HPE TA313AAE Product Data Sheet
Virgin Media enhances productivity
by consolidating testing tools
“The testing solution allows us to model and measure our project
delivery capability in terms of resources and test environments
whilst simultaneously identifying any constraints on project delivery.
Consequently, we now support projects fully by creating an appropriate
test environment from project funding to project closure.”
—Peter Doyle, head of performance and automation, Virgin Media
HP customer
case study
Virgin Media
deploys software
testing solutions
to boost
application testing
productivity,
cut costs and
increase resource
utilisation
Industry
Communications,
media and
entertainment
Objective
Secure a centralised toolset to increase application
testing productivity, and an additional tool to manage
IT projects more eectively across the organisation
Approach
Launched strategic programmes to resolve
fundamental IT issues within the application testing
environment and increase resource eciency, then
reviewed the market for a suitable solution
IT improvements
• Speeds workows and improves visibility of
processes, testing and defects over the release
lifecycle, increasing productivity
• Delivers automated functional and regression
testing, lowering the time, risk and cost of
application testing
• Analyses and validates application performance
against business requirements, mitigating risk
during application deployment
• Eliminates freeware and ad-hoc testing tools,
lowering support costs
Business benets
• Creates a exible, on-demand testing model,
generating signicant cost savings
• Saves testers one day per job within a project,
speeding time-to-market and lowering
operational expenditure
• Provides real-time visibility and control over
IT projects, supporting the company’s
business strategy
Virgin Media provides broadband internet, xed
and mobile telephone and television services to UK
business and domestic customers. Formerly known as
ntl:Telewest following the merger of NTL Incorporated
and Telewest Global Inc, the company adopted its
current name after merging with Virgin Mobile UK
in 2006. By bringing together television, internet,
mobile phone and xed-line telephone services, it is
the UK’s rst ‘quadruple-play’ media organisation.
Headquartered in Hook, Hampshire, the company
owns and runs the UK’s only bre-optic cable network.
The majority of its 4.8 million cable customers
subscribe to bundled television, broadband internet
and xed-line telephone services.
• Lowers application defects, boosting customer
satisfaction and service levels
• Reduces the number of high-priority project
requests by 80 per cent, releasing resources
for other projects
Customer
solution at
a glance
Application
• Performance testing
• Resource management
Software
• HP Quality Center
• HP Performance Center
• HP Project and Portfolio
Management Center
• HP QuickTest
Professional
• HP LoadRunner
HP Services
• HP Software
Education Services
Ad-hoc testing tools unt
for purpose
Following the mergers, Virgin Media had a disparate
infrastructure with many inherited oces, several
data centres and dierent testing processes and tools
across the new organisation. There were multiple
billing systems, web-based customer service portals
and credit-checking applications as well as numerous
systems interfacing with an integrated provisioning
system for television set-top boxes. Some business
units employed Bugzilla and T-Plan for test
management whilst others used either freeware or
legacy software. These ad-hoc tools did not integrate
well with the business and, in some cases; they were
unt for purpose within such an enterprise.
“After consolidating our data centre estate from
approximately 20 sites to two main centres, we
needed to combine and optimise all our legacy
systems, applications and processes,” explains Peter
Doyle, head of performance and automation, Virgin
Media. “Following the mergers and acquisitions,
we were managing about 90 IT projects at any one
time and they covered a wide range of technologies.
However, with such a diverse range of testing tools
in use across our project portfolio, many IT requests
that initially appeared straightforward often became
major challenges.
“Managing test assets eciently is important if
IT is to deliver maximum value to the business.
Managing this disparate collection of tools eectively
was dicult and was having a detrimental eect
on business performance. A more robust and
coherent test management regime was essential.
We required a single set of testing tools and a better
way to manage IT projects to satisfy a market that is
constantly changing.”
Fixing the fundamentals and
resource utilisation
Virgin Media launched two initiatives. A major
strategic programme designed to ‘x the
fundamentals’ within IT and a second programme to
increase resource eciency. The objective of the rst
initiative was to reduce the operational expenditure
associated with issues such as application defects,
which were generating an unacceptable level of
customer dissatisfaction. Customer churn was too
high. The second project focussed on improving
resource utilisation across Virgin Media as contractors
form 50 per cent of the company’s workforce.
Although HP was the incumbent testing software
provider within NTL and Telewest, Virgin Media
approached an additional major vendor following
a review of the testing and project management
software market by the IT team. During negotiations,
HP made a compelling business case by employing
Alinean, an independent and well-recognised third-
party tool. It demonstrated how the HP solution would
provide excellent business value by lowering Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) and yielding a sound return
on investment. Virgin Media decided to implement an
HP Software solution across the entire business as
part of the ‘x the fundamentals’ programme.
While talking about the second programme,
the resource eciency initiative, HP used its
comprehensive industry knowledge to establish how
a cost-eective HP solution would integrate well with
the rest of the HP IT Performance Suite.
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