The future of energy and utilities is digital. The days of people going to service stations to pay gas and electricity bills or for grievance redressal are long gone. Instead, the shift to ONLINE is at full speed. With each passing day, utilities are increasing their digital offerings to capture the market.
With such an influx of digital, it is a no-brainer why utility testing services are a constant need for utility corporations of today.
For the uninitiated, utility businesses comprise private and public corporations dealing with water, sewage, electricity, oil and natural gas, or other energy resources. Utilities being such a crucial part of everyone’s lives, it is only natural that their providers rise with the times to stay relevant.
Utility applications can range from technical systems designed to support utilities with operational intelligence and analytics to other customer-facing apps.
In this article, we shall explore the need for digital testing to improve utility applications and make them more reliable for end consumers.
Let’s get started.
6 reasons why testing is essential for utilities
Utilities must know that quality assurance is instrumental to their success and growth. A high level of technical expertise can place them ahead of their competitors and make them ready to face the industry’s new challenges.
Utilities depend on digital testing services to guarantee a perfect match between expectations and product/service quality. Here’s how regular QA (Quality Assurance) and testing procedures can make a difference:
Testing is the only way to guarantee an excellent user experience
Be it core enterprise systems, outage management systems, metering applications, or consumer service applications, leading utilities and energy businesses are focusing on quality assurance and software testing to guide their digital operations.
Energy de-regularization has levelled the playfield for multiple operators to compete for customer attention; thus, everyone is in a race to put their best digital foot forward. When ingrained into the very SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) of the utility app, utility testing services can root out major defects early on. A well-built, defect-free utility app will delight customers and add to brand loyalty. It can boost brand image and increase market share for the operator.
Effective testing can help with cloud migration
The digital transformation of businesses worldwide has left no industry untouched. The energy and utility sector is rife with the demands of consumers to move to the cloud. Legacy systems are no longer doing the trick, with the cloud replacing even 100-year-based systems.
But migrating to the cloud and transferring information from traditional to modern servers can have challenges. For example, how to have zero downtime of services and yet assure functionality of components as standalone, also how can we ensure the functionality of integrated processes.
A digital testing service can provide more clarity in these cases. They can carry out a detailed and informative quality analysis and chart out a solid migration strategy based on the same to help migrate in phases.
Test automation initiatives can maximize test coverage
By now, we have established that there is a constant need for testing because apps are frequently updated due to added functionalities and dynamic customer demands. By making quality assurance an integral and continuous part of a CI/CD pipeline, utilities can ensure that their applications are always defect-free.
Utilities often produce large and complex systems that have many testing parameters to cover. By automating these tests, utility testing services guarantee better test coverage and make testing hassle-free and less expensive in the long run.
Automation also reduces test cycle time
Testing is often sidelined because enterprises view it as a time taking process. However, this perspective can be potentially harmful as untested, poorly tested, or partially tested applications may not be reliable and sturdy enough for usage. Instead, taking the help from utility testing services to bring in automation can reduce test execution and planning times by leaps and bounds.
Testing improves the scale and flexibility of utility systems
Utilities have a large customer base and a lot of ground to cover regarding services and offerings. As a result, the same scale is also expected from their digital initiatives. With appropriate testing measures in place, it is easier for utilities to grow as they go and accommodate newer customer demands.
For example, many Electric and power assets management systems are now moving towards a service-oriented architecture to deliver electric energy at low prices. However, legacy enterprises often struggle with slow development times, code quality issues and a considerable cost of change. A testing partner can help enforce planned re-architecture and new ways of working to alleviate such challenges.
Testing helps with outage management and storm readiness
Come rain, hail, or snow. Utilities are expected always to function normally or at least protect their customers with appropriate storm readiness. QA experts swear by storm readiness testing, an integrated end-to-end solution that ensures the reliability and functionality of utility systems in extreme weather conditions.
Having utility systems tested for storm readiness ensures that critical utility applications won’t fail and that response times and incident inquiries can be completed reasonably.
Conclusion:
Power & other utility companies are swimming in a sea of challenges today. Governmental regulations, a cutthroat competitive landscape, and the rising demand for cleaner, cheaper energy are subjecting utilities to a constant shift in digital dynamics.
The question is: Are their digital offerings good enough for the current demand? In addition, every utility enterprise has unique business goals, thus needing tailormade, innovative testing strategies to fit them perfectly.
What they need now is the presence and aid of an expert digital testing service that helps them in culminating these testing strategies. Choosing the right one can not only guarantee a better customer experience but also streamline functionalities, processes and tech.
