It used SkyREPORT, the business intelligence and testing tool from SkySparc, to automate the process and reduce the usual timeframe for testing such upgrades by 75%, while testing four times the volume of rich testing scenarios.

Sampo had already been using SkyREPORT to enhance its reporting capabilities. But it found the solution could also help in its upgrade to the most recent 6.5 version of Wallstreet Suite.

"With SkyREPORT's automated testing capabilities we get testing of a wide range of instrument types and multiple, complex buy and sell transactions. The richness of the testing scenarios we can build, incorporating data from any financial instrument, system or trading activity, really sets SkyREPORT apart," says Anders Eriksson, system and process development manager at Sampo Group company IF Insurance.

"We get documentation of what we have tested and we have a framework now that can be used for any future patch or version upgrades. We now have such good test scripts and documentation ready that we can do any future patch upgrade to Wallstreet Suite in just two weeks with two people at IF - a 75% reduction in time. Previously it would have taken eight weeks for two people."

SkyREPORT enables the creation of scenarios comprising model instruments, portfolios and trading actions that can be loaded simultaneously into the reference and the upgrade test databases. They can be replayed easily into Wallstreet Suite to check that existing functionality and fixes have worked.

The library of scenarios can also be modified and replayed on subsequent testing days or future upgrade projects - whether for Wallstreet Suite itself, or underlying databases or operating systems.