Standard Life takes IBM Rational approach to improve consumer trust and service

Overview

Quote:
“IBM Rational Functional Tester and AppScan solution helped us to protect our customers’ data in a secure environment that meets the ISO27001 requirements. As a pioneer to implement high standards for ISO 27001, we strive to take every precautionary step to protect our customers’ assets. This coincides with our vision to provide products and services that leverage the latest technology to financially secure customers’ futures.”
-- Andy Clachers, Chief Operating Officer.

Challenges
Standard Life wanted to introduce new secure services that enhanced customer trust and capture new market opportunities efficiently, without compromising on data and privacy security

Solutions
The company deployed a solution based on IBM Rational Functional Tester and IBM Rational AppScan Express Edition.

Benefits
The new IBM solution and improved time-to-market of new services by reducing 30% in testing time, raised overall quality levels of services, strengthened security, and increased business efficiency.

Main text:
Trust is a major pillar of strength for financial institution Standard Life (Asia) Limited (Standard Life).

As an authorised insurer in Hong Kong since 1999 and the wholly owned subsidiary of the group, Standard Life plc, the company understands that developing a trusted relationships with its customers is key to its continuing success. Its partners, who include well-known independent financial advisers and other financial institutions, rely on its secure platform to offer a wide variety of wealth management services focused on investment-linked insurance plans.

Standard Life knew that its future success will depend on enhancing this trusted platform for business. Its recent award of the BSI ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) Certification for all its business functions is testimony of its efforts to improve security and privacy.

Making a competitive difference

The insurance market was becoming more competitive. Customers were demanding a wide range of services to meet their specific needs. Gone were the days when customer loyalty was a given; these days with competitors and competitive solutions only clicks away, Standard Life knew it had to become more responsive to customer needs.

Quality was another area that concerned Standard Life. With partners and customers demanding more enhancements and more services, it had to ensure that its quality process could cope with the new demands. It knew that a single misstep in terms of security and privacy could tarnish a reputation that took decades to build.

In addition, the company was looking to enhance customer service by enabling self-management of portfolios for customers—and through mobile devices in the future. That meant that all potential security and privacy vulnerabilities needed to be rooted out efficiently and effectively to ensure customers trust their new services.

For the IT team, they also wanted a solution that helped them comply with the stringent requirements of ISO 270001, so that they would not lose this important mark of trust.

Guaranteeing trust

To meet these demands, Standard Life searched the market for potential tools. The selection criteria were set high from the onset. At the same time, the IT department wanted a highly stable solution that is user-friendly, easy to adopt and customise, and featured cross platform support for its infrastructure based on IBM System i.

After an exhaustive selection process, Standard Life chose IBM solution comprising IBM Rational Functional Tester and IBM Rational AppScan Express Edition.

The solution offered the company an automated tool for performing key testing. Using intuitive Storyboard Testing functions, natural language for editing and accurate screenshots, it allows the IT team to test for the quality of the new service offering—quickly and efficiently.

Standard Life also highly regarded the news solution’s ability to conduct automated tests for a wider range of applications, over various ERP, operating systems and platforms. This reduced testing time and increased time to market.

In addition, the new solution allowed Standard Life to constantly evaluate their current Web security. This raised security levels; reduced costs associated in conducting expensive audits regularly; and increased the trustworthiness of their platform.

Riding the benefits

Since implementation, the solution has simplified regression testing by automating many of the routine actions. This allowed the company to do massive tests and an in depth test scenarios.

The IT department also spent less man-hour on manual testing. Instead, the team could now focus on better test designs and execution, making the entire test process more effective and efficient.

After a month of evaluation and trials, the company decided to fully implement the system. To ensure smooth transfer of expertise and implementation, IBM conducted demonstration sessions and several workshops. IBM technical support was also provided using a single contact point, ensuring all requests and issues are quickly and professionally handled.

Conclusion

The new IBM testing solution has paid dividends since its deployment. Within half year, Standard Life was able to reduce 30% of testing time through automation. It also helped to enhance and smoothen the software quality assurance process, heighten overall software quality, boost the security of customers’ information, and even improve internal workflow.

“IBM Rational Functional Tester and AppScan solution helped us to protect our customers’ data in a secure environment that meets the ISO27001 requirements. As a pioneer to implement high standards for ISO 27001, we strive to take every precautionary step to protect our customers’ assets. This coincides with our vision to provide products and services that leverage the latest technology to financially secure customers’ futures,” said Andy Clachers, Chief Operating Officer.

Overall, the new solution positively enhanced Standard Life’s reputation as a trusted service provider in the highly-competitive wealth management industry.

“From the customer perspective, the ISO 27001 accreditation and IBM security management solution further enhanced our corporate image as a trusted financial service provider in the marketplace who is committed to managing customers’ money better than they could, in a trustworthy and prudent manner,” said Doris Shu, Chief Marketing Officer.