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.
2
“Our sta have been running millions of tests per
year with HP software and they are very familiar
with HP solutions,” continues Doyle. “Under these
circumstances, there would have had to be a
compelling reason to go to another vendor while
seeking a consolidated solution. There was not.
Besides, in our opinion, HP has been the market
leader for test management solutions for more
years than we can recall. Moreover, with our high
dependency on IT contractors, we had to deploy tools
that they understand and like to use. The majority of
contractors are very familiar with HP software.”
Consolidated testing solution
The HP solution comprises a comprehensive package
of tools to help Virgin Media consolidate the test
environment, reduce costs and increase visibility.
For the ‘x the fundamentals’ programme, Virgin
Media has deployed HP Quality Center, HP QuickTest
Professional and HP Performance Center Software.
HP Quality Center helps Virgin Media to support
application test management and delivery by
providing complete visibility of processes, testing
and defects over the release lifecycle via a Centre
of Excellence approach. HP QuickTest Professional
oers the company automated functional and
regression testing to lower the time, risk and
cost associated with application testing whilst
HP Performance Center analyses and validates
application performance against business
requirements and mitigates risk during application
deployment. HP Performance Center replaces several
HP LoadRunner installations, reducing support and
administration costs.
“For the resource eciency project, we will conduct a
phased roll-out of HP Project Portfolio Management
(PPM) Center to provide real-time visibility and
control over IT projects that are important to our
business strategy,” comments Doyle.
“In the past, a lot of projects were completely siloed
and, when a similar project came along, there was
no analysis available of the synergy between
projects,” continues Doyle. “The HP 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. With IT sta conducting over 300 projects
a year this is a vital tool.”
Enhancing workows via
an on-demand service model
Following full deployment of HP Quality Center,
Virgin Media has reduced resource duplication,
eliminated freeware and ad-hoc testing tools and
improved project workows and sta productivity.
This approach to consolidating testing processes
has created a exible on-demand service model for
testing, signicantly lowering project costs across
the business. Analysis indicates that testers save
one day per job within a project, speeding time to
market of new applications.
The pooling of skills and testing knowledge within
a single centralised environment has also increased
value to the business. “In the past, we were not
reusing test information and, consequently, this
data did not deliver any business value. However, we
now constantly re-use these assets to save time and
money within the testing environment,” says Doyle.
3
“By utilising these HP tools fully, we have not
only increased speed of delivery and productivity
within our IT department, we now provide more
consistent and better quality products. In addition,
we have reduced the number of high-priority project
requests by 80 per cent, releasing resources for
other projects.”
Removing freeware and ad-hoc tools creates further
cost savings for Virgin Media by eliminating security
and support issues. HP Performance Center further
lowers administration costs by ensuring application
performance matches the company’s business
requirements. Using HP PPM is also making a valuable
contribution towards planning and budgeting. This
tool allows Virgin Media to forecast contractor
loading, lowering costs by eliminating last-minute
fullment requests.
“Depending on a project’s testing requirements and
which network is using the application, we employ
HP Performance Center for about 60 per cent of
our projects and HP LoadRunner for any remaining
projects,” reveals Doyle. “We are also keen users
of HP Software Education Services for career
development as they oer our people the right skills
at the right time wherever they are located.”
As Virgin Media has expanded the HP Quality Center
implementation, near-shoring via UK partners and
o-shoring via India-based partners have provided
the business with the exibility to scale testing up
and down according to business needs.
“Overall, eective use of the HP toolset has driven
up productivity and the quality of our testing
regime, introduced exibility to testing services
and delivered better and more consistent products
whilst driving down costs within a market that
is experiencing constant technological change,”
concludes Doyle.
For more information
To read more about HP Software,
go to hp.com/go/software
Strategy, Planning, and Governance
Security Intelligence and Risk Management
Application
Lifecycle
Management
Extensibility, Orchestration, and Analytics
Services and Support
IT Operations
Management
Information
Management
HP IT Perfor mance Suite
The HP IT Performance Suite is a family of
industry -leading p roducts t hat spans the
pillars you see here. Each product helps
IT perform better in the discrete area it
addresses. Together, the suite helps the
overall IT organisation to perform better
by providing unparalleled coverage of
the IT domai n and a KPI- based scorecar d
system to optimise outcomes.
Get connected
hp.com/go/getconnected
© Copyr ight 2011-2012 Hewlett- Packard Developm ent Company, L.P. The informat ion contain ed herein is subjec t to change without
notice. The on ly warranti es for HP prod ucts and services are se t forth in the express war ranty stat ements acco mpanying s uch produc ts
and services. Not hing herein shoul d be construed as constituting an a dditiona l warranty. H P shall not be li able for tech nical or edi torial
errors or omissions contained herein.
4AA 3-7456EEW, Cr eated November 2011; Updated September 2012, Rev. 1
Share w ith colleag ues
Loading...