Case Study “AppLabsunderstandsourbusinessandwhatweareaiming toachieve.Ourrelationshipisatruepartnershipwheregoals and objectives are shared and AppLabs provides innovative approachesandsolutionstomeetthese.” Geoff Hunkin, Director of Delivery (Information Solutions Division), Experian CaseStudy|Experian AppLabs.com Case Study Note: AppLabswaspreviouslyknownasISIntegrationintheUK The Company | Experian is a global information solutions company with headquarters in the UK and the USA. It currently helps over 40,000 organizations worldwide both to find customers and to make informed decisions to personalize and develop relationships with them. It also provides information solutions to consumers, with more than six million a year purchasing its credit report products and automotive history information. The company’s annual sales worldwide exceed £1.3 billion. Experian’s products and services focus on the following key areas for both businesses and consumers: • Knowledge of market trends and economic conditions • Reaching new customers • Making decisions based on customer behavior • Improving customer service • Managing risk • Reducing fraud • Processing customer accounts • Managing customer contacts • Application processing The Challenge | As an organization, Experian has experienced significant growth and expansion in terms of revenue, new clients and products. One of its key challenges is to ensure that such expansion has no impact on the delivery of its products and services to its clients. AppLabs was called upon to provide support in achieving this to the Information Solutions Division with a particular focus on the Application Processing business area, which includes activities such as managing the workflow of customers applying for services, the selection of the right applicants against pre-defined selection criteria, proving the integrity of the information provided and reducing the time to do all this, using market leading products and up-to-date and accurate data. The Solution | The main areas of support provided by AppLabs were in project management and software testing. Experian and AppLabs worked closely together in identifying the skills gaps within the division and also the process improvement opportunities that met with the company’s growth. Also, adding value in delivering quality, improving efficiency and improving the knowledge of full time resources through skills transfer and mentoring. Working to improve the overall business process, AppLabs had a strong team of principal and senior consultants on site for over two years who worked with the project office team to add improvements to Experian’s in-house project management. AppLabs applied Prince 2 as a basis to build a “client focused” set of processes and methods, which integrated into Experian’s cultural change program. AppLabs’ solid project management skills were provided to Experian’s major client projects whilst mentoring and training to 30 - 40 Project Managers within the division were also provided. AppLabs also provided a managed testing team to support a large development project for one of Experian’s strategic accounts. AppLabs took responsibility for the development, implementation and delivery of the project’s system testing strategy. A test management solution for defect tracking was recommended and implemented, which enabled Experian to provide valuable metrics on progress against targets. AppLabs also developed the Information Solutions Divisional Test Strategy, which is currently being deployed by Experian’s own staff and integrated into its overall project management methods and forms a key part of the overall strategy on improving the quality of services and deliverables to its clients. Inge Powell, Head of Client Services (Information Solutions Division), has responsibility for the definition and management of Experian’s service strategy between the division and its client organizations, delivering a market-leading service management approach to a multi- market client base. Inge has recently been appointed as Program Manager Client Services Migration for a £40million improvement program, which will see the relocation of all Experian’s services into a new purpose-built data center. During the first phase of this major project, AppLabs was commissioned to lead and support the test planning and execution stage across the entire Experian organization. Inge says: “When we first embarked on our data center migration program, we took the conscious decision to involve an organization which specializes in the definition and delivery of highly complex test strategies. AppLabs had already very successfully collaborated with Experian in delivering new technology into one of our major clients, so we wanted to engage with a trusted partner on this high visibility risk- controlled project. This has proven to be a success, having recently implemented the first major phase of our migration without impact to client service.” Geoff Hunkin, Director of Delivery (Information Solutions Division), is responsible for all the division’s deliveries into the customer organizations. This includes development, technical, business and project management employees who all work for the common goal of profitable and innovative solutions. Geoff reports to the Managing Director of Information Solutions and has a significant influence on the strategic direction of the Division. He said: “AppLabs understands our business and what we are aiming to achieve. Our relationship is a true partnership where goals and objectives are shared and AppLabs provides innovative approaches and solutions to meet these. AppLabs employees challenge our ideas and work with us to improve on what we have now, with a view to the future. The relationship with AppLabs works at all levels. They deploy excellent consultants who continue to deliver the solutions and skills that we require. This is ably managed by a good commercial and delivery model through the account management and service delivery functions.”