Welcome

Merger and acquisition activity is intensifying globally, often within high profile and political environments, involving some of the worlds leading organizations. During the integration of the businesses, the pressure on IT to meet stringent deadlines and deliver seamless end-to-end business solutions is enormous.

This edition of Perspective looks at how the quality of IT delivery in mergers and acquisitions is fundamental to ensuring the project is a success. It also gives a technical view, looking at the approach to testing for the integration of the IT systems.

The featured case study is from the merger which created a leading retailer in the UK. The case study demonstrates the important role testing played in ensuring one of the largest IT migration projects in Europe went live problem free.

Following the M&A theme, Perspective interviews industry experts Jason Knight from PIPC and AppLabs’ Mark Bargh to get their views on mergers and acquisitions and the testing industry today.

Finally, following the worldwide SOA survey carried out by AppLabs at the end of 2007, the results are now available for you to download.

Sashi Reddi
CEO, AppLabs

AppLabs Charitable Trust (ACT)

AppLabs Charitable Trust (ACT), the humanitarian hand of AppLabs, came into being on 11th April, 2006 with the objective of serving and supporting the under privileged sections of our society. ACT has implemented a substantial number of projects with a focus on environmental concerns, health, education and helping the aged.

In India, ACT has initiated blood donation camps, provided medicines to organizations in need and has donated clothes in slums. In addition, ACT has promoted education for underprivileged children as poverty and illiteracy are such huge impediments to their advancement.

In the UK, projects have been undertaken with Royal Bank of Scotland making the Selm Muir Forest more accessible for children with special needs.

Projects in the USA have supported troops in the Middle East by sending them gifts for Christmas, canned food is collected for food banks and the children of an underprivileged family in Lindon, Utah were provided with gifts for Christmas.

2007 was a landmark year for Corporate Social Responsibility activity for AppLabs and we look forward to continuing our rewarding work in 2008 with even more initiatives.

Business Insight

Merging organizations comes with significant risk and it is estimated that 50-70% fail. One of the main factors is failure to successfully integrate IT systems. This document addresses some of the issues to consider when merging IT systems and offers advice on how best to mitigate risk more+

Technical Viewpoint

The reasons behind mergers and acquisitions are diverse, bringing benefits from increased scale to access into new markets and strategic perspectives. However, completing a merger is rarely straightforward and there are many important areas of integration to be addressed. Creating a successful merger or acquisition and retaining shareholder value is contingent upon the success of the IT integration strategy and only with a clear and comprehensive testing strategy will a merger ever be truly successful more+

Company News

AppLabs ranks 45th fastest growing company in North America on Deloitte’s 2007 Technology Fast 500

Over the past 5 years, AppLabs has seen phenomenal growth of 3680% and it has been accredited with the honor of being recognized by Deloitte. AppLabs is competing in the most innovative and competitive sectors and the ranking is based on various criteria more+

AppLabs among Top 10 in IBJ's 25 fastest growing list

The IndUS Business Journal (IBJ) ranked AppLabs 9th out of the 25 fastest growing companies that figured in the IBJ Fastest Growing Companies List due to the contributions made to the US and Indian economies more+

AppLabs Platinum Partners of EuroSTAR 2007

The EuroSTAR event took place in Stockholm, Sweden on the 3rd - 6th December 2007. AppLabs was a Platinum Sponsor of the event, where we had a centre stage booth to showcase our service offering.

The highlights were Ian Londesbrough presenting to over 500 people on the importance of a good attitude when it comes to being a valued testing professional and how our corporate values - GLOBAL - really affect the way we behave as a business and as individuals. Asha Jyothi also presented a track session on the important aspects of Usability Testing of Flash Applications.

AppLabs at NASSCOM Emerging Companies Forum

Sashi Reddi, Founder, Chairman and CEO, AppLabs, was a lead panelist and speaker at the recently concluded forum titled ‘Creating Focus in an Emerging Company’ under the NASSCOM Emerging Companies Marketing Forum.

The event was organized by NASSCOM, a leading IT industry association, with a focus on how an emerging company can identify the right growth strategy, stay focused and manage people.

AppLabs at STEP AUTO Colloquium on Test Automation

Sai Chintala was invited to speak at the recently held STEP AUTO Colloquium on Test Automation at Hyderabad and Pune. The event was hosted by ISQT International and took place on 4th December in Hyderabad and on 13th December in Pune.

Sai shared his in-depth knowledge and industry expertise on ‘Building Thought Leadership in Test Automation’ and ‘Test Automation Models and Process in Distributed Environments’

AppLabs in the News

Economic Times - Philanthropy is in the air

Business Line - Don't miss this test

Yahoo Finance - AppLabs wins 'Technology Company of the Year' Award

Business Standard - AppLabs India's 10th fastest growing tech firm: Deloitte

CIO Decision - AppLabs largest independent Software Tester

To see all the articles in which AppLabs features, click here.

Industry News

Computer Weekly: Outsourcing shows healthy growth

IT Week: New data loss risk for app testers

Finextra: Bank spending on technology to rise

Computer Weekly: In-house code more likely to contain errors, finance directors say

Silicon: Web 2.0 threat looms - So what can organisations do about it?
Perspective Newsletter
Issue 04
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SOA Survey Results

At the end of 2007, AppLabs carried out a survey on the adoption of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in large organizations across the globe. The results provide interesting reading with regards to the testing approach being taken. To download the full report, please click here
Case Study

The integration and migration of core business systems is a perennial source of concern for large companies. Never is the task of systems integration larger, however, than during a merger or acquisition. When 2 companies merged to form a leading retailer in the UK, they knew they needed to undertake a rigorous testing approach to ensure a smooth delivery of the integrated system more+
Strategic Alliance Interview

Jason Knight
PIPC
more+
Employee Spotlight

Mark Bargh
Vice President
more+
Events

STC Redux, 25 January, Mumbai, India

AppLabs' President & COO, Makarand Teje will represent the company at the upcoming STC Redux, a day long colloquium on software testing, organized by QAI India. Makarand will be participating in a panel discussion titled ‘Enabling Excellence in Outsourced Testing Business – Where do we go from here?’

STEP-AUTO 2008 6-7 February, Bangalore, India

Makarand Teje, President & COO will be speaking as a keynote speaker in the inaugural session of the STEP AUTO 2008 conference on 6th February. QSIT has partnered with AppLabs and Makarand Teje will be presenting the ‘AppLabs Testing Award’ for the best whitepaper, selected by a panel of industry experts. On day 2 of the conference, Manoja Nara, Team Lead, AppLabs will be speaking on Testing Web Services in the subject track dedicated to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).