TESTING ENSURES BONDSCAPE SUCCESS FOR BARCLAYS CAPITAL WINTERFLOOD AND HSBC

Added: (Tue Sep 25 2001)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Press Information

24th September 2001

TESTING ENSURES BONDSCAPE SUCCESS FOR BARCLAYS CAPITAL WINTERFLOOD AND HSBC

Bondscape.net, the first service to open up the UK bond market to small
investors via intermediaries, has gone live without a hitch thanks to a
stringent testing regime implemented by ImagoQA, the UK's leading software
testing and risk management consultancy.

The brainchild of Barclays Capital and Winterflood Securities, Bondscape
displays research and analysis and offers real time click and trade
functionality with leading market makers on the UK's leading 200 bonds-
which, in the current economic climate, provide a significantly less
volatile investment opportunity than equities.

"Until now, bond trading in the UK has always been unnecessarily complex and
consequently the preserve of the financial institutions," explains Zak de
Mariveles, the Bondscape Project Manager at Barclays Capital. "Which is why
we, with fellow market maker Winterfloods, decided to launch Bondscape, a
service that breaks down the barriers of entry for private client advisers
offering equity-style advice and dealing capabilities to their retail
clients.

"With a project of this complexity the reliability of data and service
availability were of vital importance. It was critical to ensure that there
was sufficient and detailed testing between all the parties involved before
going live and we selected ImagoQA because of their independence, expertise
in testing and their track record in the financial sector," Zak de Mariveles
concluded.

Enter ImagoQA
"Our first task was to analyse the risks involved in the UAT (User
Acceptance Testing) and to implement tests that would support the mitigation
of these risks. We identified a set of tests particularly aimed at
resilience to track the recovery characteristics of the feeds to ensure that
if any did fail it would not have any serious implications to the price
providers," said Tony Walker, ImagoQA's Test Manager .

"We then implemented a standard approach to proving the functionality of the
system to the three price providers and three software houses involved. This
included Imago QA staff being on the price providers' premises, inputting a
variety of trade procedures that proved the functionality of the systems -
this was also used as the basis to prove the system to the Users who include
the traders. The next stage was to Beta test the system with a number of
selected brokers.

"Their comments included: 'it's very easy and informative'; 'it will
definitely encourage retail interest - instead of messing around for 20
minutes making up a spread, we can look at a screen'; 'it will evoke retail
interest in bonds, especially with how cheap it is'; 'I was particularly
impressed with the speed that they've managed to get the thing together'.

"Given the number of participants with both similar and different problems
one of the biggest challenges in the project was always going to be
communication and co-ordination. Endeavouring to get everyone's issues
addressed and meet the requirements of the deadlines was certainly a
challenge, but one that was met by all concerned," Tony Walker concluded.

For Further Information:
Paul Meader
ImagoQA Limited
High Holborn House
52/54 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6RL, UK
Tel: +44 20 7242 5100
Fax: +44 20 7421 8100
E-mail: enquiry@imagoqa.com
Website: www.imagoqa.com

Press Enquiries and Photos:
Tony Bovill
Consort PR Consultants Ltd.
Berrybridge House
Devenish Road
Sunningdale
Berkshire
SL5 9SH, UK
Tel: +44 1344 626171
Fax: +44 1344 626612
E-mail: tony@consortpr.co.uk
Website: www.consortpr.co.uk
(where this release is available)