Social media has become an integral part of consumer technology and an increasing number of employees are bringing mobile devices that enable collaborations into the workplace. For financial services (FS) organizations, employees are excited about the potential of using these devices – smartphones, iPads, and laptops – in the workplace.

But before this can take place on a major level, IT teams must properly manage modern environments and loads for services such as cloud and SaaS (News - Alert). This is especially true before complex and emerging platforms such as mobile are incorporated into the day-to-day life of an organization. An increasing number of companies understand the need to manage their business environments with quality assurance (QA) organizations that are turning to strategies that deliver this business value.

Recent findings in the second Financial Services World Quality Report sponsored by Capgemini (News - Alert), together with Sogeti, and HP, state that in order to succeed, the future for QA in FS is likely to see greater standardization of tools and methodologies to improve testing, reduce errors, ensure security and increase speed time to market. Four specific areas were highlighted as key places where these strategies can be implemented. They include using cloud and SaaS models to modernize IT infrastructure and services and increase agility. In addition, outsourcing that can help FS firms enhance capabilities and value. Using a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) to help QA standardize testing practices and metrics across all testing projects and reduce costs. Finally, acknowledging the ‘New Normal’ for Financial Services which involve mobile applications.

It’s become an accepted fact that bringing your own device to work (BYOD) has its advantages – user comfort, social media access for business tasks, and near 24/7 responsiveness all translate to increased user productivity. However, mobile device usage also presents FS organizations with a range of new issues. The increased use of smart devices in the workplace poses significant control and support problems for IT. Data security is a central issue because corporate information can be compromised through lost or stolen technology. Mobile devices, especially laptops, also increase the possibility of malware infiltrations and viruses that can quickly spread throughout a network.

Recent Quality Blueprint (QBP) benchmarking analysis shows QA organizations at FS firms are at similar levels of maturity as other industries, such as incorporating testing environments and test process management, but FS firms are slightly ahead in terms of their test organizations. These types of quality assurance standards are key to normalizing the introduction of new technologies across an organization. 

These findings are drawn from an analysis of data gathered for the World Quality Report (WQR) in 2011 to 2012 This sponsored report is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Capgemini, Sogeti and HP. Capgemini and Sogeti have developed innovative, business-driven quality assurance (QA) and testing services, combining best-in-breed testing methodologies (TMap and TPI) and the global delivery model, Rightshore, to help organizations achieve their testing and QA goals. The  WQR features an extensive survey of global participants, examining the state of application quality and testing practices across different industries and geographies.