Our client, a major global payment network, wanted a web-based automated qualification tool to qualify test tools submitted by vendors. They wanted to improve the qualification experience, save time, and help make test tools available in the market in a short time from the release of the specification.

The qualification tool would qualify the following components per the scheme's different specifications:

• Vendor acquirer simulator for issuer host certification
• Vendor issuer simulator for acquiring host and terminal E2E certification 

What did we do?

We used our Lithos platform to develop the web-based qualification tool (QT). Development of QT included the following:

1. Interfacing of QT with 3^rd party host simulators over TCP/IP
2. QT, hosted on AWS, allowing testing over the Internet by performing end-to-end transactions and capturing logs
3. Simulation of Acquirer, Issuer, and Network depending on the mode of the system under test
4. Support for ISO 8583 library of the scheme's networks 

What challenges did we address during this project?

1. An automated cloud-based centralized host qualification test platform replaced the manual time-consuming and error-prone process.
2. Manual patching of the scheme's test libraries was avoided as the new test libraries were patched in the cloud.
3. Options for multiple users of the vendors to test their hosts for different scenarios, reducing time and administrative costs

Benefits for the customer

We delivered a self-certification platform with centralized monitoring and tracking for this scheme. 3rd Party host simulator vendors are now using this to test and qualify their hosts.

The benefits included:

• Reduced the cost of maintaining QSP by 90%
• Self-driven debugging that reduces costs, efforts, and timelines
• Scalable and extensible to accommodate newer libraries and interfaces
• Real-time execution and analysis
• Multiple users in parallel.