By leveraging Patni's expertise in testing rules engine, a leading credit card issuer improved its ability to reduce frauds and improve the account acquisition rate.

The Client
The client is part of a major conglomerate which is a Fortune 100 company. It is in the business of issuing private label credit cards to individual consumers and business entities in the United States and Canada.

The Challenge
To consistently improve the accuracy and speed of each decision, the client was using strategy management rules engine from Experian, which were customized to play a pivotal role in credit card acceptance. The rule engines have rule-sets built into them to protect prospective and existing applicants from possible frauds. This also helped in minimizing the exposure to the client that could be caused by legal complications. These rules had been created through extensive market research tied to the potential risk exposure faced, and adhering to all compliance measures mandated by the US government.

As a market promotion exercise to attract new applicants, the client updated the rules on a regular basis, and presented new study results. Every rule engine that was updated was tested for its relevance, and scheduled for implementation in the least possible timeframe. This typically resulted in a stream of rule engines being tested and implemented. The test results were then verified by the client for weeding out possible errors. Simultaneously, the client also had to ensure compliance to business rules to avoid the chances of possible errors creeping in. As the number of test cases increased at a frantic pace, the client faced a huge challenge in testing its rule engines in a short span of time.

The Solution
Through a focus on achieving quick enhancement of business value, on a repeatable basis, Patni put in place a proper echanism that would help the client achieve this objective. Patni assisted the client in establishing a set of standard test samples that gave desired results for each processing path that the rule engine traversed resulting in a better acquisition yield rate.

Specific test samples were identified and added to the test bed database in parallel for future reference. To reduce cycle time, testing was done using parallel batch processes. Further, tools were fine tuned for improved performance. Non-essential default processes were identified and eliminated to improve the processing speed. Patni also created a tool that enabled the client to run standard test cases through the rule engine in a short span of time.

The Benefits
By leveraging Patni’s expertise, the client succeeded in establishing a streamlined and cost effective process that had the ability to execute significant volumes of testing with high levels of accuracy. Other significant benefits include:

• Ability to quickly adhere to compliance requirements
• Improved quality of credit card service offerings
• Scalable test system enabled to test multiple cycles of rule engine test runs
• Lowered fraud losses as the client can incorporate new features at a faster pace to cut down potential risk
• Improved account acquisition rate

The Technology

• Software: MQ series, COBOL II, CICS/ESA 4.1, Experian’s SEM solution
• Hardware: Sun SPAARC servers, IBM S/390
• Database: Oracle 9.2.0.4.0