Sydney, Oct 30, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Polaris and NSW Government 'set the pace' with new centre for Application Performance Diagnostics & Managed Testing Services Sydney PACE Lab to service financial services, banking, insurance and services sectors.

The banking, financial services, insurance, manufacturing and services sectors will be the clear focus for a world-class specialist software testing lab - Polaris Application Certification Enterprise (PACE) - being set up by Polaris Software, an integrated global technology solution provider, in conjunction with the NSW Government.

The Sydney-based centre completes a truly global PACE for Polaris and complements its Centres for Performance Diagnostics and Managed Testing Services in Canada, Northern Ireland and India.

- Sydney will concentrate on application performance diagnostics and managed testing services

- India focuses on domain based testing and regression test automation

- Belfast focuses on the European banking community

- Toronto focuses on performance engineering

"Sydney has a long and rich history in banking and financial services and thus would be the most suitable location to support the complex requirements of leading banks in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand," said Arun Jain, CEO and Chairman, Polaris Software Lab.

Establishment of the Sydney PACE Lab will provide Polaris' clients in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong with a cost-effective near shore facility, critical for delivering zero defect software.

"Polaris' mission is to deliver high performance technology based business applications on cost on time. Software testing plays a critical part in delivering this mission. The PACE lab has three clear focus areas: Enable high performance, reduce release time and minimise post implementation pain areas.

"We are very excited about launching the Sydney PACE Lab, as this will complete a truly global, 24/7 PACE, and maximise the throughput in testing. The vision of the NSW Government has helped us achieve this," said Arun Jain.

Polaris Software is a global organisation with revenue of A$280 million and over 9000 software specialists in 16 countries. It has been operating in Australia since

2000 and currently works with a range of clients including 5 out of the Top 7 Australian banks as well as global giants like Toshiba, Canon and Firth.

"The Sydney PACE lab is a major step that we have taken for continuous value creation for our customers." said Anil Verma, Director, Polaris Software Sydney.

Utilising the synchronised and unique global PACE methodology, the lab will be able to reduce the process cycle time by over 50% for Polaris customers in the region.

The Sydney PACE Lab is Polaris's first Australian centre of excellence, with the company planning to open other facilities around the country and in New Zealand.


About PACE
Polaris Application Certification Enterprise (PACE) is an Independent verification and validation unit of Polaris. It has a wealth of experience in testing critical applications in BFSI (Banking, Financial, Services and Insurance) and other domains. PACE brings to its projects a customised methodology built around the client's processes and a collective experience of over 3,000 person-years of focused testing services. PACE has a dedicated team of 1100 professionals comprising of Subject Matter Experts, Technical Test Consultants and Test Automation Consultants, 75% of whom hold professional certifications such as PMP, CPC, CSQA, CSTE and CFPS.