Disaster Recover Planning - A Case Study
Even with automation becoming standard for companies, many people still don't know the real extent of automatable tasks. The result is less efficiency and higher costs, and one of our clients-a property development and management company with a global presence-is a good example.
About The Client
With over 400 properties and 1,500 users worldwide, they use a well-known property management software to support their operations related to property development, management, and maintenance.
Their operational scale means the client has several disaster recovery protocols. One of them aims to ensure their operation continues if a disaster harms the production environment.
They regularly test these protocols, and they do it by setting up production environments in a new server. These artificial environments are then tested for their stability and usability, similar to the production environment, which involves testing over 800 scripts from Excel files.
This process must be repeated for every relevant upgrade to the infrastructure, like upgrading plug-ins, service pack, and customization implementation initiatives. Likewise, to testing your backup by restoring the environment, regular DR testing would involve recreating the production environment and making sure that it is still working the same way as their live environment.
Their Problem
Their operational size and the number of scripts they must verify translated into multiple resource requirements for different functions.
Once the test results are compiled, they must be analyzed. Failed cases are then rectified and tested again until they are fixed. This amount of repetition makes testing a very costly process in terms of resources.
Besides, test cases have to be executed frequently, meaning a dedicated team was necessary. Therefore, a separate budget approval was required. Furthermore, the team caused scheduling issues because of a need for multiple functions.
All of these additional necessities resulted in resources being diverted from priority operations.
Our Solution
Assetsoft was first called to help in the manual execution of these tasks while monitoring testing projects. Since we worked closely with the teams, we could spot all issues mentioned; we also identified how automation could streamline the entire process.
Our proposed solution was UiPath to automate the testing exercises. These robots were configured to work with their Excel test scripts, and they executed them in their ERP, just like human users.
Keeping the Excel test scripts also meant maintaining and editing test cases wasn't any different than before. The robots automatically updated results in Excel files, so the client could focus on failed issues and correct them.
Our Benefits
Using robots made running multiple test scripts a lot faster-just a fraction of the time it took initially. Besides, automating tasks eliminates the chances of human errors during the tests.
Resources were free to focus only on troubleshooting, analyzing, and revising failed tests. When paired with a shorter period and fewer resources needed, the cost-efficiency ratio for our client's tests significantly increased.
Testing could also run full-time 24 hours a day without interruptions. When considering the process was around five times quicker (from 15-20 days to 3-4), it also meant noticeable savings in all aspects.
