About Fiserv, Inc.

Fiserv is a leading provider of information management services for the financial industry. Fiserv provides information management technology and related services to banks, broker-dealers, credit unions, financial planners, investment advisors, insurance companies, leasing companies, mortgage lenders, and savings institutions.

The Challenge

When Fiserv Securities expected a significant increase in users due to a merger, they had a tight deadline in which to upgrade their critical FSI Professional application with a web-based client. Thousands of professional brokers use the FSI Professional application for real-time clearing of securities trading. Because this application is mission-critical, the risks needed to be mitigated prior to deployment.

The Risks

Fiserv’s FSI Professional application needed to be robust, perform under peak user loads and remain available throughout the distributed network during scheduled business hours. If the application failed to perform and scale to expected peak loads, Fiserv’s reputation and revenue stream could be adversely affected. During the pre-deployment phase of the application’s development lifecycle, Fiserv turned to PowerTest to conduct objective and thorough load, functional, and performance testing to ensure the application was ready to go live.

The Solution

Fiserv’s application architecture included an Apache web server, JServe application server, HTTPS protocol, and Tandem database, while the client was a standard Internet browser. PowerTest developed multiple web-based virtual user scripts to emulate real user activity using Mercury Interactive’s LoadRunner tool. Both the real user actions as well as the number of expected users active on the website were emulated to produce the most accurate load.

PowerTest’s post load test analysis helped isolate serious memory and performance problems that Fiserv’s developers were able to fix. PowerTest’s continued testing also ensured that the changes made by development did not adversely affect performance or functionality. Fiserv ultimately achieved the performance they required for the upcoming peak load.

The Results

"PowerTest conducted stress, capacity and functional testing to ensure that FSI Professional functioned with the necessary user load capacity and functionality. Their work gave us the confidence to deploy a quality product on-time and on-budget."

Joe Pipitone, VP of Information Systems and Director of e-Commerce for Fiserv Securities, Inc.