The enhanced regression testing capabilities of BRIDGE:test 2.9 will enable banks and payment processors worldwide, who run networks of Windows-based ATMs using the XFS standard, to undertake more thorough, automated and end-to-end testing of their ATM network. This will lead to an anticipated time saving of over 80 per cent as well as faster time to market of sophisticated services for customers at the ATM.

Recent changes in the ATM industry, notably the migration to the Windows operating system and the advent of open standards such as XFS, have significantly added to banks' ATM network testing burden with more frequent software updates. At the same time, with hardware and software 'decoupled' in an open standards ATM network, banks are adopting a multi-vendor hardware strategy and investing more into ATM software to deliver sophisticated services to customers and generate further revenue. The complex functionality and services required, however, call for thorough, automated testing to help banks drive cost savings and productivity gains from their ATM network, meeting the demands of the more frequent upgrade pressure while still ensuring the highest level of customer service at ATM terminals.

Madhavi Mantha, senior analyst at Celent, said: "In today's open standards based environment, the software running on the ATM is updated more frequently than ever before, making testing a very significant effort for banks and a potential bottleneck in their effort to fully leverage the flexibility of Windows-based ATMs. In response, best practice financial institutions are investing in automated testing solutions in order to shorten the test cycle and get new features and functionality into production more quickly and cost-effectively."

BRIDGE:test has now been established as the de facto solution for financial institution and payment processors looking to automate testing of their ATM application software. The product is now being used successfully to test applicapplications provided by the key offerings from the major ATM manufacturers and independent software vendors including NCR's APTRA EDGE, Wincor-Nixdorf's ProCash, Phoenix Interactive's VistaATM, Absolute System's Interact software and KAL's Kalignite software.

Built with Level Four beta customers in Canada and Holland, the latest version of BRIDGE:test addresses banks' need for 'best practice' automated ATM network testing. Advanced capabilities of BRIDGE:test 2.9 include a sophisticated results comparison engine that enables users to check directly from their PC screen how actual results fared against expectations in the testing process. The detailed results and analysis are automatically generated to streamline the development and testing processes for ATM software. As BRIDGE:test 2.9 is vendor agnostic, it also supports banks' multi-vendor hardware and software ATM strategy, providing an independent tool to compare vendor compliance to the XFS open standard and also to benefit from the more competitive pricing structure created by the Windows environment.

Paul Gardiner, head of product development at Level Four, said: "The latest version of our world-leading automated ATM testing solution was developed with customers to ensure it directly addresses banks' testing requirements. The beta phase was very successful with our customers estimating a saving of over 80 per cent in time taken to test their ATM networks from end-to-end. Many of our customers are already looking to upgrade to BRIDGE:test 2.9 to take advantage of these benefits and ensure that they have a profitable and reliable ATM network in the 21st century."

BRIDGE:test is a key component of Level Four's BRIDGE, an integrated suite of open ATM software products that has been developed to address the needs of ATM deployers seeking to maximise their investment in the ATM channel. The BRIDGE family consists of five interoperable product components, which can be used individually or combined together to meet various aspects of the business challenges facing ATM deployers. As a component suite, BRIDGE can be deployed either alongside manufacturer-provided solutions or as a holistic solution for all ATM software needs.