success case
How we reduce 100% errors with transaction data automation
Introduction
In an environment where communication between Brazil’s largest payment processing company and major card networks such as Mastercard, Visa, Elo, American Express, and others is critical, Better Now played a key role in ensuring the quality and reliability of millions of transactions.The Card Network Release process involves a continuous cycle of updates, regulatory changes, and technical requirements introduced by the card networks themselves. To remain compliant with these evolving standards while safeguarding business continuity, the client required a robust solution capable of validating its operations and ensuring adherence to new network specifications without impacting day-to-day business operations.
Prior to the implementation of Better Now's solution, the company faced significant challenges in ensuring the integrity and reliability of its communication with the card networks:
• Limited Validation Coverage: Manual validation based on sampling, combined with the difficulty of locating specific transaction data, resulted in reduced test coverage, making it impossible to ensure quality across all combinations of rule changes and release scenarios.
• Operational Complexity: The processing and communication of millions of credit and debit card transactions across multiple channels, capture methods, and lifecycle stages required comprehensive validation of business rules and file layouts. Achieving full coverage through manual testing was virtually impossible.
• Lack of an Integrated Solution: The absence of a fully automated platform integrated into the daily operational workflow hindered the efficient sharing of results and prevented real-time visibility into testing outcomes and compliance status.
To address these challenges, Better Now implemented a test automation strategy fully focused on transaction data validation. Our solution was built around the following key pillars:
- Automated Validation: We leveraged the Data Proof platform to automate the validation of outgoing files, which contain all transaction data transmitted to the card networks. This approach enabled 100% coverage of business rules and file layout requirements, significantly increasing reliability and compliance.
- Optimization Through Observability: By implementing Data Proof’s Observability Engine, we were able to identify and leverage valid test data, accelerating the execution of interchange testing while ensuring that the most relevant business scenarios were consistently validated.
- Data Query and Analytics Platform: We developed a large-scale data query portal that enabled Development, Quality Assurance, and Production teams to access validation results instantly through a shared environment. The solution was designed to be highly scalable and capable of supporting day-to-day operations without requiring manual intervention.
The implementation of our solution delivered both immediate and long-term benefits, transforming the Card Network Release process and significantly strengthening operational reliability:
Automated Validation at Scale: We now validate over 10 million transactions per month in a non-production environment, ensuring quality, compliance, and stability before any release reaches production.
- Error Elimination and Cost Reduction: We achieved a 100% reduction in production issues caused by invalid file layouts. As a result, the organization eliminated penalties and fees associated with invalid interchange processing, generating savings of approximately BRL 10 million over the last five years.
- Increased Efficiency and Faster Certification Cycles: Continuous daily validation with full coverage accelerated partner certification and onboarding processes within the Cielo ecosystem, while avoiding environment conflicts and resource contention during testing and homologation activities.
Details and Conclusion
While .TXT file validation was the most commonly used approach, our Data Proof solution also supports additional formats such as CSV, XML, and Parquet, all seamlessly integrated into an automated testing pipeline. Full automation and the elimination of manual intervention ensure the accuracy and integrity of transmitted data while significantly reducing validation time, allowing teams to focus on higher-value strategic initiatives.Better Now not only solved a specific validation challenge but also established a solid foundation for the organization, enhancing security, reliability, and efficiency across its core business processes. Test automation became a critical operational enabler, continuously validating transaction data in an automated and scalable manner, ensuring that interactions with card networks remain secure, compliant, and highly reliable at all times.
