We had to not only create a new IT architecture for the client’s trading platform but also constantly re-engineer and improve the architecture to quickly meet emerging business needs.
SOLUTION
We deployed a scalable, highly available auctions solution on the AWS cloud using Java, Springboot, React JS, React, Redis, and Kafka.
Optimized algorithms now achieve best matching with minimal latency while offering full price transparency. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) provide greater insight and real-time price discovery for specific asset classes.
The cloud-based architecture enabled the client to create products and monetize market data. Test automation across the trade lifecycle using a combination of C#, Ranorex, Test Rails helped the client update user interfaces (UI) without reducing performance. It also eased integration linkages between the acquired solution’s frontend and the client’s existing backend.
OUTCOMES
The introduction of Agile methodology and the cloud-native application has helped the client:
- Significantly speed up time-to-market for new releases
- Make releases several times a year
- Offer customers trading in Muni bonds (an acquired product) and U.S. treasuries (a new service)
- Support Chinese markets
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