Dawn of the platform economy: the challenge for businesses, says Comtrade’s Šopar

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QPictured left is Dejan Cušic, Evelina Emma Robas, Aleksandar Ristic, Sandra Zemljaric and Nikola Šopar, of Comtrade Digital Services (Image: Comtrade)

20 September 2017

Businesses today are entering a new era of competition. Traditional services and physical products are no longer enough to retain and win customers. Instead, the battle lines are being drawn in the digital space, where customer engagement and user experience are everything, and one poorly thought-out app can spell disaster. We are living in a platform economy; one that is rapidly rising in complexity as companies’ and customers’ demands become greater.

While creating untold opportunities for enterprises, the platform economy also presents many challenges particularly in the area of software testing. Businesses are now under immense pressure to roll out the latest cutting-edge platforms within very short timeframes—or risk being left behind.

CX focus
The explosion of platforms and applications is giving rise to a greater focus on the customer experience than ever before as consumer expectations reach extreme heights. Today, if a user encounters just a few seconds of confusion when using a digital service, they will abandon it and go to a competitor. Innovating companies must therefore be sure that every millisecond of interaction that a customer has with their platform is a rewarding one. And, they cannot stop innovating once the application has been brought to market; businesses must be prepared to adapt and change it as quickly and as often as customer demands and expectations change.

So, how can businesses manage this constant demand for new, innovative platforms that relentlessly satisfy? Companies need lean, productive and efficient multidisciplinary teams in which collaboration amongst team members is key. That requires a tailored agile team that is very carefully selected according to the needs of the platform that is being developed.

Essential QA
Essential to that team is quality assurance. Enterprises must ensure that it is integrated into every single stage of development—from the moment the idea is conceived and continuously thereafter. Until recently, quality assurance and software testing personnel were often afterthoughts in product development; deployed only at the very end of the process and only if there is enough time to do so. Now, they are vital to businesses’ reputations and must be there to question, and contribute to, every step of the development process. They must understand human behaviour and detect as well as predict problems based on that understanding. Essentially, they act as a conscience to the entire team.

Quest for Quality
At Comtrade Digital Services, we understand the need to achieve outstanding quality amidst the frenzy of the platform economy. That is why we are bringing our hugely popular Quest for Quality conference to Dublin on 4 and 5 October 2017 at The Marker Hotel, Dublin 2, to discuss software testing in the platform economy.

There, we will help businesses, managers and IT professionals overcome the new challenges they face in the platform economy by bringing together some of the most experienced thought leaders, engineers and IT experts from the international stage.

Speakers providing insights at the conference will include Colin O’Brien, head of QA and Change Control, Ryanair Labs; Saurabh Shrihar, software development manager, Johnson and Johnson; Maja Schreiner, test manager, Swisscom; Christopher Clements, QA and delivery lead, PwC; Natalia Budnicka, senior QA lead EMEA, Salesforce; Ruben Guillen Izuma, trials and pilots engineer, Nokia; as well as Comtrade Digital Services’ own experts working across the software testing field.

The event will also feature round tables, workshops and networking opportunities and is a unique opportunity to learn about the new era of quality assurance and discuss best approaches. For more information visit http://questforquality.eu/

 

Nikola Šopar is director of QA Services with Comtrade Digital Services.

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