When it comes to testing SaaS ERP applications, we find that organizations can be split into 4 categories:
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Organizations with a hangover of legacy or on-premises applications
These organizations have just transitioned to the cloud and have begun using SaaS ERP applications to run their business. Most SaaS ERP applications have a fixed schedule to roll out new releases and that happens multiple times a year. Neither the SaaS vendor nor the System Integrator who rolled out the project factored in the need for regular periodic application testing post go-live.
Most of these organizations are in for a rude awakening when the first version upgrade or patch-set is rolled out by the SaaS vendor. Without a planned testing exercise prior to the release of the patch in Production, they can only hope and pray that it’s not a critical interface (like payroll or banking) that fails.
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Organizations that test SaaS applications internally
These organizations have recognized the need to test SaaS applications either because of a bad experience with a software patch-set or through proactive planning. However, many of these organization haven’t come to terms with the breadth and depth of testing coverage needed.
They might have put together an ad-hoc test team consisting of business users and IT team members every test-cycle with the hope of completing end-to-end testing the SaaS applications within a tight schedule. The challenge here is that all members of the test team have other fulltime jobs and responsibilities. With their time constraints they are unable to develop comprehensive test cases, scenarios, scripts, and test data needed to complete the testing.
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Organizations that outsource testing of SaaS applications to an offshore BPO vendor
Just like the previous category these organizations fully appreciate the need to test SaaS applications periodically and have come to terms with the true requirements for test coverage. They have accepted that they don’t have the internal resources to complete the testing within the time constraints, which is typically one to two weeks every quarter.
The challenge these organizations face is managing the outsourced testing vendor. Communications, understanding of key business processes and gathering relevant test data gets tricky. In addition, they need a local test co-ordinator or project manager to schedule tests and follow-up on results.
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Organizations that buy COTS (commercial of the shelf) services to test SaaS applications
Like the previous 2 categories these organizations also fully appreciate the need to test SaaS applications periodically and have come to terms with the true requirements for test coverage. They have accepted that they don’t have the internal resources to complete the testing with the time constraints.
The challenges these organizations face is managing and setting up another software service. These testing services may be quite generic in nature and will need extensive setup, configuring and many times even coding to provide adequate test coverage. In addition, these testing service providers lack the subject matter expertise to fully comprehend the SaaS application being tested.
Why Managed Automated Testing for SaaS is different?
The key differentiator is how the product is bundled. Features include:
- Vendor agnostic testing that supports all standard business processes and variations
- Comprehensive library of test cases, scenarios, scripts that can be customized to any organization’s dataset
- Testing schedule based on the organization’s patch and version release cycle
- Dashboards that inform what processes failed and specific actions or fields that caused it
- Fully auditable and compliant test results, with documented evidence
- Backed by a team of application and business process subject matter experts
With Managed Automate testing there’s no need to deploy services or hire a project manager or assemble a team. Just fill in an on-boarding questionnaire and wait for the test results to appear on the dashboard.
Schedule a Call for a demonstration. Experience how Managed Automated Testing will change the way you test applications.