Developed in alignment with Hewlett Packard, Blueprint Systems and Aegisoft, it is the first testing solution to bring together internationally recognized, quality-assurance technologies with 360-degree testing of FIX protocol electronic communications standards for equities, FX, fixed income, futures and options asset classes. The objective of the FIX Protocol Testing Accelerator is to allow financial services customers to reduce the time to market of their electronic trading applications, while decreasing quality assurance costs and reducing the risk of failure in electronic trading platforms.

The Financial Information eXchange ("FIX") Protocol is an industry-driven messaging standard used by roughly 80 percent of the trading entities in the global financial services sector to optimize market data and help accelerate electronic transactions. As trading volumes and market data messaging rates continue to rise, Capgemini's FIX Protocol Testing Accelerator provides firms with a robust testing solution which can enable faster time to market, better software quality and increased risk mitigation - ultimately helping to elevate competitive advantage.

"The era of resource incentive, test factory approach to testing services is over," said Murat Aksu, Practice Head of Testing for Capital Markets at Capgemini's Financial Services Global Business Unit. "During these tough economic times, we are focusing on providing our customers domain-specific solutions that provide a timely return on investment and are ready to be used from day one."

Capgemini's FIX Protocol Testing Accelerator provides enhanced test coverage requirements, complete with artifacts including test strategy, test plan, business flow models of FIX messages, requirements, use cases and automated scripts for functional and performance testing. Capgemini's Capital Markets testing teams digitized their FIX Protocol testing IP for the most popular asset classes, in order to improve time to market for electronic trading applications while helping to reduce costs and risk of failure in production environments.

While developing the FIX Protocol Testing Accelerator, Capgemini leveraged leading technologies to improve the automation of testing. Blueprint Systems Requirements Center was used to model the business processes and automatically create testing requirements and use cases. To simulate the Electronic Trading Platforms, Aegisoft's Exchange and Client Simulator solutions were used. HP Quality Center software, including HP QuickTest Professional software and HP Business Process Testing software were leveraged for automation of test scenarios while the end solution was designed so that customers can access any of the testing assets created within HP Quality Center. Using the FIX Protocol Testing Accelerator, financial services customers will have scalable and robust FIX engines to support their global trading needs.

"Customers can reduce business risk by improving the quality of electronic trading applications. They can achieve this through the clear definition and validation of business requirements as part of the application life cycle," said Mark Sarbiewski, senior director, Products, Software and Solutions, HP. "The combination of HP Quality Center with services from Capgemini provides financial services customers with applications that address the needs of their business."

"Capgemini is delivering an innovative, forward-looking solution that is unique in the industry," said Matthew Morgan, Chief Marketing Officer at Blueprint. "Blueprint is pleased to work with Capgemini on this pre-built requirements and testing solution for the Financial Information eXchange Protocol. Blueprint's business analyst platform is built to ensure success by adding rich requirements definition, visual simulation, and automatic test generation solutions. Together with Capgemini, we offer the industry's leading solution for FIX that reduces customer overhead and provides expansive return-on-investment."

"We are excited to join forces with Capgemini," said Stan Adelman, President of Aegisoft. "As the FIX Protocol continues to grow in its importance and spreads across the global marketplace, the day-to-day significance of a robust and reliable FIX-based trading platform is extremely strategic. Alignment between business and IT teams is at a critical junction, and Capgemini has a long history of helping customers address this challenge, and improve their application quality while reducing development costs. This solution offers a package of the industry's leading FIX validation tools together with internationally recognized professional services to give customers a comprehensive FIX engine validation solution."