Released on: June 27, 2008, 2:45 am

Press Release Author: Simon Mikellides

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Grid-Tools help sQuidcard meet tight software development
deadlines for cashless card payment system

Press Release Body: Oxford, UK - Grid-Tools Limited, a leading vendor of test data
management and information lifecycle management software uses its data generation
tool to enable sQuidcard to meet a tight launch deadline for its e-Money alternative
to cash and debit cards. sQuidcard is a leading e-Money alternative to debit and
credit card networks, and is set to become the product of choice for sub £10
tap-and-go transactions.

A solution that scales to handle millions of customers and transactions
Experts predict rapid growth in this market, with sQuidcard well positioned to
replace some of the £200bn sub-£10 cash transactions made each year in the UK. When
rolling out a solution of this complexity to millions of card holders and
potentially handling tens of millions of transactions a year, sQuidcard had to be
certain that the data underlying the system was tested to the limit.

"The e-money payment network is launching in May," explained Barry Williams, the
Commercial Director of sQuidcard, "but we had to be certain that it could scale to
handle millions of customers and transactions." At the heart of the problem was a
tight delivery schedule for developing the solution, and the need to test it
rigorously. "In our testing, we had to simulate a situation where sQuid had been in
existence for a number of months, or years." sQuidcard neither had the time to key
all this data in by hand, nor the capability to generate realistic data on a large
scale to test the system under a diverse range of scenarios.

Automated data generation and testing was the solution
There were two options open to sQuidcard, "We could have had a team of people
sitting at terminals, keying in accounts, and creating new accounts," explained
Barry Williams, "but this method would have meant missing the delivery deadline.
What we chose to do was use Grid Tools' data generation product to simulate
merchants and customers having transacted for a period." The obvious benefit to
sQuidcard was by using the automated method they could meet their objectives a lot
quicker. Within the testing parameters, they could also replay different scenarios,
and put a far greater range of diversity into the data.

"We chose Grid-Tools because they convinced my developers they had a great degree of
competence and could deliver," emphasised Barry Williams. "They really know the
Oracle data structures, and were able to relieve some pressure off my development
teams." There were also certain advantages to working with a smaller, specialist
company: "We are also a small company, and we understand that their overhead is a
lot lower. This allowed Grid-Tools to offer a price-point which was suitable for
us." Most importantly, Barry explained, was the high degree of responsiveness from
Grid-Tools, and the total understanding they demonstrated of sQuidcard's objectives
and technical challenges. "Overall, it's been a great experience working with
them."

About Grid-Tools
Grid-Tools' software enables organisations with databases to achieve legal
compliance, to increase the productivity of its IT staff and to improve the
price/performance of its infrastructure. Grid-Tools' solutions apply to test data
management and information lifecycle management. The core product automates the
discovery and documentation of database structures: add-on modules generate,
anonymise or subset test databases, or archive production databases.


Web Site: http://www.grid-tools.com

Contact Details: Simon Mikellides
Sales Director
Grid-Tools Ltd
14 Hanborough Business Park,
Long Hanborough,
Oxfordshire,
OX29 8LH
0871 309 8293
gridtools@momentumws.co.uk
www.grid-tools.com