The contract was won in the face of fierce competition and also against a backdrop of Egg wishing to move to a performance based delivery raising both quality and providing for risk mitigation.

Tim Allen, Change and Execution Director, summarised the key reasons Cresta was selected: "They were innovative and offered a service based delivery – structured around Test Points and using the Cresta TestStrategist software application to provide visibility and predictability."

This follows the trend predicted by Gartner of selective outsourcing becoming the most popular tool among private sector organisations. Nicole France, principal analyst at Gartner says: "Customers are trying to get results based contracts where performance is more closely related to business objectives."

The contract will operate on a "Test Points" structure (TPs), a revolutionary new idea directly based on quality and quantity measures to carry out Regression and Performance testing. Egg will acquire a quantity of TPs from Cresta on a rolling monthly basis and Cresta will guarantee and be accountable to deliver against these Test Points i.e. Egg pay for testing completed rather than paying for people time.

Cresta's role will be to ensure quality tested systems and applications prior to being released into live production to support Egg's three million plus banking customers.

Allen added: "It was the professionalism in the Cresta team on site and externally plus their willingness to build with us an innovative results-based pricing structure, coupled with in-depth knowledge of Egg's systems, which won our confidence."

David Cotterell, CEO of Cresta Group, added: "The Egg deal is the metaphor of what Cresta is now capable of – we're totally comfortable to commit to a service based delivery in a "currency" which is meaningful to IT and business – Test Points – if we don’t deliver we’re held accountable."