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Key Capabilities and Characteristics to Get the Most out of Your Investment in Continuous Test Automation for Enterprise Packaged Apps
Automation can deliver significant benefits to many parts of your organization in the form of time savings, risk and cost reduction, and ensuring continuity in the midst of continuous change. But one size never fits all and there are several factors to consider when choosing a continuous automation solution. If you’re considering adding or expanding automation at your organization, here are some key considerations that can support your evaluation and help ensure your specific business needs are met.
- Capable of the Complex
Consider the scope of the project and the applications where automation will be applied. Ongoing development efforts, particularly in Agile+DevOps environments, dictate a need for automated testing to ensure end-to-end business process continue to run smoothly, even in the midst of constant change. If your organization depends on enterprise packaged applications, like SAP, your SAP Test Automation platform must be able to support the nuances of that complex application.
- Speeds Migrations
Often major system upgrades or migrations can leverage automation to accelerate project timelines, while reducing cost or human error. A shift to S/4HANA in particular requires not only the ability to automate effectively, but to discover and document business processes at the outset of a migration project. A recent ASUG survey revealed that 39% of SAP S/4HANA customers underestimated the complexity of their S/migration. Ensure the platform you select has a proven track record with expediting project timelines and reducing risk for your specific initiative.
"This automation is our answer to supporting the business's need to digitize in order to move at speed and scale."
-Dan Kirner, Executive Director, Accenture SAP Program
- Scalable Across the Enterprise
Intelligent automation can often be applied to areas beyond the initial scope of a single project or department. In environments with increasing pressure to do more with less, it can be highly advantageous to incorporate automation in more places. Consider other areas of your business where it would be practical and beneficial to automate. And choose a solution with the ability to build, store and repurpose a library of automation assets. Organizations yield the greatest ROI when they have ability to automate at scale, sharing automation assets and best practices across the enterprise.
- Spans Applications
If you’re heavily invested in SAP, automation that specializes in packaged applications is key. But inevitably, your business runs on more than just SAP. As one client shared, he can’t think of a single business process that starts or ends in SAP, but they all depend on its data at some point in the process. If you support mobile apps, web apps and other tools as part of your end-to-end business process, your automation solution must also be able to operate seamlessly across all of those applications to provide true end-to-end continuous testing.
- Easy to Adopt
When incorporating any new solution, you want to get up and running as quickly as possible. A truly codeless continuous automation platform like Worksoft Certify is intuitive and easy to use for both IT and business users alike. No coding or proprietary knowledge necessary. Also seek out solutions that offer support services and have lean architecture and minimal infrastructure requirements.
“I don't need to hire a highly skilled/trained person to learn it. For other tools, personnel need to know how to use that tool beforehand, but very little education or help is required here. They can easily adopt and trigger the automation.”
-IT Central Station Review of Worksoft Certify
- Starts at the Beginning
In order to automate your end-to-end business processes, you need to understand them. A continuous automation platform that seamlessly integrates Process Discovery capabilities allows you to leverage automation to discover, document and analyze your end-to-end business processes. Automated discovery generates significant time savings, while also improving visibility into your processes along with the ability to identify opportunities for improvement, create accurate test automation, adequately plan for large-scale, complex migrations, and identify ideal candidates for RPA.
- Offers Best-of-Breed Ecosystems
No two IT landscapes are the same. And you want to have access to the best technology available for your specific needs. Automation touches many aspects of your IT landscape, so ensure your automation platform offers both premium functionality, as well as the established interfaces and professional partnerships that enable you to take full advantage of best-of-breed solutions and resources that maximize your automation experience.
- Supports Robotic Process Automation
Routine or commonly repeated processes, processes with regulatory compliance requirements, and lower skill processes that take time away from higher value tasks all have potential for automation with the right solution. When choosing an automation platform, consider those with the capability to extend the automation you build to RPA. Worksoft has many examples of customers who selected our automation for one purpose, then found new ways to apply the capability to extend the value of their automation investment through robotic process automation. Learn more about Worksoft RPA.
“We want to focus our energy on innovating for our product and we want try to minimize the monotonous work that we do for basically back-office activities. And that’s really what RPA brings to the table for us.”
-Scott Sullivan, Honda R&D
- Delivers Tangible Results
The right automation platform can deliver rapid, significant return on investment. When evaluating platforms, seek out real-world metrics like the measurable time and cost savings noted by IDC in this research study, which revealed that Worksoft customers surveyed realize $1.8 million in annual financial benefits from automating with Worksoft. Customer case studies offer a snapshot of how enterprises of similar size, scope and industry have benefited from automation.
- Trusted by Your Peers
Today’s buyers have more access to online reviewers than ever before. It’s no different for automation solutions. When researching options for the right tool to meet your needs, read relevant first-hand experience of others. Peer review sites like IT Central Station are great resources to learn about how a specific automation solution has impacted similar enterprises. Software Testing Help recently ranked Worksoft #1 in their list of the Top 10+ Best SAP Testing Tools. The platform's ability to support Agile testing practices and keep pace with rapid releases are among the reasons why Worksoft was named the top choice for SAP automation.
For more personalized guidance on choosing the automation tools that best fit your current and upcoming business needs, talk with an automation expert.
