AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Assurity Consulting has been named a finalist for Best Overall Testing Project – Public Sector/Services (including Charities and NGOs) at the European Software Testing Awards 2026. This nomination recognises the firm’s strategic partnership with Tasman District Council (TDC) to provide Quality Assurance (QA) capability uplift, independent testing strategy, and test automation solutions, ultimately de-risking the rollout of a modern, cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system.
The multi-year Digital Innovation Programme required transitioning TDC from a 35-year-old bespoke legacy system that carried substantial technical debt. Under the initial leadership of then-CIO, Steve Manners, TDC established a vision to incorporate rigorous quality assurance from the very beginning of the transformation. Recognising a critical internal capability gap, the Council sought a partner that would not only provide testing services but fundamentally transform the internal team’s mindset and self-sufficiency.
While the technology shift was significant, the heart of this transformation was TDC’s frontline subject matter experts, change managers, and business analysts. For many of the Council’s staff, this meant stepping far out of their day-to-day comfort zones to master unfamiliar enterprise IT rhythms and steep learning curves. Their resilience and willingness to stretch alongside the embedded testing team secured the project’s high standard of quality.
“When Assurity came in, we could immediately see the fit,” said Valerie Aull, Practice Lead – Business Improvement at Tasman District Council. “They didn’t just bring quality assurance skills; they established a connection with our team to co-design a strategy focused on our priorities. There’s a lot at stake with projects like this, and we wanted to get it right the first time. After the work was delivered by Assurity, the team was re-energised, more confident, and more capable.”
Assurity built software testing tools, templates, and automated frameworks from the ground up, empowering the Council to identify and resolve hundreds of issues in the test environment before public rollout. By establishing a suite of over 50 automated tests, Assurity reduced daily test execution time from eight hours to just 4.5 hours, securing the successful October 2025 launch of the CRM’s back-end.
“The true success of this project lies in the shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration between the Council and our embedded test managers and consultants,” said Linda Street, Delivery Manager at Assurity. “By bringing in our AutomationFlex engineers across Assurity Cloud Platform and our team in Manila to build the automated suite alongside TDC’s staff, we were able to de-risk the immediate rollout while seamlessly transferring capability to the Council’s team for the future.”
“Our partnership with Tasman District Council proves that investing in quality engineering and capability transfer at the start of a digital transformation mitigates risk and drives sustainable success,” said Reg Prasad, GM, Practice & Solutions at Assurity. “Our embedded teams worked tirelessly to transition the Council from a reactive testing approach to a proactive, automated quality framework.”
The success of the programme has drawn praise from TDC’s senior leadership team. Commenting on the award nomination, Peter Darlington, Chief Digital Officer at TDC, noted: “Assurity fundamentally changed the game for our digital operations at Tasman. Together, our teams navigated significant complexities to deliver this programme, and we simply would not have reached this milestone without Assurity as our QA partner.” The focus on continuous knowledge transfer has ensured that TDC’s internal teams, now guided by Chief Digital Officer Peter Darlington, are equipped with the strategic capability to confidently manage future integrations.
A milestone year for Aspire Systems
This nomination is part of a broader milestone for the wider group, with Assurity’s parent company, Aspire Systems, being named a finalist in four total categories across two major industry awards this year. Alongside the European Software Testing Awards, Aspire has been recognised at the ISG Software Innovation Awards EMEA, receiving nominations for Leading Vendor, Artificial Intelligence (Agentic AI), and Industry Innovation. The European Software Testing Awards winners will be announced on November 17, 2026.
