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Success Story: Scotiabank Uruguay

How STELA Ensured a Critical Datacenter Migration with Zero Operational Impact.

Scotiabank Uruguay, one of the country’s most important financial institutions, was facing a monumental technological challenge: migrating its core applications and systems to a new datacenter located in Mexico. This project, led by its QA department, was not only complex but also had fixed, non-negotiable deadlines. Therefore,the team needed a solution that would allow them to validate the entire operation remotely and repeatedly—a task impossible to achieve with their manual testing process.

Success Summary

Client: Scotiabank Uruguay

Challenge: To guarantee business continuity during the migration of the core banking system to a datacenter in Mexico, facing strict deadlines and extremely high operational risk.

Solution: Automation of 80% of the bank’s operations with STELA on the Topaz banking core system, which used Java Swing technology.

Key Results:

    • An 80% reduction in test execution time.
    • Over 1,500 person-hours saved per test cycle.
    • Increased regression test coverage from 5% to 80%.

A High-Risk Migration with Unmovable Deadlines

The Scotiabank Uruguay project was enormously complex and risky.  Specifically, the strategic decision to move their entire data center to Mexico meant that every single one of the bank’s operations had to be thoroughly validated to ensure they would function normally over the new network latency. As a result, the operational risk of failure was extremely high.

Adding to the complexity,  the bank could not halt its development pipeline; new features were still being created while the move was being planned. This  in turn, required full regression test cycles to be repeated multiple times, which was completely unfeasible for a manual testing team.

Ultimately, the main obstacle was time. The manual process could not handle the massive number of tests required to cover all scenarios on schedule. With the migration dates already set and non-negotiable, the bank faced the possibility of having to migrate “blind,” accepting an unacceptable risk to its business continuity.

The STELA Solution: Intelligent Automation for a Complex Core System

Facing this landscape, the QA team at Scotiabank Uruguay chose STELA as their automation partner. The solution was decisive: automate 80% of all bank operations running on their core system Topaz.

The scope of the testing was exhaustive. It included not only functional tests to validate correct operations but also performance indicators to measure and validate the impact of latency from the Mexico datacenter. Only low-impact operations that did not affect the main business were left for manual testing.

The choice of STELA was based on three key factors:

  1. No-Code Simplicity: The bank’s QA team did not have programming skills. STELA’s intuitive, no-code nature allowed them to lead and actively participate in the automation process.
  2. Unique Technological Capability: STELA was able to automate  Java Swing applications, a technology present in the banking core for which there are very few automation alternatives on the market. This was a fundamental technical feature for the project’s success.
  3. Close Support: The collaboration and direct support from STELA’s development team was a key pillar, ensuring a smooth implementation and agile resolution of any challenges.

The Results: A Successful Migration and a Massive ROI

Implementing STELA not only made it possible to meet the deadlines but also completely transformed the efficiency and confidence of the QA process. The metrics speak for themselves:

  • 80% Reduction in Execution Times: Test cycles that were previously unfeasible were now executed in a fraction of the time.
  • Over 1,500 Person-Hours Saved: For every full test cycle, more than 1,500 hours of repetitive manual work were saved.
  • Massive Test Coverage Increase: Critical regression test coverage jumped from a meager 5% with the manual process to a robust 80% with STELA.

The most important business benefit was that the bank was able to complete the migration and go live from the Mexico datacenter without any operational issues. The high risk they faced was completely mitigated, ensuring business continuity and peace of mind.

 

Client Testimonial

For a critical project like the validation of our core banking system, STELA's automation service was fundamental. They successfully automated over 200 test cases on our Topaz system with completely satisfactory results. Their dedication and professionalism were evident throughout the nearly 1800 hours the project required.

Julio Collazo
Manager of Homologation and Systems QA, Scotiabank (Uruguay)