Typically what sort of time commitment do you need from the client during the various stages of on-boarding and thereafter?

If your concern is about lead times, it depends on the scope of work: if we need just a few people, say 8-10, we'd be happy with 3-4 weeks lead time; if we need 30 people, we would commit formally to ramping up at the rate of 8-10 people /month. In terms of contractual time commitments, our contracts normally provide for three months advance notice of termination.

What hours of operation do you provide cover for?

We are flexible and try to work during our clients' own working hours; for example, for a client in California we manage to work with six hours of overlap. If necessary, we would cover a longer than normal working day either by working shifts or by using over-time. We take the same public holidays as our clients.

Does the company have any ISO or ITIL accreditations?

No we don't but our work and all our deliverables and templates are to IEEE standards. We also apply a recognized Project Management methodology. Every year we are audited by KPMG and their audit reviews thoroughly all our processes and procedures. In terms of corporate governance, we have an Internal Audit Committee, which reports to the Board and which is responsible for ensuring compliance with our internal standards and procedures, as well as with our clients' standards and procedures and the best practices of our industry.

I assume the VPN is over the public internet; how are public/private keys administered and monitored?

Our Information Security Policy requires static passwords and pre-shared keys to be split and sent by two different means; for example, the first half may be sent by e-mail and second by instant messenger or fax or phone. Generally we recommend using dynamic keys, provided, for example, by SecureID tokens. To exchange passwords and certificates in more secure manner, we suggest transferring them through the internet, inside an SSL tunnel; for example, we can use a FTPS or HTTPS-accessible mail server installed on our side or that of the client. We always restrict access to VPN end-points to certain IP addresses belonging to the individual client, which significantly reduces the risk of an unauthorised connection, even by a person who has the pre-shared key or certificate with private key.

Do you support dedicated comms lines if requested by the client?

Yes. If guaranteed throughput is required, we can organize a virtual dedicated channel between our LAN and your side. For less internet-fastidious projects, each of our offices has at least two internet channels, supplied by different ISPs, for fault tolerant and load balancing purposes.

As we already have an established test team we would be looking to Allied as a means of deepening the resource as and when needed; does this change the business model and if so how?

This is fine for us. We would have to agree about the maximum possible amplitude / flexibility.

Are there any reference sites we could use where you provided a resource service to supplement a company's existing efforts?

We are happy to provide references from Reuters and Schwab, where we have - at different times - provided supplementary resources.

What sort or advance warning of a resource requirement would be required?

It depends on the number of resources and the time they are required. Just as an idea: what you might like to consider is agreeing with us (a) a minimum number (1-2-...-X) people working for you full-time and (b) a list of 'background' tasks, i.e. tasks they would work on when they do not have live testing to do; for example, automation, testing of non-urgent changes, scripts review, development of test data, etc.

The main resources for Allied are based in Russia and/or Eastern Europe, do you have any testers in the UK or if needed could testers be provided on-site for a short period of time depending upon the work needed?

Yes, to both questions.

Do you have any white papers showing how you can enhance an already existing service and one that is going to remain?

http://www.alliedtesting.com/Case_Studies/Order%20Audit%20Trail%20System%20Testing%20Solution.pdf