Eynsham, Oxfordshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/14/2010 -- Grid-Tools Limited, a leading vendor of test data management software solutions globally is partnering with Stage Limited a leading UK IT and business services consultancy, specialising in testing and quality improvement. The two organisations will be working together to engage with UK vendors interested in best practices, strategies and solutions for test data management.

The provisioning of test and development environments can be complicated, expensive and tedious, especially in the area of encrypting or masking sensitive and personal data for use in non-production. UK organisations are struggling with the compliance measures set in place by the Data Protection Act (DPA) and enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Most organisations are still storing and maintaining roughly eight to twelve copies of production databases for provisioning test and development environments. As production databases grow larger and larger, the overhead costs of this start to multiply immensely, forcing organisations to find storage and server space, manually edit and manipulate large amounts of data to ensure it is project-specific, and adequately encrypt data so it maintains compliance standards.

In addition to this, many organisations have complicated IT infrastructures with hundreds of applications, sophisticated table structures and cross-platform integration. This is where Stage can work alongside the Grid-Tools Solutions providing strategies to provide thorough testing environments and solutions to help manage the IT infrastructures most effectively.

Simon Mikellides, Grid-Tools Head of Global Sales and Strategic Alliances, commented on the partnership stating, “Stage is an impressive and determined company with the right blend of experience, resources and market reputation to complement and promote the GT range of software and service solutions. They will be an asset as a strategic delivery partner”.

Toni Kendall-Troughton, MD, Stage Consultancy commented, “Good quality, synthetic data is fundamental to achieving accurate and robust systems testing. Stage invests in building adaptable testing and quality solutions to ensure the risk and cost of systems, technology and business change can be minimised and controlled. We are continually looking to enhance our offerings and are very pleased to be working with Grid-Tools to offer companies reliable and thorough testing environments and solutions.”

About Grid-Tools Limited
Grid-Tools are specialists in data creation, data masking and test data management. Their experienced personnel have been writing and developing solutions for large companies in both the private and public sectors for nearly 30 years.

The Grid-Tools Datamaker™ Suite includes a wide range of tools for test data management including such innovative products as Datamaker™, a revolutionary tool that creates and publishes quality test data with the referential integrity of production environments for testing and development. Datamaker™ offers three methods for managing and generating data in testing and development inclusive of database subsetting or data slicing, data obfuscation or data masking, and synthetic data generation. Their solution also offers manageability, manipulation and enhancement of data in multiple formats.

The Grid-Tools methodology consists of using the “data-centric” approach to testing whereby, their focus is to ensure the quality of the test data you are using is of the right quality for successful testing.

To learn more about Grid-Tools, visit their website at: http://www.grid-tools.com

NOTE: All trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

About Stage Limited
Stage is a leading IT and business services consultancy with a specialism in change management, quality assurance and testing maturity solutions into the Finance, Insurance and Manufacturing industries. Stage Consultants enable organisations to successfully deliver application software and IT systems by providing process management and quality services through the project lifecycle; minimising risk, cost and time to market.

Headquartered in Mayfair, London Stage is a young, agile and hugely ambitious IT Consultancy. Established in 2007, the business has enjoyed rapid growth to become a multi-million pound organisation engaging over 200 staff with a forecast to grow the business to over 250 staff in the next financial year.

Stage’s successful business performance is driven by its unique approach that ensures its solutions improve the quality, ease the integration and enhance the performance of its customers’ enterprise applications, providing the benefits of optimised productivity, improved quality and reduced costs. This approach is supported by Stage's company culture which includes a strong work ethos and a priority on staff welfare and investment.

The target, in addition to growing the UK business is to grow the company internationally whilst upholding Stage's independence and passion for delivering the highest quality of service.

Grid-Tools Contacts

Grid-Tools Limited
11 Oasis Business Park
Eynsham
Oxfordshire, OX29 4TP

Phone Europe: +44 (0) 1865 884600
Phone USA: 1-866-563-3120
Web: http://www.grid-tools.com
Email: info@grid-tools.com