News.

Assurity signs up as SAP Service partner specialised in testing – March 2010

Assurity has been appointed as a SAP Service partner in NZ. Over the past 18 months, Assurity has been working with SAP and our joint SAP Customers to help them design and implement more effective and efficient testing when either performing new module implementations of upgrading to the latest versions.

This partnership builds on Assurity’s partnership with HP Software and will allow us to better assist customers who have adopted SAP to leverage a strongly integrated technology stack between HP and SAP, which when combined with best practice can significantly reduce the costs and time to perform the testing required to verify and validate SAP implementations and upgrades.

Assurity completes 5th Graduate programme – February 2010

Assurity has completed its 5th graduate programme which this year saw 5 graduates complete the programme and join the Assurity team as permanent staff. The programme this year had Alice, Jared and Yuki joint the Wellington office with Lael and Jerome joining the Auckland branch. Even though this year saw the global financial crisis dominate the news, we still firmly believe that it was important for us that we continue to look to train the next generation of testers. Our Graduate programme comprises 4 weeks of structured training and example project work where the team develop test skills and techniques as well as tools and ISTQB training.

Assurity hosts the 2nd NZ Test Managers Forum in Wellington – February 2010

Assurity hosted the 2nd NZ Test Managers Forum (NZ TMF) which this year had 26 senior test managers from 22 companies attend. The all day event covered techniques for helping to understand stakeholders needs through ‘the Cloud’ and what this might mean to ‘Testing in a squeezed, squeezed world’. Our key focus for the TMF is to facilitate discussions between industry peers and our Customers.

Feedback from this 2nd event was so positive that we are considering running the 3rd TMF in both Auckland and Wellington to allow for a greater participation.

New office for Assurity Wellington - February 2010

Assurity has passed yet another milestone in its development as the Wellington branch moved into new offices in the heart of the Wellington CBD. The Wellington branch is now located on Level 20 of the Majestic Tower, one of the city’s landmark buildings.

With the company growing year-on-year there was a growing need for more customer facing meeting facilities as well as increased internal needs. The new office supports the increasing demand for our “Testing-as-a-Service” offering and outsourced test services.

Assurity is Gold Sponsor at next years CIO Summit – December 2009

Assurity has signed up as a gold sponsor for next years CIO summit to be held in Auckland. This conference is significant within the NZ IT industry as it provides a platform for discussion and debate on a broad range of topics and issues which are key to ensuring IT delivers for the business.

Assurity will be there to discuss how quality, when managed strategically, can deliver real value for the business in a world where change is a constant, and speed to market and quality of customer service are paramount to an organisations success.

Assurity ranked 99 in Deloitte’s Asia Fast 500 – December 2009

Assurity has been ranked 99th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2009 index, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Asia Pacific. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years.

"Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is commendable in today’s highly competitive technology industry," said Ian Thatcher, partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program. "We congratulate Assurity on being one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the region."

Garth Hamilton, Assurity’s CEO commented that being able to continue to meet our customer’s needs and bringing thought leadership and innovation to the quality industry was instrumental in Assurity’s continued success. “To be ranked within the top 100 growing technology companies in Asia Pacific is a great achievement, in particular given the stress in the market and our evolving customer needs. We have an outstanding team of over 50 people who have all worked tremendously hard towards making our customers and ourselves a great success”.

Assurity ranked 12th in the Deloitte’s NZ Fast 50 award – October 2009

Assurity has been ranked 12th in the 2009 Deloitte New Zealand Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing companies in New Zealand. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years and cover all aspects of industry, not just technology.

Assurity Sponsors PMI conference in Christchurch – September 2009

Assurity was one of the key sponsors for this years PMI Conference held in Christchurch. The PMI conference is NZ’s leading conference covering all aspects of Project Management. This year, Assurity’s key message to participants was not only around how to deliver quality as part of a project, however ensuring this is done within a strategic framework which is across all projects and the Enterprise as a whole.

Assurity Hosts Inaugural Test Managers Forum – June 2009

Assurity has established the very first New Zealand Test Managers Forum which was a one day event held on 3rd June at the Civic Centre in Wellington.

The idea behind the event was to get Senior Test Managers (or Managers responsible for testing in their organisation) together to discuss and identify common issues. Through facilitated workshops the participants looked at 4 distinct areas within testing and discussed issues and possible solutions based off collective experience.

We had a total of 25 attendees from 22 companies on the day which was a tremendous turn out. The guest speaker was Peter Thomas, CIO of New Zealand Defence Force who received a very warm reception from the attendees with a very poignant talk on risk which stimulated plenty of discussion.

Workshops were facilitated by four Assurity principal consultants. Assurity’s role was solely to create and manage the event and to facilitate workshops, however based on relationships Assurity has with European and Australian Test Consultancies, they were able to outline challenges being experienced in all markets and from a focused NZ survey prior to the event, outline NZ specific trends around testing when compared with Australia and Europe.

The feedback we have received from the attendees was excellent right across the board and everyone said they would like to see future events.

A couple of quotes from the attendees:

“Thanks so much for running this forum. As a test Manager this is the first time I've had a chance to meet my peers. It's been great to find out that we are all working with the same constraints and issues. I also appreciate the Assurity team keeping the content very neutral, rather than Sales talk.”

“Pretty damn good forum. I liked the mix. Topics and speakers were excellent. Good benefits for networking and sharing/discussing issues. Good inaugural conference.”

As a result Assurity will continue hosting future Test Manager Forums. We would like to thank everyone who supported and help out behind the scenes with the Inaugural NZ Test Managers Forum. We strongly believe that this type of event will only lead to improving testing and helping grow the community in New Zealand.

Assurity’s 4th Conference – March 2009

In these difficult times, it is important to continue to invest in those things which make a company unique and special and further develop our staff and our customers. Assurity held its 4th company conference in Martinborough where we had over 40 staff from Auckland and Wellington attend. Our focus was once again on company-wide training which covered Project Management skills for senior consultants / and test analysts and Agile automation framework development and architecture skills for our test engineers. Our conferences are aimed at ensuring a consistent culture and delivery between Auckland and Wellington and aside from skills development, allow for further ‘team building’ to take place.

HP Quality Center version 10 – Feb 2009

HP released version 10 of Quality Center, Business Process Tester and Functional Testing at the start of February 2009. This release marks a strategic move forward for Quality Center as this now brings full requirements management and test management under an Application Lifecycle Management tool. Assurity ran a Quality Center 10 delta training seminar for its existing customers in Wellington and Auckland which were warmly received. Further client presentations are planned over the coming months.

Assurity Graduate Programme – Jan 2009

Assurity completed its 4th Graduate Programme with two Graduates from Auckland and two from Wellington undertaking the training. Our Graduate training is delivered over a three week period and teaches the foundations of software testing using an ISTQB syllabus as well as how to be an effective team member and testing in a tools and non tools environment. Once complete, the Graduates then join existing Assurity testing teams where they are mentored by senior consultants. For Assurity, our Graduates inject energy, ideas and bring new ways of thinking to an ever expanding consulting base and will remain a key part of developing the company and our industry into the future. We would like to thank all those who applied, and once again the standard was excellent.

SQC Conference (Canberra) – Oct 2008

Key staff from Assurity in Auckland and Wellington attended the inaugural SQC conference held in Canberra. This conference was different from most testing conferences in so much as it was focused on local real user experience from the testing community presented to the testing community.

SQS have been running conferences in Europe for some 10 years and in bringing a local SQC conference to the region, bring access to international trends and experience.

STANZ (Wellington) – August 2008

Assurity was a key sponsor at the 2008 STANZ conference in Wellington.

Some 200 delegates had plenty of opportunity to swap ideas and experiences whilst being treated to the highest quality coffee thanks to Assurity providing a fully serviced coffee stand.

Assurity Graduate Programme – July 2008 (Closed)

Assurity has now commenced its third Graduate Programme with two Graduates from Auckland and two from Wellington undertaking the training.  Our Graduate training is delivered over a three week period and teaches the foundations of software testing using an ISTQB syllabus  as well as how to be an effective team member and testing in a tools and non tools environment.  Once complete, the Graduates then join existing Assurity testing teams where they are mentored by senior consultants.  For Assurity, our Graduates inject energy, ideas and bring new ways of thinking to an ever expanding consulting base and will remain a key part of developing the company and our industry into the future.  We would like to thank all those who applied, the standard was once again excellent.

Assurity Third Company Conference – June 2008

Assurity held its third company-wide get together in Ohakune where staff from Auckland and Wellington met for two days of company training and team building.

With over 40 staff in Auckland and Wellington, it is vital that both teams deliver a consistent solution for our customers and that people know each other so as to share experience, ideas and knowledge.

This conference centred on training in Security Testing and Agile Development techniques and testing processes.

In addition to training, many were caught on camera enjoying beer at a Bavarian (Allo Allo) evening where silly hats and moustaches were order of the day followed by a jet boat trip up the Wanganui River.

Assurity awarded a Partner Excellence Award by HP – May 2008

Assurity was awarded a Partner Excellence Award by HP at the 2008 HP Software Partner Summit (APJ) held in Thailand at the end of May 2008.

This award recognizes the excellent contribution Assurity has made to HP and its customers in further developing solutions for more effective Quality Management in the New Zealand market. In a recent update from the HP Software channel management team in Australia, Assurity was recognised for its contribution to the New Zealand market:

“HP Software South Pacific had an unprecedented year in FY07 with the integration of Mercury back in February 07, the acquisition of SPI Dynamics in August 07 and Opsware in September 07. With all of this going on, and the challenges inherent in bringing two equally sized software businesses together, HP Software South Pacific delivered the finest set of results in the region growing at something like 5 times the market rate. Of course we couldn't have done this without the support and expertise of our fine channel partners, particularly Assurity in NZ”.

In the Australian market, awards were received by JDS for Excellence in Delivery, and Revolution-IT was awarded Partner of the Year for Australia. We would like to extend our congratulations by both JDS and Revolution-IT, who we have strong working relationships with.

Assurity invited to become HP Software Platinum Partner

Assurity has been invited to become an HP Software Platinum Partner supporting HP Software in New Zealand with sales, training and implementation services. Assurity has achieved this status through its commitment to professionalism and certification in the HP Software products, and helping Customers gain the most from their investments in HP Software products. Andrew Wiltshire - HP Software Channel Manager in Australia commented: “In FY08 we (HP) introduced a new partner program globally and have invited Assurity to join the program at it's highest level - Platinum Status. This is a direct reflection of the relationship between HP Software and Assurity and should act as confirmation of HP's support of Assurity and recognition of your results but also your technical prowess across our portfolio. Assurity's commitment to technical certification across the HP Software portfolio is a clear differentiator for you (Assurity), it is something we recognise as a strength and is directly responsible for Assurity being amongst our top 5 business partners in the region.” Garth Hamilton, Assurity’s CEO said that being awarded this status is a great achievement and reflects the commitment and dedication of all Assurity’s staff and we look forward to working together to helping our Customers develop and achieve the highest levels of quality and test services within their businesses.

Assurity Graduate programme – January 2008 (Closed)
We are pleased to announce that we have selected our graduates for our next Graduate programme starting in January 2008. We had over 130 applications for the programme and spent significant time refining applications to a core team who we feel will deliver excellent outcomes for our Customers and fit with the team and help grow our business into New Zealand’s premier Software Testing Consultancy.

We would like to thank all those who applied, the standard was excellent and demonstrates for us that we are doing the right thing in helping to develop the next generation of New Zealand IT professionals.

Assuity completes company's first certification programme – May 2007
Assurity has recently completed the first of many planned certification programmes to build upon its position as the premier Quality Assurance company in New Zealand. 11 Staff from within Assurity have now been certified as Certified Product Specialists (CPS) in HP Quality Center. This brings our total number of certifications held to 13. We have been delighted with the pass rate which saw a 73% pass on the latest sitting. HP representatives from Australia were invited to run the certification programme and have been thrilled by the quality of the staff and the commitment from the company. Regular certification programmes are planned to further build upon the base created and to help ensure we deliver service to our Customers which are of the highest quality and level of professionalism.

Assurity hold its first company conference - May 2007
Assurity's Wellington and Auckland branches came together for the company's first staff conference held in Wellington and Martinborough. The conference gave staff the opportunity further get to know each other and to align delivery between the two branches. The event is planned to take place every six months to ensure the company is consistent in delivery and to undertake further certification training. We were delighted with the passion shown and the commitment from all of our staff towards building Assurity to be the premier Quality Assurance company in NZ.

HP Software Award for Assurity – March 2007
Assurity has been awarded the HP Software ‘Most Valued Partner’ award for New Zealand at the recent HP Universe Conference in Brisbane. This award recognises Assurity’s commitment and contribution towards further developing the testing industry in NZ.

New Offices for Auckland and Wellington – March 2007
Assurity in Auckland and Wellington have just taken new offices in both regions. This is required to cope with our continued growth and represents our continued commitment to establishing ourselves as the Testing Consultancy of choice.

HP completes acquisition of Mercury – February 2007
HP Software has completed its proposed acquisition of leading testing tools provider, Mercury. The deal cements HP’s direction towards becoming the number 1 provider of Business Technology Optimisation software for IT.

Assurity Auckland established – Sept 2006
Darren McTigue has moved from London to establish Assurity in the Auckland Region. Darren McTigue and Garth Hamilton formed Assurity following their experience gained whilst working with a London based test consultancy. Darren has 23 years experience in the IT industry and was formally GM of Synergy in Auckland and more recently CEO of Synergy UK for 5 years. Darren joins Garth Hamilton, formally the GM for Synergy in Wellington who was responsible for establishing and growing the Synergy Software Development practice from the ground-up to over 150 software engineers.