LHS Group Standardizes on Mercury Interactive's Tools
John Shandor
NEWS BRIEFS Sunnyvale, CA — Mercury Interactive Corporation, a provider of enterprise application testing solutions, announced that LHS Group Inc. has standardized on Mercury Interactive’s tools for across-the-board testing of […]
https://www.hpcwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cropped-hpc_favicon_512x512-32x32.png
HPCwire
NEWS BRIEFS

Sunnyvale, CA — Mercury Interactive Corporation, a provider of enterprise application testing solutions, announced that LHS Group Inc. has standardized on Mercury Interactive’s tools for across-the-board testing of its client/server and Internet products serving the telecommunications industry. Products being tested with LoadRunner and WinRunner include the company’s flagship product, the Business Support & Control System (BSCS), a modular, highly scalable customer care and billing solution. BSCS is currently used by many of the largest wireless operators in the world, and is a leading business solution for European telecom companies overall. LHS also utilizes Mercury Interactive’s TestDirector for integrated test management. The testing program helps ensure that LHS can respond quickly to industry changes while delivering high-performance applications including Java-based systems to large-scale telecom providers.

“Cell phones have become so popular that business systems formerly servicing thousands of users now face accounts running into the millions,” said Brian Cagle, regression test manager at LHS. “Not only that, these systems must be able to easily accommodate new technologies, services and features and quickly scale to keep pace with rising telecom traffic. Testing with Mercury Interactive’s tools allows us to meet these demands in a cost-effective manner, and clearly demonstrates to customers that we’re fully committed to helping them gain strength in a highly competitive market.”

“Testing for critical, large-scale applications is a serious matter, and requires best-of-breed solutions that ensure top performance at deployment, ” said Jayaram Bhat, vice president of marketing at Mercury Interactive. “Mercury Interactive’s tools give companies like LHS the edge they need in tightly contested markets where the timing of releases and the reliability of the systems delivered to customers equal long-term success and profitability. ”

“LHS is fully committed to constant improvement of the operational performance of its products,” said Glenn Stevens, systems test director at LHS. “Testing with WinRunner and LoadRunner, as part of the total systems test lifecycle at LHS, plays an important role in helping us accomplish our performance goals.”

BSCS modules that are undergoing load testing and functional testing with LoadRunner and WinRunner include a critical rating engine that processes call records transmitted from mobile switching centers. Ongoing tests help ensure that the rating engine can efficiently handle hundreds of thousands of incoming records during peak periods. Also key is the customer administration module, used by customer service representatives (CSRs) at telecom companies’ retail sites. With LoadRunner and WinRunner testing, LHS and its customers can remain confident that CSRs who are the most direct link between a service provider and consumers can depend on their systems for speed and accuracy. Testing for the BSCS billing module is also significant, since this module directly impacts revenue flow and strongly influences customer satisfaction.

LHS runs hundreds of automated WinRunner functional tests each month, using TestDirector to convert manual test cases into automated test templates. TestDirector also schedules tests automatically, thus reducing the time and costs involved in test execution. In addition, the combination of WinRunner and TestDirector allows LHS to exactly reproduce specific tests as applications evolve, so that the effects of revisions can be observed more clearly.

One of the most significant gains with LoadRunner came during critical tests of an upcoming Internet product. The goal of testing was to validate the technology chosen for the new architecture. The tests themselves consisted of two parallel sets of scenarios, one utilizing the existing BSCS product and the other using the new Java-based design. Testing successfully demonstrated that the new architecture could retain all the functionality of the existing product and could deliver equivalent, and even potentially better, performance. Ease of use was a major factor in the speed and success of testing; LoadRunner supported both Java and BSCS seamlessly, without any additional programming.

LHS has also instituted LoadRunner testing for ongoing system enhancements. The tests will take advantage of the groundwork laid by the initial LoadRunner project, maximizing the investment in time and resources made earlier.