How Modern Payment Testing Solutions Help Drive Operational Efficiency and Cost Optimization

It is clear that the pace of change continues to accelerate all across the global payments landscape. Changing consumer behavior, real-time payments, open banking, evolving government regulations and compliance standards, rampant fraud, cybersecurity threats, and innovative new technologies are only a few of the many urgent priorities demanding immediate attention from virtually every business involved with accepting or processing retail payments.

Unfortunately, responding to these new challenges significantly strains organizations already struggling to keep their payment systems safe, reliable, and profitable in the face of ever-increasing costs. Adding to the complexity of this problem is the very fluid macroeconomic environment, which seems to be constantly on the edge of a full meltdown. All this means that every payment-related business is under constant pressure to improve productivity and cut costs while continuing to deliver shareholder value. 

And while every enterprise has its own unique strategy, structure, and systems, a common thread across the payment industry is the relentless need for testing. In the highly regulated world of financial services, an effective testing strategy can make all the difference in the world, not only by helping to ensure the timely delivery of high-quality products and services to the marketplace but also by maximizing operational efficiency and reducing costs. 

As we noted in a previous Paragon Edge blog, "Determining the Value of Automated Testing in Payments," quantifying the precise Return On Investment (ROI) associated with testing tools and strategies can be challenging. However, there is no question that an effective testing strategy that fully exploits the capabilities of a modern testing platform will boost efficiency, reduce costs, and foster innovation. 

It’s All About Organizational Excellence 

In a recent “Insights” essay, Gartner Chief of Research, Alexander R. Bant, highlights three key pillars for companies to consider as part of an effective cost optimization effort: 

• Cut/Reduce Spend 

• Optimize Performance 

• Create Value 

Gartner's recommendation to Cut Costs and Reduce Spending is directly aligned with the benefits of an effective testing strategy: 

• Reduce Resource Costs: While the initial investment in a testing solution is a factor to be considered, the long-term increase in resource productivity over manual testing can be significant. Automated testing can handle repetitive tasks far more quickly and accurately, freeing up valuable human capital to work on more strategic initiatives that drive innovation and growth. 

• Improved Data Management: Manual testing often involves a complex web of applications, systems, and disparate data sources (many paper-based), leading to inefficiencies and errors. Modern testing solutions not only centralize test data management, but they can also support functional, regression, and performance testing in a single platform, increasing accuracy, improving collaboration, and reducing administrative overhead. 

• Optimized Infrastructure Costs: Many financial services companies struggle under the burden of complex legacy systems and technical debt. Modern testing solutions offer flexible deployment options, including cloud-based alternatives, enabling organizations to avoid unnecessary upfront investments in on-premise hardware and optimize their infrastructure spending based on actual needs. 

Gartner's second pillar, Optimize Performance, focuses on improving efficiency and increasing productivity. This is where the inherent advantages of modern testing solutions are clearly evident: 

• Faster Test Execution: Automation dramatically speeds up test execution times compared to manual testing. This speed translates directly into faster software release cycles and shorter project delivery timeframes, allowing organizations to bring innovative payment products and services to market faster – providing a critical competitive advantage over companies who continue to rely exclusively on manual testing processes. 

• Increased Test Coverage and Accuracy: Automation helps expand test coverage, enabling a wider range of test scenarios to be run with greater accuracy and consistency than with manual testing alone. The broader range of execution improves quality, minimizes the risk of defects turning into costly production errors, and prevents embarrassing customer satisfaction issues. 

• Improved Resource Productivity: By automating routine testing tasks, improving communication, and facilitating collaboration, modern test tools can significantly boost overall team productivity, enabling testing professionals to focus on more complex, exploratory testing and strategic quality assurance initiatives. 

The third Gartner final pillar, Create Value, emphasizes the importance of planning, organizational alignment, and execution. Modern testing solutions are instrumental in achieving these goals within the payments industry: 

• Early Defect Detection: Aligning and integrating payment testing within the broader enterprise makes it much easier to identify and correct defects earlier in the development process. Early error detection and correction is significantly cheaper than fixing problems later in the development cycle or in production, improving both organizational agility and shareholder value. 

• Enhanced Compliance and Reduced Risk: The payments ecosystem is heavily regulated. Modern testing solutions help simplify and speed up compliance with payment network mandates and regulatory directives. Achieving and maintaining timely compliance reduces the risk of costly penalties and reputational damage. 

• Focus on Innovation and Customer Satisfaction: By freeing up limited resources and ensuring the security, reliability, and availability of mission-critical payment systems, modern testing tools allow organizations to dedicate more time and effort to developing innovative products and services that create value and promote growth. 

Investing in Efficiency Pays Off 

As we highlighted in our blog, Understanding Test Automation ROI in the Payments Ecosystem, organizational differences and complexities make it difficult to establish a generic ROI calculation for investments in testing tools and processes.  

However, the benefits provided by modern testing solutions are precisely aligned with Gartner's principles of cost optimization. By embracing automation as a core component of a well-conceived and executed testing strategy, payment industry organizations can optimize performance by increasing efficiency, cut costs by maximizing resource and infrastructure utilization, and create value by improving quality, accelerating innovation, and providing superior customer service. 

The real question here is not so much about the cost of implementing a modern testing solution; it's more about the cost of not making the investment in an increasingly competitive and regulated environment. Investing in the right payment testing tools is an investment in the future efficiency, agility, and profitability of your organization. 

Ready to explore how Paragon's testing solutions can help your organization achieve its cost optimization targets?