Original Software - Press Releases

Original Software partners with FDM for training, software, services and outsourcing

01 February 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced a strategic partnership with FDM, the IT Services provider. The partner agreement allows FDM to not only resell Original Software solutions, but also allows full use of them within their training academy. FDM will train their apprentice testers on the Original Software solution set, so that all of the academy graduates – called FDM Mounties – go out into the services workplace fully comprehending the solutions and their potential benefits to customers.

“FDM is well renowned in the industry for the quality of its outsourcing services” said Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software. “It has a very strong customer base and an award-winning academy that helps fuel its global, skilled resource pool. We have worked well with the company on some high profile customer accounts and will be proud to include FDM’s services as part of our offering. Both companies put quality right at the heart of their business models.”

Rod Flavell, CEO of FDM expanded: “FDM has trained over 1500 individuals to the highest industry standards. We train our Mounties in the most cutting edge IT tools and solutions, so that they can go out into the marketplace as talented professionals with expertise in the very best technologies. We have a strong foothold in the financial sector, and so Original Software’s ability to validate databases and test green screen apps is key, but we are seeing widespread demand for solutions that work well in an agile environment and with SAP testing – something their solutions excel at.”

Andy King, Head of Testing at FDM Group said: “We have worked with Original Software for some time now and have been testing on various client sites, utilising their tool suite. The decision to partner with the team is fantastic news and we will benefit greatly in 2010, as the demand for both FDM Testers and Original Software continues to grow.”

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About FDM (www.fdmgroup.com) (www.fdmacademy.com)
FDM Group is an international IT Services provider specialising in five core service areas: Application Support, Development, Testing, Infrastructure and Training. Supplying IT solutions to over 200 blue-chip clients within various sectors for over a decade, certifies their expertise. With offices in the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the USA, FDM has shown exponential growth throughout the years and has firmly established itself as an award-winning IT Services Provider.

About Original Software (www.origsoft.com)
With a world class record of innovation, Original Software offers a solution focused completely on the goal of effective quality management. By embracing the full spectrum of Application Quality Management across a wide range of applications and environments, the company partners with customers and helps make quality a business imperative. Solutions include a quality management platform, manual testing, full test automation and test data management, all delivered with the control of business risk, cost, time and resources in mind.

More than 400 organisations operating in over 30 countries use Original Software solutions. Current users range from major multi-nationals to small software development shops, encompassing a wide range of industries, sectors and sizes. We are proud of our partnerships with the likes of Coca-Cola, Cargill, HSBC, FedEx, Pfizer, DHL and many others.

Press contact
Kate Mackinder
Media Relations Officer
+44 1256 338 689
Kmackinder@origsoft.com

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Original Software to host sessions on Agile Testing, Test Automation and Test Data Management

25 January 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced its attendance at the 2010 Test Management Summit where George Wilson, the company’s Operations Director, will be hosting a workshop on Test Data Management as well as speaking in a session on the subject of Agile Testing. Peter Hopley, the company’s EMEA Sales Director, will also be presenting a summit session about Test Automation.

The annual summit, which takes place in London on Tuesday the 26th and Wednesday the 27th January, is the fourth of its kind. Run in conjunction with the Test Management Forum (TMF) – the forum for testing professionals in the UK, it is hosted and organised by Gerrard Consulting.

The summit is aimed at senior testing practitioners and managers, focussing on trends, futures and the big issues in test management. It aims to encourage networking and bring like minded test managers together to discuss techniques, approaches and tools, disseminating good ideas within the industry.

The Workshop day, takes place on Tuesday the 26th at the conference centre at Balls Brothers, Minster Pavement and the short, intensive sessions are aimed to give testers a head start in each topic, covering such things as exploratory and innovative testing, SCRUM, open source tools, and Agile test management. George Wilson will be hosting a workshop at 12.45pm, focussed on Test Data Management. Entitled ‘Taking Control of Your Test Data’, the workshop will explore strategies and techniques that can be used to support QA teams with the creation, management and verification of test data.

The Summit day takes place at the IoD building, Pall Mall, and the session topics, voted on by TMF members, include Agile testing, regression testing, measuring team performance, Test-Driven Development, requirements and performance testing. George Wilson will be leading a session at 10am, entitled ‘Agile Test Automation – Can it be Done?’ He will explore how to define a test process to ensure application quality within an Agile environment.

Peter Hopley’s session is at 3.45pm. Entitled ‘Maximising your Test Automation Success’, the session will investigate what determines the short and long term success of test automation, what to automate and what to test manually and how you can manage the jump to automation in a seamless and painless manner.

For more information on the sessions or to book at place at the Summit, visit http://www.uktmf.com/index.php?q=node/226

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About Original Software (www.origsoft.com)

With a world class record of innovation, Original Software offers a solution focused completely on the goal of effective quality management. By embracing the full spectrum of Application Quality Management across a wide range of applications and environments, the company partners with customers and helps make quality a business imperative. Solutions include a quality management platform, manual testing, full test automation and test data management, all delivered with the control of business risk, cost, time and resources in mind.

More than 400 organisations operating in over 30 countries use Original Software solutions. Current users range from major multi-nationals to small software development shops, encompassing a wide range of industries, sectors and sizes. We are proud of our partnerships with the likes of Coca-Cola, Cargill, HSBC, FedEx, Pfizer, DHL and many others.

Press contact

Kate Mackinder
Media Relations Officer
+44 1256 338 689
Kmackinder@origsoft.com

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TestDrive and TestDrive-Assist provide a winning combination for Agile Test Automation

20th January 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced that it has signed a global agreement with one of the ‘big five’ UK banks to be its preferred testing solution provider for Agile development projects worldwide.

Agile development has increased in popularity with IT departments because of the way it can adapt to changing needs and help solve the complexities of development projects. The bank is increasingly deploying an agile approach to its software development and, after a comprehensive market evaluation, decided that the combination of TestDrive and TestDrive-Assist from Original Software was the most flexible and appropriate test automation solution on the market for use in its Agile developments. The preferred supplier status means that any test team from the bank can select Original Software’s solutions from their global vendor list and make an instant purchase, without having to go through a lengthy procurement or tendering processes.

Original Software’s manual testing solution, TestDrive-Assist, discreetly records tests while they are performed and provides an audit trail and clear information for reproducing bugs. Its ability to automatically migrate these tests to an automated test script in TestDrive, the company’s test automation solution, is a unique and powerful enabler for customers practicing agile or iterative development techniques. The functionality allows customers to test earlier, in bite-sized pieces and, by the end of the scrum or iteration, these scripts form the foundation of a future automated test.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software said: “The strength of our offering in the agile space is testimony to the fact that we are on the bank’s global price list. Our solutions will enable them to reduce the time-to-market for new developments, which is critical for competitive advantage within the banking sector. At the same time, we are able to provide a full audit trail for regulatory compliance.”

He continued: “Customers practicing agile methodologies across the globe are finding our solutions easy to implement, and the reuse and repeatability of our manual tests really pay off. Automation can be a powerful enabler in Agile development, but traditional testing tools are not flexible enough and script maintenance becomes too much of a burden. TestDrive’s ability to re-run test scripts, even when the application under test has been modified, adds value with each iteration.”

“SCRUMS are wider than just testing, but all members of the team can get real benefit from our solutions. Business Analysts can use the mark-up functionality to recommend changes to the design specifications, feeding product enhancements back into the development loop.” expanded Armitage.

Original Software received praise for its capabilities in enabling agile development in a 2009 report by independent industry analyst group, Ovum. In the report, written by Paul Herzlich, the company’s solutions were applauded for being a better fit for agile processes than any competitive functional test automation suite. The report can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website – http://www.origsoft.com/news-desk/analyst-commentary/

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AppLabs sees huge value proposition for its clients with agile-friendly automation suite

August, 11, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced a strategic partnership with AppLabs, the world’s largest software testing and quality management company. AppLabs has entered into an agreement with Original Software to take to market its innovative quality management suite. The agreement will likewise allow Original Software to position AppLabs’ services into its own customer base.

Scott Andress, Vice President, Global Alliances and Service Lines at AppLabs commented: “As a tool agnostic services company, we focus on putting the right solution into the right project. We’ve spotted a compelling value proposition for our clients with Original Software’s suite, which can be a great fit for most agile developments, can speed up time-to-market and can provide a silver bullet for those clients struggling to make the transition from manual to automated testing.”

The industry analysts agree. A recent Ovum report stated: ‘TestDrive-Assist provides you with a rich environment for manual testing, but the bigger payback is how it facilitates adoption of full automation. Uniquely for any of the guided manual test execution products that we know of, Original can automatically convert a manual TestDrive-Assist test into a fully automated TestDrive test that can be repeated.” “Overall this is a low risk, low cost way of progressively adopting test automation.” “It fits in with classic waterfall processes, and it can also be used in agile processes more easily than other functional test automation suites.”

“TestDrive-Assist cuts the time it takes to manually test in half, with some customers having recorded savings of 75-80 percent” said Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software. He continued: “This partnership not only provides us with a strong route to market, but allows us to add services to our expanding portfolio. AppLabs’ expertise in testing services and its global, skilled resource pool will be a valued addition to our offering, giving customers the option to outsource projects or business functions or take advantage of specialized consultancy to optimize their IT and business quality management and testing capabilities.”

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August, 6, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced that it has been placed in the ‘visionaries’ quadrant by leading analyst firm Gartner, Inc. in its recently published Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites, 31 July 2009.

“The total market for test management and functional and load/stress automation is currently valued at just under $1.2 billion, and is growing at more than 8% per year.” said Thomas Murphy in the report1. “Testing software can be an expensive process, but poor software quality leads to user dissatisfaction, as well as increased development and maintenance. Therefore, having a well-defined set of tools and practices to drive software quality will positively affect the overall business bottom line.”

The report evaluates fourteen vendors of software quality solutions based on a rigorous set of criteria that comprise ‘completeness of vision’ and ‘ability to execute’. Original Software has been positioned as a visionary.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: “We consider our positioning in the visionaries quadrant to be confirmation of the real value that our approach to solving challenges in the quality process has brought to our users, extending the reach of these solutions within an organization and providing an early return on investment. We are now expanding on the unique work we have done, in reducing script maintenance, supporting manual testing, code-free automation and test data management, with the launch of a radical new ALM solution later this year.”

This report has recently been published by Gartner. More information can be found on the analyst page of Original Software’s website.

[1] Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites” by Thomas Murphy, 31 July 2009.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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August, 3, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced a swap-out promotion, called the Escape program for customers of the soon to be engulfed companies, who face uncertainty in the future of their legacy product roadmaps.

Original Software offers market-leading AQM solutions that span the application development life-cycle from requirements, planning and management to complete automated regression testing, including unique solutions for manual testing and test data management.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said “Any customer on a current maintenance contract with Borland or Compuware can qualify for the Escape program and swap to one of our comparable solutions, provided they switch the maintenance agreement.” The promotion, which runs until the end of the year, includes preferential pricing on all the company’s other complimentary solutions.

“While MicroFocus has now completed the acquisitions of Borland and Compuware, the future for their customers is far from clear. It is inevitable that one of the solutions will take precedence, leaving the other customer base facing an unpleasant choice. You have to feel special sympathy for the users of the Borland testing products for who this is the second change of ownership in less than three years.”

“The great thing about the Escape program is that companies can remove the uncertainty about products futures and join a company whose vision has been widely recognized by industry analysts like Gartner and Ovum. At the same time they can benefit from great customer service and a modern AQM solution suite that addresses traditional automation and the now widely recognized needs for collaboration, manual test support and test data management”.

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Chooses Green Hat to complete end-to-end SOA testing

July, 8, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, is partnering with Green Hat, specialists in automated testing technology for integration and SOA, to deliver a unique end-to-end automated testing solution for multi-tiered applications that utilize SOA.

The combined strength and competencies of Original Software and Green Hat will enable customers to take advantage of a total Software Quality solution across the UI, web services and database layers, plus the SOA infrastructure, with all the ease of use and code free functionality that customers of both companies have come to rely on.

Gartner, Inc. notes that through 2010, 60% of unplanned downtime for SOA-based, loosely-coupled applications will be the result of application failure, compared to 40% for non-SOA-based applications. [“Model-Driven Application Management Is a ‘Must’ for Modern Architectures Such as SOA and Web 2.0”, Milind Govekar, July 10, 2008.]

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: “A number of our key clients and prospects working on SOA initiatives want a quality solution that extends the benefits of GUI testing to the entire integrated application. This alliance with Green Hat gives Original Software an important additional route to market and enables us to deliver a best of breed solution across the user interface, database layer, services, third party systems and middleware that will prevent unexpected costs and delays as critical applications become more complex.”

Business processes involving ERP and BPM systems are two areas affected by the introduction of SOA technologies. As the major ERP vendors introduce more services into their platforms, customers must go beyond GUI testing to assure the function and performance of the total system. Gartner, Inc. observes that when too much manual work is involved, it causes an inability to stay current with patches to packaged software and to deliver well-tested applications. [“Key Issues for Software Quality and Testing, 2008”, Thomas E. Murphy, August 8, 2008]

Continuous improvement expected in BPM projects requires regression testing from the beginning of the implementation. Many long-running BPM processes also touch systems outside their business unit and company. Process owners need end-to-end visibility to pinpoint the exact location of development errors or sub-optimal performance. Green Hat will OEM Original Software Solutions as part of their GH Tester for BPM offering.

“BPM project teams who want GUI testing as an element of a more complex integration and SOA testing framework have asked us to make this part of our offering,” said Peter Cole, President and CTO of Green Hat. “This alliance will give them a single point of contact for all their automated testing requirements.”

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New analyst report is free to download from the vendor’s website

June, 22, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, has received praise for its capabilities in enabling agile development in a recent report by independent industry analyst group, Ovum. In the report, written by Ovum analyst Paul Herzlich, the company’s solutions were applauded for being a better fit for agile processes than any competitive functional test automation suite.

“In its totality, Original’s suite is appropriate for automation specialists, non-technical testers and even business users for acceptance testing. It fits in with classic waterfall processes, and it can also be used in agile processes more easily than other functional test automation suites.” he states.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: The feedback from our customers has been resounding and we are pleased to see that the major analyst groups are acknowledging our leadership in this space. Customers practicing agile methodologies are finding our tools easy to implement, and the reuse and repeatability of our manual tests really pay off. Automation can be a powerful enabler in agile development and TestDrive’s self-healing technology adds value in each iteration, enabling scripts to be re-run even when the application under test has undergone tweaks and changes.

The Ovum report notes: “One area in which TestDrive-Assist can be surprisingly appropriate is in unstable, changing circumstances. The two most notable situations are the first release of an application and in agile processes.”

Herzlich continues: “By recording your manual test, you may not have the benefit of full automation, such as automatic data entry and validation. However, you do get an audit trail and clear information for reproducing bugs. The ability to automatically migrate your test to an automated one may pay off immediately, if you are lucky, but in any case, by the end of your scrum or iteration, it will form the foundation of a future automated test. “

This report has recently been published by Ovum and can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website.

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With a Winchester-based Golf Marathon

June, 3, 2009 – Two Basingstoke-based IT professionals at Original Software, yesterday raised more than £3000 sponsorship for a Nepalese Orphanage by running a marathon combined with three full rounds of golf in one day.

George Wilson, one of the company’s founders, and Stuart Bishop, Head of Development, managed to complete the rather insane ‘Golf Marathon’ during daylight hours yesterday, setting off at about 6am from Horton Heath and running between South Winchester, Royal Winchester and Hockley Golf Courses, playing 18 holes at each.

Mr Wilson’s daughter who is doing voluntary work with the children out in Nepal, found out that the Orphanage was likely to have to close when their landlord decided to sell the premises. They are now desperately trying to raise money in order to fund a new home for their children.

The aim is to raise £5000 sponsorship to help with some of the costs of securing a new home for the children. By continuing to campaign for this cause, and through events such as this they are aiming to open people’s eyes to the children’s plight and gain as much sponsorship and support for this cause as possible.

Mr Wilson reported on yesterday’s event “Well, we did it! 27 miles including the three rounds of golf at three courses. It was a tough challenge but we achieved it and even managed to play some good golf! The last leg of the run was really hard and we are both pretty exhausted today. My thanks to everyone who sponsored us and continues to support the charity and for the help and support we received from each of the Golf Clubs – they have been really accommodating”.

If you are interested in finding out more or donating money to this great cause, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/georgeandstuart

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Original Software Outgrows US Head Office

Chicago, April, 14, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, has announced that, due to expansion, it is relocating its American headquarters to larger premises in Westmont IL.

Despite a down-turn in the global economy and gloomy market predictions for the IT industry, Original Software is bucking the trend and continues to grow at a strong pace. While its competitors are making mass redundancies and enforcing pay-cuts, Original software is still continuing to hire and the recent expansion has forced the re-location of its US Headquarters.

Greg Sengpiel, General Manager, Americas says: “The experts say that even in bad times, smart companies plan for good ones – that’s what we are doing. Our profits remain healthy and the company’s strategy is to invest in its business so that we are in a strong position to exploit the opportunities when the global economy and the IT market begin to pick up again.”

“Now is the best time to be expanding and investing in troubled assets” he says. “There is lots of good real-estate and many highly trained staff currently on the market. We firmly intend to capitalize during our period of growth and invest for future success.”

Consistently growing year-on-year, the company is carving out market share from its bigger rivals by producing a new breed of software quality solutions that solve the challenges posed by traditional functional test automation. Constantly exceeding expectations, the company is receiving great feedback from the top industry analyst groups. A new report has just been published by Ovum and can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website.

Original Software is currently recruiting for three job vacancies at the new Westmont office. Interested parties can find full details here.

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