QA Services for the largest Client Bonus Program in Europe

A new cost-effective customer loyalty web system that is based on the use of Payback client cards.

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Loyalty Partner Solutions GmbH, based in Munich, is a provider of first-class customer relationship management, and customer loyalty solutions with a primary focus on retail, transportation and aviation industries. Loyalty Partner Solutions (LPS) spun off from a former business unit of Loyalty Partner GmbH in August 2008 and currently employs a workforce of approximately 200. The company has extensive experience of delivering tailor-made, business-critical solutions to major clients across the globe, thus contributing to their long-term success and business efficiency.

Challenge

The initial version of the Loyalty Management Suite (LMS) was developed by LPS in an effort to enable retailers to in-crease revenue, better understand shoppers, build brand awareness, and generate shopper excitement. Later on, the decision was made to enhance and modify it for extra flexibility and functionality, which was needed in a broader range of business domains. To keep the loyalty system up to date and make it more convenient to use, LPS engaged SaM Solutions as a soſtware development partner. The system had to enable partners to configure redemption options and other relevant settings using a convenient online interface. The primary goal of the project was to perform a major update of the solution to offer partners more flexibility, redemption options and raw business value.

SOLUTION

SaM Solutions provided LPS with a team of skilled Java developers that used Agile methodologies to seamlessly blend into the existing development environment, quickly respond to changing technical and business requirements and adjust the development process according to the client’s immediate needs.

The solution is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) applying state-of-the-art technologies, frameworks and open system operation standards.

The resulting system possessed the necessary functionality for inciting visitors to buy goods using the Payback card system (reward system), to collect points and redeem them for discounts at stores while making purchases, miles (for transportation services), vouchers or gifts depending on the services/goods offered by a web store of loyalty partner. Compared with the initial design, the updated solution delivered by SaM offered a host of new redemption options, easier access to loyalty program settings and greater business value.

To ensure the quality of the product, SaM Solutions involved experienced QA engineers. Due to high-performance and well-adjusted process of development and testing, during the first 9 years of work on the creation of this product, more than 15 thousand Issues has been processed. Every test prepared by engineers, passed a critical analysis based on 4-eyes principle, ensuring high quality of these tests and, thereby, enhancing the quality of the product itself. Tricentis Tosca Testsuite tool was used for not only test management and test data, but also for test automation. Due to this, from 50 to 100% (depending on functional modules) of manual test cases were automated, thus, it improved the efficiency of the testing process. By implementing regular regression testing, it was possible to provide reliable product quality. Currently, the volume of regression tests reached the number of more than four thousand tests.

The cooperation between SaM Solutions and Loyalty Partner Solutions was based on the agile principles of soſtware development and QA. This methodology required very efficient interaction between teams in Minsk and Munich. At the same time, both teams worked towards reducing the bureaucratic overhead by strictly complying with a few basic rules.

The resulting soſtware development and quality assurance processes were flexible and lightweight. The partners worked according to the SCRUM model, which emphasized the crucial importance of communications between team members over the course of a project. The development and QA teams were self-organized in technical tasks and working soſtware products were released every two weeks. The result was increased productivity, transparency of soſtware development, high quality of released versions of product and high satisfaction of all the project members.

Technologies

SUCCESS

By choosing to rely on SaM as an offshore software development services provider, LPS was able to take advantage of the superior quality and reliability of software development services offered by SaM and significantly improve the efficiency of their software development process. SaM Solutions used its best practices accumulated over the 20 years of its history. The product delivered by SaM Solutions helped LPS confirm its standing as a leading provider of LMS software and allowed hundreds of partners and millions of users sell and buy more efficiently.