https://youtu.be/08kuW5admIE On episode 784 of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is coming to you live from FreightWaves’ Future of Freight Festival in

Live from F3 Day 1 with Amazon, Trigent Software, Temco Logistics | WHAT THE TRUCK?!?

OAK BROOK, Ill., Nov. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Card Integrity announced its TrainingWISE service for managers and card administrators at universities, higher education institutions, government administrations, and corporations that use Procurement Cards ("P ...

Card Integrity Offers TrainingWISE Service for Organizations Looking to Implement Cardholder Training

NTT-owned Transatel has been granted “mid-term” wholesale access to O2 Telefónica’s 5G network in Germany to target automotive and industrial IoT.

O2 Telefónica hands Transatel MVNO deal in Germany, targeting automotive and industrial IoT

The HHS Office for Civil Rights has issued two resources for health care providers and patients regarding the potential risks of using telehealth services.

Telehealth privacy and security risk mitigation: OCR provides guidance to providers, patients

A total of $3.75 million of state funds has been awarded to a pair of venture capital firms that will make investments in early-stage technology companies based ... As a CDFI, Metallum orchestrates a suite of services to entrepreneurs.

More than $3.7M investment in tech companies announced by Shapiro Administration

Cadent, the largest independent solutions provider for advanced TV advertising, and Proximic by Comscore, a division of Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) and leading provider of audience and content targeting solutions for programmatic activation,

Cadent Adds Proximic by Comscore to Cadent Aperture Platform for Enhanced ID-Based Audience Targeting

In a new partnership, 123Net, a Michigan-based Internet Service Provider, will serve as the network service provider for the Detroit Pistons.

123Net to serve as network service provider for Detroit Pistons

Editor’s note: Our exclusive tech meetup guide is part of TechWire’s Startup Monday lineup. Scores of organizations hold regular meetups across the Triangle. Here’s the latest list, which we recently updated to reflect the most up-to-date information available.

Looking for tech meetup in Triangle? Here’s TW’s exclusive list

The program aims to create a strong talent pipeline for the systems integration industry which continues to face a talent gap with 100,000 job openings.

Convergint Launches Systems Integration Apprenticeship Program for High Schoolers

A national beverage bottling company is investing $30.5 million in its Joplin plant, creating 40 jobs. Refresco’s expansion, in southwest Missouri, includes adding a new production line to increase capacity at its distribution center.

Joplin bottling manufacturer invests $30 million, creating 40 jobs

Trigent

trigent

Software Testing Companies To Look Out For in 2023

Top 30 Cloud Consulting Companies to Take Notice of in 2020

Get to know the top software outsourcing company and 29 more runners-up in this latest market research by Explority. Last year, the global outsourcing market at 85.6 billion US dollars. A notable part of this market, outsourcing software development is not subsiding either. was valued at The reasons behind this upward trend are understandable: according to the , businesses turn to outsourcing as it brings cost optimization and makes them more agile, efficient, and effective. Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey 2018 With the growing popularity of outsourcing as a service, hundreds of IT companies started positioning it as one of their core capabilities and strengths. But do all of these firms prove to be so skilled in delivering outsourcing software development? To help you define who’s who in today’s outsourcing market, we have assembled the list of the most trustworthy vendors ready to handle software development, UI/UX design, and disruptive technologies. To make the list objective, we ranked the companies according to the following criteria: technological strength ability to ensure project security focus on innovation diversity and complexity of completed projects geographical flexibility Below, we present 30 outsourcing software development companies that have showed the highest scores in these criteria over the last 12 months. 1. Iflexion Founded in 1999, Iflexion houses 850+ experts in outsourcing software development, integration, business analysis, QA, and project management. Iflexion delivers such services as custom software development for end business users, product development, and DevOps enablement, among others. The company also provides dedicated development teams and is ready to boost their software solutions with emerging technologies like AI, AR, and big data, should the project require it. Iflexion has worked with such market giants as Philips, Expedia, Toyota, and adidas, with more than 1,500 completed projects for clients in 30+ countries overall. Location: Denver, CO Founded: 1999 Major Clients: Google, eBay, PayPal, Philips, Expedia, Toyota, adidas Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: IT, Hospitality, Retail, Media, Finance Website: https://www.iflexion.com/ 2. 10Pearls With more than 350 mobile developers, software developers, designers, and researchers worldwide, 10Pearls augments businesses’ capabilities with their technological expertise. 10Pearls creates applications driven by such emerging technologies as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and augmented reality. Location: Vienna, VA Founded: 2004 Major Clients: National Geographic, Johnson & Johnson, AARP, Nextel Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: Healthcare, Media, Finance, Transportation Website: https://10pearls.com/ 3. Orases Since 2000, Orases has been delivering strategy, branding, interface design, and full-stack outsourcing software development to more than 750 clients from ten countries all around the world. The company expertizes in building products to be integrated with other systems: ERP, CRM, EMR, and others. Orases also delivers branding services, including brand, communication and social media strategies. Location: Frederick, MD Founded: 2000 Major Clients: NFL, Johns Hopkins University, Frederick County Bank, Major League Baseball Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Healthcare, Finance, Sports Website: https://orases.com/ 4. Trigent Software US-based Trigent Software has been providing outsourcing software development  since 1995. The company delivers consulting, design, and development across cloud, mobility, business intelligence, product engineering, and emerging tech domains. Over the years, the company have designed more than 400 products adopted in large and small enterprises alike. Location: Fayville, MA Founded: 1995 Major Clients: Navistar, NEPC, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, American Heart Association Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: Finance, Healthcare, IT, Education, Transportation Website: https://www.trigent.com/ 5. Spiria Spiria is a Canadian custom software development company that has been delivering outsourcing software development for more than 15 years. Spiria offers web, mobile and UX/UI design development. Spiria specializes in user-friendly and responsive websites, from ecommerce stores to secure intranets. The company also delivers embedded systems, IoT solutions, and M2M solutions. Location: Montreal, Canada Founded: 2003 Major Clients: Autodesk, Shutterstock, Disney, Paymi, DogWatch, Evenko Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: IT, Education, Manufacturing Website: https://www.spiria.com/ 6. Fingent With an active client base across four continents and 250+ specialists on board, Fingent remains a competitive outsourcing software development company for over 15 years. They offer enterprise software development, web application development, data analytics, and digital transformation consulting. Location: White Plains, NY Founded: 2003 Major Clients: Sony, Johnson & Johnson, University of North Carolina, PwC, CBN Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Transportation, Real Estate, Finance Website: https://www.fingent.com/ 7. STX Next Poland-based STX Next has 170+ Python, React Native, JavaScript, Android, iOS, and full-stack developers ready to take up outsourcing software development. The company also offers product design and software testing. STX Next offers end-to-end development, team extension, and project takeover. It also works with startups, helping them enter the market and scale throughout product lifecycles. Location: Poznań, Poland Founded: 2005 Major Clients: Seerene, Verve, Pixomondo, Unity, Lamden Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: Finance, IT, Real Estate Website: https://stxnext.com/ 8. Praxent Operating for more than 20 years, Praxent has delivered more than 300 software solutions in the areas of mobile and web applications development, web portals, and legacy software modernization. Besides, Praxent offers human-centered design development, branding, and rapid prototyping. Location: Austin, TX Founded: 2000 Major Clients: Cisco, Kinder Morgan, Sysco, World Market, Flex, Keller Williams Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, Healthcare, IT Website: https://praxent.com/ 9. The Software House With 129 specialists on board and 150+ successfully delivered projects, The Software House offers the following services in the niche of outsourcing software development: web and mobile development, digital product design, QA, and DevOps services. The Software House’s technological expertise includes React, Node.js, Angular, iOS, Android, and React Native. Location: Gliwice, Poland Founded: 2012 Major Clients: Smartum, Synerise, eSky Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, Manufacturing, Healthcare Website: https://tsh.io/ 10. AgileEngine Over the past nine years, AgileEngine has delivered more than 70 projects in outsourcing software development, including risk modeling and case management software, tracking platforms, and BI tools. Besides UI, web, mobile, and enterprise software development, AgileEngine provides QA services that include load, stress, performance, security, and usability testing. Location: McLean, VA Founded: 2010 Major Clients: Needles, Logi Analytics, Farmers Edge, LivingSocial Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: IT, Healthcare Website: https://agileengine.com/ 11. Highland Solutions Established in 1999, Highland Solutions is a Chicago-based custom software development company that engineers and integrates web and mobile applications, multi-tenant custom platforms, and CRM systems. Highland Solutions also offers development of OutSystems low-code platforms that automate time-consuming and monotonous manual tasks. Location: Chicago, IL Founded: 1999 Major Clients: Thrivent Financial, The Delta Institute, Morton Arboretum, Creative Group, Harvard University Health Services Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Finance, Manufacturing, Education, Healthcare, IT Website: https://highlandsolutions.com/ 12. Merixstudio Since 1999, Merixstudio has provided outsourcing software development to more than 200 customers from a variety of market segments. The software development company specializes in web development, Python programming, frontend development, React Native mobile development, and UX/UI design. Location: Poznań, Poland Founded: 1999 Major Clients: Fox, The Independent, DFJ, Divio Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, Education, Real Estate, Sport Website: https://www.merixstudio.com/ 13. Caxy Interactive Serving outsourcing software development from its Chicago-based office, Caxy Interactive expertizes in Drupal, JavaScript, and Python development, ecommerce solutions, and machine learning. The software development company also offers strategy development and Agile consulting services. Besides, Caxy Interactive takes up UX and web design projects. Location: Chicago, IL Founded: 1999 Major Clients: International Code Council, The Field Museum, Rush University Medical Center, Uptake Technologies Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Finance, Education, Manufacturing, IT Website: https://www.caxy.com/ 14. Boldare Founded in 2004, Boldare was formed after a merger of two software development companies, XSolve and Chilid. So far, the company’s team of 130+ technological experts have delivered 250+ projects. Boldare provides full-cycle outsourcing software development, prototyping, and design. It also offers digital transformation services. Location: Gliwice, Poland Founded: 2004 Major Clients: BlaBlaCar, Sonnen, Takamol, Holiday Taxis, Agnito Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Energy, Media, Ecommerce, Healthcare Website: https://www.boldare.com/ 15. MojoTech US-located MojoTech outsourcing software development and engineering, UX/UI design, and digital transformation services. Besides, the company mentors their clients’ in-house IT teams. For more than 11 years of their market presence, MojoTech’s team of 65 delivered 150+ software development projects. Location: Providence, RI Founded: 2008 Major Clients: AccuWeather, Aetna, Groove, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Way Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Finance, Consumer Services, IT Website: https://www.mojotech.com/ 16. ClearSummit ClearSummit is a software development company offering mobile and web app development, frontend and backend development, and UI/UX design. The company also offers discovery and technical advisory consultations. Additionally, ClearSummit offers software maintenance and support services to help clients fix bugs and upgrade their systems. Location: Marina del Rey, CA Founded: 2014 Major Clients: Belkin, TuneRegistry, SCH Travel, Musea Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Consumer Services, IT, Media, Real Estate Website: http://clearsumm.it 17. Future Processing Established in 2000, Future Processing have delivered 500 solutions to 150+ clients from all over the world. The company’s expertise in outsourcing software development includes software development and consulting using .NET, Java, React, Angular, and other programming languages. The software development company brings to its clients such emerging technologies as AI, blockchain, and big data analytics, and delivers software audit and business intelligence setup. Location: Gliwice, Poland Founded: 2000 Major Clients: Tenneco, Ista, Valeo, TechSoup, Thomas Miller Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: Finance, Healthcare, Transportation, Real Estate Website: https://www.future-processing.com/ 18. Moove It Being a leading outsourcing software development company, Moove It offers product discovery, web and mobile apps development, testing automation, as well as digital transformation services. Besides these, the company provides technological and Agile coaching. Location: Austin, TX Founded: 2006 Major Clients: Unilever, Verifone, Disney, Sierra Wireless Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Consumer Services, Education, Finance, Healthcare, IT Website: https://moove-it.com/ 19. iTexico Since its inception in 2010, iTexico has been delivering UI/UX design, software engineering, QA, mobile and cloud development from its six US-based offices. To make their outsourcing software development as efficient as possible, iTexico follows Agile, DevOps, and Lean methodologies. Location: Austin, TX Founded: 2010 Major Clients: Undisclosed Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: IT, Healthcare, Manufacturing Website: https://www.itexico.com/ 20. Django Stars European company Django Stars has been delivering its software solutions for almost 11 years. The company offers web and mobile app development, design, and QA. Django Stars also expertizes in data science, data architecture, intelligent chatbots, and big data analytics. The company’s core strength is in its Python development expertise: Django Stars promises to create any type of product using this programming language. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Founded: 2008 Major Clients: MoneyPark, Sindeo, Molo Finance, Clear Minds Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, Transportation, Healthcare, Real Estate, Hospitality Website: https://djangostars.com 21. Spire Digital US-based Spire Digital boasts 300+ products launched and 600+ clients served to an overall 98% satisfaction rate. The company delivers digital transformation, Agile process optimization, CX research, data science consulting, and lean product development. Besides all of these and expertise in AI, blockchain, and IoT, Spire Digital offers digital marketing strategy development. Location: Denver, CO Founded: 1998 Major Clients: TomTom, Lockheed Martin, US Navy, Helix, Western Union Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Education, Finance, Healthcare, Ecommerce Website: https://www.spiredigital.com/ 22. KitelyTech Delivering to clients of all sizes, including startups and Fortune 500 companies, KitelyTech offers web and mobile app design, ecommerce solutions, data analytics consulting, QA, and more. The company offers SEO services as well. Among the emerging technologies that KitelyTech is offering, there are AI, blockchain, and AR. Location: Chicago, IL Founded: 2009 Major Clients: Karrot Health, Plastic Surgery Clinic of Chicago, Olympus, J.P. McMahon Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Healthcare, IT, Transportation Website: https://kitelytech.com/ 23. Table XI US-based Table XI has been a trusted supplier of outsourcing software development for over 16 years. The company provides digital strategy and product design, along with mobile and custom web development. So far, the company have joined forces with at least 100 global clients. Location: Chicago, IL Founded: 2002 Major Clients: Dept. of Medicine of the Northwestern University, Journal for the American Medical Association, AccuWeather, Dickson Number of Employees: 10-49 Industry Presence: Healthcare, Manufacturing, Education Website: https://www.tablexi.com/ 24. Syberry Having a 94% client retention rate, Syberry serves at least 20 industries in the US alone. The company provides a whole range of services, including custom software development, QA, business analysis, and technology consulting. Syberry’s expertise also includes cloud, ERP, SaaS, big data, blockchain, and IoT. Location: Austin, TX Founded: 2014 Major Clients: Bombardier, PayPal, Disney, Shell, Livestream Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, Healthcare, Retail, Education, Energy, Transportation Website: https://www.syberry.com/ 25. Vincit California Vincit California is a 400+ employee company engineering mobile apps, web portals, and embedded systems. Besides, Vincit offers UX/UI design. The company has seven offices around the world, which makes it specifically fit for global software development outsourcing. Location: Irvine, CA Founded: 2007 Major Clients: Nokia, Logitech, Yamaha, Roadtrip Nation, Sigora, Fastems Number of Employees: 250-999 Industry Presence: IT, Finance, Telecommunications Website: https://www.vincit.com/ 26. Napoleon IT UK-located DCSL offers outsourcing software development, software and hardware integration, IT consulting, and ongoing system support. The company’s other services include team augmentation, data migration, legacy software modernization, and others. Location: Reston, VA Founded: 2011 Major Clients: Unilever, Severstal, Russian Railways, Yamaha Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Retail, Ecommerce, Healthcare, Consumer Services Website: https://napoleonit.com/ 27. DCSL Software UK-located DCSL offers software development, software and hardware integration, IT consulting, and ongoing system support. The company’s other services include team augmentation, data migration, legacy software modernization, and others. Location: London, United Kingdom Founded: 1994 Major Clients: WaterAid, Mitsubishi, Hospify, Abbott, Lidl, Pearson Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Real Estate, IT Website: https://www.dcslsoftware.com/ 28. DockYard Since 2010, DockYard has been delivering product strategy, UX, digital design, software development, software support, and maintenance services. DockYard also provides QA and testing, team augmentation, and business analysis. Location: Boston, MA Founded: 2010 Major Clients: Netflix, Apple, NASDAQ, Zipcar, Fidelity Investments, Harvard University Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: IT, Transportation, Education Website: https://dockyard.com 29. SoftwareMill SoftwareMill helps its clients tackle IT challenges with outsourcing software development, data science, system integration, and analytics. The company delivers enterprise solutions, UI/UX design, mobile and web applications, and DevOps integration. Location: Warsaw, Poland Founded: 2009 Major Clients: Tipser, Knip, Flexys Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, IT, Energy, Ecommerce Website: https://softwaremill.com/ 30. Tivix Specializing in Agile development of cloud-connected web and mobile applications, Tivix is a US-based company housing 65+ experienced developers across six offices worldwide. The company’s expertise in outsourcing software development includes API, database, Django, Angular, and React development. Location: San Francisco, CA Founded: 2008 Major Clients: Apple, Tesla, SolarCity, Zoetis, VMware Number of Employees: 50-249 Industry Presence: Finance, IT, Consumer Services, Healthcare What Does the Future Hold for Outsourcing Software Development Companies? As time passes and businesses start looking for new technologies such as cognitive computing and RPA, some of these vendors can start lagging or cease delivering outsourcing at all. To keep the listing current and help you keep tabs on in this ever-changing market, we’ll continue monitoring the best outsourcing software companies. Stay tuned. ) (Find out more about Explority and our ranking methodology, click here and here

Top 30 Outsourcing Software Development Companies in 2020

It’s hard to imagine a business that doesn’t need any IT services today: whether you are to deploy cloud solutions, go online, or improve your data security, hiring a couple of specialists is unlikely to be enough for delivering all the necessary services on time and budget. The best solution will be to hire a team of experienced experts who will promptly devise what you need, providing solutions that fit your particular business perfectly. In 2021, the worldwide spending on IT services is expected to , which is impressive. This again proves the fact that even the most conservative companies that were unwilling to change until recently have now realized the essential benefit of new technologies, and are seeking professional IT help. reach 1.14 trillion dollars How to Choose a Perfect Partner Among IT Consulting Companies? Luckily, the market is incredibly rich with IT consulting providers—since the beginning of the 2000s, more and more companies each year try to succeed by offering their IT-related services. Still, quantity doesn’t equal quality, so those who are looking for a perfect team to work with should learn to differentiate companies and find the one that is experienced and skillful enough. If you are the one who’s in need of such a tech partner, don’t worry—we would like to ease this time-consuming challenge for you. After a thorough market analysis, we have identified the best IT services providers based on five criteria: Expertise Industries served Geographical strategy Major clients Online reviews The analysis resulted in the following list of 30 top IT consulting companies on the market that might be interesting for you. No Need to Google “Best IT Consulting Companies Near Me” — We’ve Found Them for You 1. Accenture Accenture is one of the leading IT consulting companies in the USA and worldwide. The company has offices and teams in 52 countries, including the US, Ireland, and Singapore. With more than 492,000 employees on board, Accenture was listed in Forbes’ Global 2000 and Fortune’s Global 500 in 2019. The company delivers consulting services in the fields of blockchain, technologies, supply chain, and other. They also specialize in cloud solutions and Microsoft, Workday, Oracle and Salesforce platforms. Throughout their existence, Accenture has served 6,000 clients in 120 countries. 2. Capgemini Capgemini was founded in France in 1967 to become one of the front-runners on the European IT market. Today, it’s a company of more than 211,300 team members and 200+ offices in 39 countries. In 2019, Capgemini was positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Service Providers and Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM and Customer Experience Implementation Services. The company provides a number of IT services of various types: artificial intelligence, cloud solutions, digital services, and other business solutions. Capgemini focuses mostly on Banking and Manufacturing domains. 3. Tata Consultancy Services An Indian company, Tata has been providing consulting services for more than 50 years now. Its team comprises 446,600+ professionals in 46 countries who have already worked with such enterprises as Marks and Spencer, Panasonic, and Mother Dairy. The IT-related solutions delivered by Tata range from consulting to blockchain and cybersecurity services. In addition to this, the company provides their proprietary platforms targeted at automation, blockchain and Agile solutions. Tata Consultancy Services focuses mostly on Finance, Media and Retail domains. 4. Cognizant Established in 1994, Cognizant is now one of the top IT consulting companies in the world, with headquarters in Teaneck, NJ. Cognizant has offices in 40 countries, including the US, UK, Brazil, China, Canada, and United Arab Emirates. The company provides a wide range of services, including AI, automation and cloud solutions, quality assurance, and more. Their major targets are Banking, Healthcare, Insurance and Education industries. 5. Infosys In 1981, Infosys, a small company of six engineers with nothing but 250 dollars, began its existence in India. Today, it’s a team of 243,000+ experts operating from 46 countries, the US, Spain, China, Brazil, Australia, and Russia among them. Infosys expertise comprises AI and automation, blockchain technology, data analytics, IoT, cloud solutions, and more. Infosys works with both startups and established enterprises, focusing on such domains as High Technology, Healthcare, Public Sector, Manufacturing, and other. The company’s client list includes such renowned companies as Marvell Technology Group, The Hershey Company, and Cisco. 6. Wipro Founded as a part of Western india products in Bengaluru, India, in 1945, Wipro shifted forty years later to focus on the IT industry. The company went public in 2000 and has grown 25 times since then. With 175,000 dedicated team members on board, Wipro delivers high-quality IT solutions to clients from around the globe. Wipro provides a number of services: consulting, data analytics, DevOps, and many more. Still, the company focuses mostly on cybersecurity and cloud solutions. Wipro has vast experience in working with various industries, such as Education, Insurance, Oil and Gas, and many others. 7. Datamatics Datamatics is one of the leading technology consulting companies on the market, with more than 15 years of experience in delivering finest IT solutions. Operating in seven countries—the US, UK, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Switzerland, and India—they have already worked with 200+ clients worldwide. Datamatics offers consulting and advisory services, business management, technology and big data solutions, as well as engineering services. The company also provides their proprietary platforms aimed at automation and data analytics. Datamatics has rich experience in working with Finance, Healthcare, Insurance and Transportation industries. 8. Bain & Company One of the top IT consulting companies, Bain has 45+ years of advisory experience. The company has 58 offices in 37 countries, including the US, UK, United Arab Emirates, Norway, Nigeria, China, and more. Bain provides consulting on sales and marketing, strategy, organization, transformation, digital delivery, and Agile. The company also has their proprietary platform, created for analytics, digital marketing, and design. Bain focuses on Manufacturing, Chemicals, Energy, Gas and other domains. 9. BCT Consulting BCT Consulting was founded in 1996 as a one-member firm to become one of the leading technology consulting companies on the market. Today, this American company comprises more than 70 experts working with both startups and large enterprises, such as McDonald's. BCT Consulting’s expertise includes IT, web and mobile development, maintenance, accessibility, and structured cabling. The company’s major targets are Retail, Technologies and Hospitality industries. 10. Itransition Itransition is one of the front-runners among IT consulting companies around the world. Since it was established in 1998, the company has been recognized by numerous industry ranking bodies, including as one of the fastest growing and most successful private companies of the USA by Inc. Magazine. With a team of 2,000+ specialists, Itransition is an expert in technology consulting, software engineering, UX design, QA, and DevOps. Operating from their offices in the US, UK, Poland, and Belarus, they have successfully completed 1,500+ projects for a number of clients, including such enterprises as adidas, Toyota, and Expedia. Working with startups, mid-size companies, and Fortune 500 leaders, Itransition has served such industries as Media, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare and more. Other technology consulting companies to keep an eye on in 2020: 11. McKinsey & Company The oldest consulting company on the list, McKinsey is almost 100 years old. Since it was established in 1926, McKinsey has been focusing on providing consulting services of the highest quality to clients in the US and abroad. With 30,000 team members, the company operates in 130 cities on six continents. McKinsey & Company’s expertise comprises design, analytics, strategy, transformation, marketing and sales, and other services. The company works mostly with Electronics, Chemicals, Healthcare, Automotive, and Agriculture domains. 12. BairesDev BairesDev was founded in 2009 by a devoted team inspired by the lack of professional IT services on the Latin American market. As a result, it became one of the top IT consulting companies with a team of more than 1,000 experts. The company has offices in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, and the USA. The services provided by BairesDev include cloud computing, QA, blockchain consulting, IoT, data analytics, and software development. Among their major targets are Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Telecommunications industries, though the company has rich experience in working in many other domains. The most notable clients of BairesDev are Univision, Rolls-Royce, and Instructure. 13. Trigent Software A 25-years-company, Trigent is one of the leading IT consulting companies in the USA. The services provided by the company include digital transformation, QA, cloud solutions, software engineering, data analytics, and AI. With offices in the US and India, Trigent has developed more than 400 products for companies around the globe. The most renowned names on their client list are Oracle, Navistar, Aon, and eBags. Trigent’s major targets are Finance, Education, Manufacturing, Transportation and Healthcare industries. 14. Sykes Sykes is an IT consulting company that was founded in 1977 to become one of the leaders in the area, with representatives in 23 countries, including the US, UK, Brazil, Canada, India, and China. Though having experience with various types of clients, today Sykes focuses primarily on Global 2000 companies. The industries they serve include Communications, Travel, Insurance, Finance, and other. Sykes provides solutions in such areas as human resource management, customer experience, sales, and brand extension. In particular, these are risk management, AI, data analytics, social media, and customer acquisition solutions. 15. Sitel Sitel was established in 1985 and has grown into a team of 75,000 devoted experts since. The company has offices in 27 countries, including the US, Brazil, and Australia, from where they deliver high-quality IT solutions to clients from 70 countries. Sitel delivers digital, technology, training and consulting solutions. The latter mostly comprise customer experience consulting. The company has been providing its solutions to a number of enterprises, L'Oréal, PayPal and HSBC among them. 16. Attract Group Attract Group is a Ukrainian IT company founded in 2011. Throughout these nine years, Attract Group has been growing and evolving, employing more technologies, and has become a leading B2B company in Ukraine. The company specializes in software development, marketing, DevOps, UX design, QA, and project management. Attract Group works mostly with startups and mid-size businesses, focusing on Finance, Retail and Education industries. 17. Neebal Neebal is one of the top IT consulting companies on the local market. With offices in the US, India, and Australia, Neebal serves businesses from around the globe, which are mostly startups and mid-size companies. The company’s major targets are Finance, Information Technologies and Healthcare domains. The team of more than 60 experts provides cloud migration services, IoT consulting, blockchain and AI chatbot development among their services. In addition to this, Neebal offers their proprietary platforms that automate planning, management, and data analytics. 18. EPAM Established in Belarus in 1993, EPAM has evolved from a team of three young tech geeks into an international IT company with 36,000 professionals on board. With offices in the US, Canada, China, France, and 20+ other countries, EPAM delivers high-quality IT solutions to all kinds of clients, from startups to Fortune 1000 companies. EPAM’s services include design, software engineering, and consulting, which comprises automation, cloud transformation, agile development, pricing strategy, and other solutions. The company is experienced in helping businesses in many industries, but focuses mostly on Finance, Telecommunications, and Retail. 19. Luxoft Luxoft is sure to be mentioned among the best technology consulting companies due to the exceptional quality of the services they have been delivering since the company’s establishment in 2000. Operating in 15+ countries, including the US, Russia, Australia, and China, the number of the company's employees exceeds 12,900. Among the services provided by Luxoft are digital strategy development, engineering, and consulting on data analytics, software development, and technology implementation. The company focuses on Automotive, Travel and Energy domains. 20. Brennan IT Brennan IT was founded in Melbourne in 1997 to become one of the leading IT companies in Australia. Brennan IT specializes in working with mid-size companies and enterprises, mostly in Hospitality, Finance, Health and Manufacturing industries. The company delivers data-related solutions, security and cloud services, and helps enterprises with software deployment. 21. KitelyTech Established in the US in 2009, KitelyTech is a consulting, design and development company specializing in software development, QA, data analytics, AI, blockchain development, and graphic design. KitelyTech operates in five US cities: Detroit, Austin, New York, Phoenix, and Charlotte. The company’s major targets are Healthcare, Retail and IT industries. Their customers range from startups to Fortune 500 companies. 22. DLabs Started as a project aimed at helping people with diabetes, DLabs has grown into a company specializing in data science, machine learning, and AI. Since it was officially launched in Poland in 2015, the company has grown to employ 20 data science and AI experts. The services provided by DLabs include AI-related solutions, from consulting to AI-powered software engineering. The company works with startups, mid-size companies and enterprises, aiming at Marketing, Healthcare and Finance industries. 23. MicroscopeIT MicroscopeIT is a Polish data-oriented company established in Wroclaw in 2011. Since then, their small but devoted team has served a number of startups and mid-size companies in Healthcare and Finance industries. The company specializes in computer vision, machine learning, and image analysis. MicroscopeIT also provides a proprietary platform, developed to collect, process and manage data and automate all data-related business processes. 24. PSL Corp. PSL deserves to be mentioned among top IT consulting companies for the high quality of IT services they have been providing since 1986. Operating in the US, Colombia, and Mexico, the company has delivered more than 1,200 projects from clients around the globe. The services provided by PSL include DevOps, blockchain and cloud technologies, UX design, data analytics, and AI-based solutions. The company works with mid-size firms and enterprises, primarily in Government, Insurance, Financial and Law Enforcement sectors. 25. Alorica A 20-years company present in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, Alorica is an IT consulting company with more than 100,000 employees on board. The company provides services in analytics and finance, customer experience management, and healthcare customer service solutions. Healthcare is one of the major industries Alorica focuses on, alongside Telecommunications, Retail, and Finance. The company works with mid-size businesses and enterprises—70% of their clientele are Fortune 500 companies. 26. Alight Alight is a company specializing in wealth, health and HCM solutions, and financial management. They have offices in the US, Canada, Australia, India, Hong Kong, and seven other countries, where Alight has worked with 3,200+ clients in total throughout 25 years of their existence. Alight helps companies deploy navigation, management, administration, and cloud technologies. Their client list comprises both startups and enterprises, with focus on the latter, especially in Healthcare and Public Sector domains. 27. ValueCoders This is an Indian IT outsourcing company helping businesses to evolve since 2004. With a team of 450 experts located in the US, UK, India, and Australia, the company has successfully served 2,500 customers, providing solutions related to blockchain technology, AI, digital transformation, and IoT. From startups to enterprises, ValueCoders works with various types of companies. The list of the company’s clients includes such well-known names as UNESCO, Capgemini, and Thomson Reuters. ValueCoders’ major targets are Healthcare, Education, Travel and Retail industries. 28. Basefarm One of the leading European IT consulting companies, Basefarm provides their services to clients from around the world. Since it was founded in 2000, the company has launched offices in the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, France, Germany and six other countries. Today, the Basefarm team includes 550+ professionals. Basefarm’s expertise comprises data analytics, cloud technologies, security and management services. They focus mostly on Finance, Retail and Public Sector domains. 29. 3i International 3i International is a US company launched in 2000. With a team of more than 70 experts, the company provides IT consulting and support in such domains as security, cloud and VoIP services, business continuity and management. 3i International focuses on Architecture, Hospitality and Finance industries above others. The company works primarily with startups and mid-size companies. 30. SADA Systems Another IT consulting company founded in 2000, SADA specializes in cloud solutions and IT strategy consulting for mid-size companies and large enterprises. The services provided by the company include infrastructure modernization, application development, asset management, and managed cloud services. Their major targets are Healthcare, Education and Entertainment industries.

Top 30 IT Consulting Companies on the Market in 2020

Top Custom Software Development Companies

Tricentis’ Elastic Execution Grid Promises Scalable, Maintenance-Free Cloud Testing

As a software engineer, I’ve been reminded that “change” is the only “constant” we experience. Honestly, that premise is why I am just as excited today as I was when I started my career in 1992. I’ve realized there are some “almost-constants” that exist in an industry driven by change. In this post, I will talk about the continued mindset toward for features before they are released. allowing less-than-ideal test coverage I am not saying that product owners and development managers don’t care about quality. Instead, the reality of having a deep backlog of required features in a world driven by arriving to market before the competition requires choices to be made. An agile team member might be able to ship one additional feature in the time it takes to generate an end-to-end test programmatically, which certainly impacts the bottom line. At least, that’s the mindset … until this same end-to-end test could have prevented a critical bug that results in a far greater financial impact. I wanted to see if there was a better way to solve this quality challenge using a suite of testing tools from . Tricentis About Tricentis Based in Austin, TX, Tricentis creates solutions that “transform testing into a catalyst for innovation.” Their end goal is to help customers release higher-quality software, faster. Their current suite of products includes 12 products that range from end-to-end tests for applications and data, to test automation with enterprise SaaS, Salesforce, and ServiceNow. For this publication, I wanted to focus on the product, which is focused on creating resilient UI tests for web and mobile applications in minutes. Testim Using the Magic 8 Ball as an Example In 2022, I decided to try the Render PaaS and created my first GO-based RESTful API. I decided to build an API that would mimic the toy by Mattel. You can read all about it . Magic 8 Ball here Since the focus of this article is end-to-end tests and improving quality, I decided to create a client for the Magic 8 all API using the Vue.js framework. The resulting client is very simple and contains three perspectives: – the main page for the application. Home – simulates the Magic 8 Ball and returns a random answer. Random Answer – provides a list of all 20 answers that were found on the original toy. All Answers Below is a screenshot of the home page: Here is what the Random Answer page looks like – providing the “You may rely on it.” random response: The All Answers page appears as shown below: The source code for the client can be found , and you can even launch the client from the Render PaaS using the following URL: here https://magic-eight-ball-client.onrender.com/ Please note: Both the magic-eight-ball service and client are running as free instance types, so they could require a minute or two to respond if either shuts down due to inactivity. For this publication, I thought it would be fun to ensure quality with the client by adding end-to-end tests that would validate the following items: Validate that the Home screen responds accordingly. Validate that the Random Answer screen provides a response. Validate that the “ask again” link works as expected on the Random Answer screen. Validate that all 20 original responses exist on the All Answers screen Adding Tricentis Into the Mix Tricentis allows customers to , providing 14 days of access to products of interest. I selected the Testim product for this publication. set up a free account After logging into the TestOps Dashboard, I used the button, which provided an empty test panel: New Test I clicked on the plus icon in the main panel and selected the . The following modal appeared where I provided the publicly accessible URL for my Magic 8 Ball client hosted on Render PaaS. Start recording at this position option Upon clicking the button, a new browser window appeared containing the Magic 8 Ball client. Create Test At this point, I executed the validation plan for the Magic 8 Ball client application. At a high level, this translated to the following items: Navigate to the Random Answer screen, and confirm that an expected response appeared. Use the “ask again” link, and validate that an expected response was provided. Navigate to the All Answers link, and confirm that all 20 original responses are listed. Navigate to the Home screen and validate the contents. When I reached the end of my validation tasks, I clicked the button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Testim immediately closed the window resulting in a test panel now full of steps that mirrored my usage of the application. Stop Testim made it easy to add validation for items on the screen. Using the All Answers screen, I merely had to click on the next one I wanted to ensure to always be available as a step in the recording process. Then I could update the step as noted below: In the example above the “It is certain.” answer must always be visible from the All Answers screen – making an error and stopping the test when the text does not appear. I saved the magic-eight-ball-client test in Testim and configured the Scheduler Library to run my test every 15 minutes. Within a matter of minutes, I was able to provide full end-to-end coverage tests for my publicly available client application and schedule the tests to run every 15 minutes. I decided to take a break from this effort until the scheduler had run for at least one full day. The TestOps Dashboard When I returned to Testim, I was quite impressed. Now, the TestOps Dashboard provides instant details for my test execution: Out of the 95 executions, 86 passed, and 9 failed. I looked at the scheduled executions, of which there were 92. I was able to quickly zero in on the failures and realized they were directly related to the inactivity shutdown of the free instance types for my client and service on the Render PaaS. I considered changing the test interval to run every 5 minutes but realized it was better to demonstrate what failures look like. Testim also includes a Test Runs view, which provides a summary of all 95 test events that were initiated during my evaluation of their product. The really cool part about using Testim is that I was able to extract all of this value just by using my application. There wasn’t a requirement to use a dedicated programming framework—with a distinct learning curve—resulting in more program code that my team would have to use and maintain. Testim and the CI Pipeline Testim also has the ability to plug into the CI pipeline process, firing the end-to-end tests at each desired step of the software development lifecycle. Building upon this example, let’s assume that one of the software engineers decided to update a Magic 8 Ball answer from “It is certain.” to “Rock solid, yes!” Even if a unit test missed catching this unexpected change, the simple quality tests I created to validate all the expected issues would fail because “It is certain.” no longer exists. Simply including these lines to my GitLab (CI pipeline) would catch change during the continuous integration process: .gitlab-ci.yml image: node:16.13.0
stages:
  - e2e
testim:
  stage: e2e
  image: docker:git
  variables:
    TESTIM_DOCKER: testim/docker-cli
    TESTIM_TOKEN: <TESTIM_TOKEN>
    TESTIM_PROJECT: <TESTIM_PROJECT>
    TESTIM_LABEL: <TESTIM_LABEL>
    GRID_NAME: <GRID_NAME>
  services:
    - docker:stable-dind
  script:
    - docker pull $TESTIM_DOCKER
    - docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/opt/testim-runner $TESTIM_DOCKER --token $TESTIM_TOKEN --project $TESTIM_PROJECT --label "$TESTIM_LABEL" --grid $GRID_NAME -r /opt/testim-runner/testim-report.xml
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - testim-report.xml
    reports:
      junit: testim-report.xml As a result of this action, Testim would fail the CI execution because the end-to-end tests failed to pass 100%. Imagine if there was a contract in place with Mattel that guaranteed the original 20 responses would always be used by the Magic 8 Ball client application. Not catching this unintended update could have resulted in unexpected legal consequences. Conclusion My readers may recall that I have been focused on the following mission statement, which I feel can apply to any IT professional: “Focus your time on delivering features/functionality that extends the value of your intellectual property. Leverage frameworks, products, and services for everything else.” - J. Vester When I wrote this mission statement, I was thinking about a product like Testim — even though I had not even heard of Tricentis at the time. Testim adheres to my mission statement by allowing software engineers to remain focused on delivering focused features and solutions and still achieve important end-to-end test coverage. In fact, with products like these, product owners and development managers no longer have to worry about allocating precious sprint time to understanding, creating, and maintaining code-based, end-to-end test frameworks. Rather, all they have to do is use their client-facing application with Testim to automatically create end-to-end tests that can be included in the CI process. Have a really great day! Also published here

How to Improve Customer-Facing App Quality Using Tricentis' Testim

T-shaped people take part. Trident people take over 🔱 TLDR Trident skills are powerful Conor McGregor is a great example Choose skills that are loosely overlapping Choose skills that are highly leveraged What is a T-shaped skillset? T-shaped skillsets are well known. Quite simply it is where you master one skill deeply while maintaining a basic capability across a wider set of skills. There is a lot of value in building a T-shape skillset, it is certainly better than being a specialist in one thing only. However, the most successful people have something else: a Trident skillset. Trident skillsets 🔱 Being in the top 1% is almost impossible Look at the diagram below. To be the best in the world at any skill is extremely rare and borderline impossible. The amount of work and dedication required is phenomenal. At this level, exponential effort is required to obtain even the smallest incremental gain. Only the world’s most naturally talented hardest working will arrive at the 1% level. and https://forge.medium.com/how-to-become-the-best-in-the-world-at-something-f1b658f93428 Betting your life on being in the top 1% might be admirable, but it’s not statistically smart. Being in the top 10% is much easier Now look at the green section of the above diagram. The required effort to be in the top 10% is much easier and would be a much more reasonable goal to aim for. Being in the top 10% is awesome, you enjoy significant upside. You’ll likely garner a good salary, have a happy life, and be well respected. The simple fact that 90% of people don’t even try means that if you’re willing to put just a little bit of effort in, you’ll be successful. As one of my favorite sayings goes: Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard T-shaped people are valuable, but not hard to come by. There won’t be a huge premium paid for them, but they can live a comfortable life. However, if greatness is what you’re looking for, you’ll need a Trident 🔱. Being the top 10% in a combination of 2–3 skills Being in the top 10% in a combination of 2–3 skills is far easier to achieve than being in the top 1% in one specific skill. It may be easier, but it’s still rare. Fortunately for you, it’s rare because of other people’s choices and not because of the work required to obtain them. I call this unique combination of skills a because of the shape it creates when you get to the top 10% in 3 separate skills. ‘Trident skillset’ As we discovered earlier, getting to the top 10% is not too difficult. The ability to get to the top 10% in two or three separate skills is only slightly more difficult but overall still doable. It’s powerful because the total number of people who have a combination of these skills falls dramatically, while the ability to acquire semi-mastery in each one is relatively easy. Top 1% of basketball players = 10 peopleNumber of people in the top 10% of entrepreneurship, public speaking, and design = 10 people The number of people to compete with is equal, but the level of competition in each skill is much lower. Your strength is the combination. Aim for skills that don’t overlap If two skills overlap significantly, there are more people who can perform them, thus making it harder to stand out. This would be the equivalent of a really good accountant being really good at statistics also. Avoid two closely linked skills. Choose a combination of complimentary but loosely overlapping skills The further apart your skillsets are from each other the rarer the combination will be. Let’s view the above skill stack from a bird’s eye view. You can see below that the darker blue area is where our skills overlap, each individual skill is not hard to master but the combination is what makes it rare. Trident skillsets in action Michael Jordan is in the top 1% of his chosen skill (basketball). Sitting proudly at the top of the his net worth is over $1bn. Clearly achieving 1% stardom is profitable, it’s just really really hard. red zone, On the other hand, let’s take a look at another sports superstar, Conor McGregor. Conor’s skillset is arguably lower. Perhaps sitting more in the orange zone. in fact, he’s ranked number #15. He’s also lost 5 out 27 of his professional fights. Conor is not the highest-ranked fighter in the world, and argued to be the greatest of all time He has a record of 26 wins and 1 loss (his only loss was a disqualification so not really a loss either). Jon Jones is ranked as the number #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world . So why is Conor McGregor worth $110M and Jon Jones only $10M? UFC fighters ranked by net worth: Conor McGregor: $110M (#15 pound-for-pound fighter in the world) Rorion Gracie: $50M George St-Pierre: $30M Brock Lesnar: $28M BJ Penn: $22M Anderson Silva: $18M Wanderlei Silva: $18M Randy Couture $17M Alistair Overeem: $15M Tito Ortiz $15M Chuck Lidell: $14M Quinton Jackson: $12M Ronda Rousey: $11M Frank Mir: $11M Chael Sonnon: $10M Jon Jones: $10M (#1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world) Conor is the richest man in UFC history, but it’s not because of his fighting skills. He is the richest man in UFC history because he is in the top 10% of a combination of three distinctly separate skills: FightingShowmanshipWhisky Conor is pretty good at , but he’s not the top 1%. fighting Conor is also a pretty good and known as the king of trash talk Many fighters don’t prioritize showmanship, but Conor’s brash style has paid off and earned him a mega-following. showman (as seen by one of my favorite post-fight interviews below). Conor is also pretty good at making . But judging by the , The whisky is not that good either! whisky customer reviews Proper Twelve Irish Whisky Review In each individual skill Conor is not the greatest. But when you put them all together? You get a net worth of $110M and one of the world’s most popular sportsmen. Why? Because it’s a rare combination. Which are the best skills to obtain? In short, you want skills that are leveraged. Naval Ravikant has a great piece talking about leverage which you can read more on . here Naval explains that historically we have only really had two types of leverage: — amplify results by using money Money leverage — amplify results by using people Labor leverage But money is hard to come by, and labor requires you to pay for wages or people being willing enough to follow you (like a popular politician). Naval explains, however, that there are two new forms of leverage: — write one line of code and have an army of robots work for you Code leverage — make one video and be seen by millions of people Media leverage Code and media leverage are especially powerful because they are free, and are permissionless (unlike a banker to approve your loan, no one stops you from learning to code). Anyone can learn to code, and anyone made youtube videos and reach millions of people. Conor McGregor has built skills in two areas of leverage: and Both are supported by a fundamental core strength, . money (using his whisky business to grow his capital) media (using his showmanship to increase his audience reach and influence). fighting In 2021, the best skills for you to invest in are leveraged ones. Core skill + leveraged skill + leveraged skill = unstoppable force Key takeaways Aiming for the top 1% in any field is futile. It’s far better to be in the top 10% of 2–3 skills and combine them. You have a similar rarity to the top 1%, thus there is little competition. Any competition you do have, is easier to beat and the potential rewards can be huge. Quick takeaways: Trident skillsets are taking over the world 🔱 Choose skills that are complimentary but don’t overlap too much The best combination of skills includes leveraged ones like: design, coding, media, creative work Now you know about , what skillset will you take over the world with? Trident skills References: Check out Scott Adams version of ‘skill stacking’ and the beautiful visual explanation from Tomas Pueyo for more on the below. Come and say hey 👋 Unleashing the power of go-to-market design to launch and scale your startup. Check out my website — www.alfie-marsh.com Watch my Youtube videos Message me on LinkedIn Access my free knowledge base Get free access to a curation of all my favorite, articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, and other resources linked to GTM Design and scaling startups.

The Trident Strategy: Using A Combination Of 2–3 Skills To Maximize Wealth

As software engineers, we live in a dependency-driven world. Whether they are libraries, open-source code, or frameworks, these dependencies often provide the boilerplate functionality, integrations with other platforms, and tooling that make our jobs a little easier. But of course, one of the burdens of this dependency-driven world is that we are now at the mercy of our dependencies’ updates and schedules. Especially when we’ve added our own customizations and integrations on top. One common dependency that I (and likely you) have crossed paths with is Salesforce. If Salesforce is part of your ecosystem, you’ve likely added a few of those customizations and integrations. And you’ve likely faced the problem of managing your customizations and integrations when Salesforce issues updates. Salesforce In this article, I want to look at how you can help ensure that Salesforce updates don’t lead to downtime in your app. About Salesforce Seasonal Releases Salesforce issues updates on an established schedule. Currently, Salesforce targets spring (February), summer (June), and winter (October) releases. Along with these seasonal updates, of course, comes teams scrambling to update their own applications and tests in time for the releases. Which can introduce significant risk. Potential Areas of Risk Let’s look in detail at three potential areas of risk: User interface (UI) updates
Applications built on top of Salesforce
Deprecated APIs User interface (UI) updates Applications built on top of Salesforce Deprecated APIs User interface (UI) updates User interface (UI) updates At first glance, teams might downplay the impact of UI updates. However, these changes can become an issue when published instructions are no longer valid or (even worse) functional. In my experience, I have seen challenges from trivial UI changes such as reordering of a menu structure. Applications built on top of Salesforce Applications built on top of Salesforce If you’ve built your solution on top of Salesforce, you’re also at risk. You’re at the mercy of the platform and have no seat at the decision-making table for updates that could break the consuming functionality. An example is when the Apex programming code is used to extend the value of the Salesforce platform. As the language matures, there is always the potential for breaking changes to be introduced. Deprecated APIs Deprecated APIs When a team uses Salesforce APIs, they are required to adopt a specific version of the API which often defaults to the most recent version. Over time, that choice remains static and does not update with the seasonal releases, which is actually by design. However, eventually those versions become deprecated and are subsequently removed. Imagine being woken up due to an incident because the API version you are using is no longer available. Failure to perform pre-release validation can lead to latency concerns (if not high-severity incidents) which not only impacts organizations in the short term, but in the long term too. Each of the three issues above has the potential to put enterprises in an unfavorable position. Tips to Mitigate Areas of Risk Now let’s look at some tips on how to mitigate the above areas of risk: Automated testing, including end-to-end tests
Stay in line with Salesforce best practices
Full suite of test coverage
Use of isolated test data Automated testing, including end-to-end tests Stay in line with Salesforce best practices Full suite of test coverage Use of isolated test data Automated testing, including end-to-end tests Automated testing, including end-to-end tests Teams should make sure to spend the necessary time to automate the testing process. Taking this approach removes the toil associated with trying to remember to run the tests and makes testing part of the development lifecycle. This automation should include some form of regression or end-to-end tests which are executed at least one time before attempting a production release. While it is possible to introduce a process to copy production data into a test environment (obfuscating sensitive data), this isn’t typically the best approach. A better approach is to identify scenarios that should be validated and create those situations exclusively for the tests. Taking this approach allows teams to be 100% in control of their data so that only the pre-release code is getting tested. Stay in line with Salesforce best practices Stay in line with Salesforce best practices When an organization adopts Salesforce, this should be viewed as an “all-in” mission for the enterprise. After all, Salesforce is now one of that organization’s key business partners. Subsequently, the organization should not only be in tune with Salesforce’s roadmap, but they should also make sure feature teams are always implementing the best practices published by Salesforce. Salesforce Trailhead is an interactive example, complete with a built-in test interface. Salesforce Trailhead Full suite of test coverage Full suite of test coverage Teams should be of the mindset that test coverage is equally important as the production code that will be deployed. While Salesforce requires 75% code coverage (for Apex code) to deploy code to production instances, teams should instead strive for 100% coverage across the board. Any gaps increase the chance that something will impact your customers. It’s important to remember that the tests should be easy to maintain and focused on the smallest grain of functionality possible. The suite of tests should cover any customizations made to the platform, especially UI changes. Use of isolated test data Use of isolated test data Finally, while test data can often be mocked (or included in the tests themselves), this is not always an option for end-to-end tests. One challenge teams face is trying to figure out “what” data should be used. By adopting these tips, teams will find themselves in a far better position for a successful seasonal release to the Salesforce platform. AI-Powered Salesforce Testing So far, I’ve identified risks that can surface from a lack of pre-release validation. I’ve also provided tips to mitigate those risks. But what I haven’t provided is a description of “how” this mitigation can actually happen. In 2024, I published the “Why You Need to Shift Left with Mobile Testing” article which focused on the Tosca product by Tricentis. Since I wasn’t quite sure how to do all of this myself, I thought I would check to see what options are available from Tricentis for Salesforce test automation. article Tricentis That’s when I noticed the Testim Salesforce product, which provides the ability to mitigate the risks associated with leveraging the Salesforce platform: Offers a no-code approach to testing your Salesforce implementation, but also allows for Apex and JavaScript code to be used as needed.
Designed for a wide realm of consuming actors and designed for software engineers.
Architected using a scalable-first approach, growing to match your implementation's test expectations.
Includes pre-built test steps to foster creation of test suites. When needed, the no-code approach allows actors to record their tests by using their applications.
The Testim Salesforce product embraces AI as part of its base product. Under the hood are locators that go beyond basic Apex-based unit tests and use Salesforce metadata to provide improved stability for both Salesforce releases as well as dynamic Lightning pages.
Most importantly, this solution can facilitate testing not only across environments and branches, but can take into account different personas and stakeholders within the Salesforce implementation. Offers a no-code approach to testing your Salesforce implementation, but also allows for Apex and JavaScript code to be used as needed. Designed for a wide realm of consuming actors and designed for software engineers. Architected using a scalable-first approach, growing to match your implementation's test expectations. Includes pre-built test steps to foster creation of test suites. When needed, the no-code approach allows actors to record their tests by using their applications. The Testim Salesforce product embraces AI as part of its base product. Under the hood are locators that go beyond basic Apex-based unit tests and use Salesforce metadata to provide improved stability for both Salesforce releases as well as dynamic Lightning pages. Most importantly, this solution can facilitate testing not only across environments and branches, but can take into account different personas and stakeholders within the Salesforce implementation. Testim Salesforce in Action Let’s see this in action. First, we need to install Testim. Let’s set it up as a Chrome extension. Chrome extension You can install Testim directly from the Chrome Web Store. After the Chrome extension is installed, you can connect your Salesforce environment to Testim and the extension will orchestrate tests in a separate Chrome instance. Start a new test Start a new test Now we can use the included Salesforce demo project to see how it works. In the Testim dashboard, click New Test. You can use the no‑code wizard and pre‑built steps, but you can also record a series of actions in your browser that then automatically create test steps. Additionally, you can also drop in custom Apex or JavaScript code. New Test For an existing test, press the play button to execute it against your Salesforce instance. Testim has a set of pre-existing Salesforce tests that can be used out of the box or as a basis for customizing your own testing. A test is a series of test steps, such as opening the login screen, entering credentials, and verifying that your browser navigates to the correct screen after logging in.Record user actions for test creation Record user actions for test creation Testim has a feature that allows a test creator to record their actions in their browser and use that data to generate a new test. With recording enabled, navigate to theSales tab, click New Lead, fill in the First Name, Last Name, and Email fields, then click Create. Next, click Convert. You’ll see in the test editor that each of these steps is now recorded in a new test. Sales New Lead, First Name Last Name Email Create Convert An example of a recorded test is below. You can click on any test step and modify its requirements, including success criteria and UI timeouts. In the above example of editing a test step, you could change the target element that is selected, what is considered “passing” for this step, and when this step runs in the test sequence.Insert additional test steps manually Insert additional test steps manually Now click the + button at the end of the test sequences to manually add an additional test step. There are various built-in test steps that can be added without needing to re-record your steps in the browser. This is useful for adding additional checks into a larger test sequence without having to re-record it completely. + Review and maintain stability. Finally, after execution, use the results dashboard to identify passed and failed steps. Testim flags unstable locators and suggests replacements. Conclusion In the introduction of this article, I noted that we live in a dependency-driven world. For me, I don’t think that is a bad thing at all. We just need to make sure we understand the reason for the dependency and take time to validate if the relationship still makes sense. My readers may recall my personal mission statement, which I feel can apply to any IT professional: “Focus your time on delivering features/functionality that extends the value of your intellectual property. Leverage frameworks, products, and services for everything else.” — J. Vester “Focus your time on delivering features/functionality that extends the value of your intellectual property. Leverage frameworks, products, and services for everything else.” — J. Vester In this article, I’ve noted that organizations should treat Salesforce as a close business partner. I’ve also noted how pre-release validation testing is vital for avoiding service interruptions. We’ve discovered that implementation of Testim Salesforce provides an avenue teams can use to mitigate risks that are often exposed by the seasonal updates to the Salesforce platform. Testim Salesforce fully adheres to my personal mission statement. It utilizes a no-code solution which eases the pain of providing an acceptable level of test coverage, which is often faster to implement than options that require manual coding. Their use of AI provides deeper validation that creates stability and requires less maintenance over time. Most importantly, the solution can be an automated part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Have a really great day!

This Chrome Extension Can Help Mitigate Risks of Salesforce Updates to Your Existing Setup

Recently, I’ve been looking into Tricentis Tosca to better understand how its testing suite can benefit my app development workflow. In my last article about Tosca, I wrote about some of the tool’s visual capabilities, such as QR code testing. Testing QR codes is great if you need an effective way to validate that specific part of your app. Then, I discovered Tosca’s Vision AI tools. Imagine giving your testing tool some simple visual cues for how your system should work, and then building the functionality to make the tests pass. That’s what these tools are designed to do. Writing tests that reflect how users interact with your app is crucial. But as your interface becomes more visual, testing gets trickier. You’ve likely had to include app-specific markup in your tests, which isn’t ideal—you’re supposed to test the app, not rebuild it in your tests. So, how do you avoid this? In this article, we will look at how to shift UI testing away from technical implementation details, instead describing visual cues to ensure things work as expected. Let’s dive in! Mockup-Driven Development With Vision AI, you can start with a mockup and build the actual UI later. I don’t think I’ve encountered anything like this before. When it comes to interface visuals, I’m used to building tests that are—unfortunately—tied more closely to my implementation details than I’d like. And these tests are fragile. Vision AI allows me to point my tests to a prototype and train my test suite on the desired behavior. I say “train” because Tosca’s Vision AI features use convolutional neural networks underneath to build test suites using computer vision. In Tosca Commander, I instructed Tosca to scan an application and set up a new testing module based on whatever application I wanted to use. I took a simple wireframe of a web form and opened it up in Microsoft Paint. Then, I used the Select on-screen functionality in the screen scanner to choose the right elements from the page to make a testing module. As you can see, I simply clicked on the boxes drawn in the wireframe, and Tosca could pick them out from a list of items it saw when it scanned the “application.” Not only that, Tosca could parse out what the mockup likely indicated on the “form” it saw. From there, to build out a test, all I needed to do was provide the values I wanted Tosca to enter on the form: Each form element had an icon next to it, indicating what Tosca determined the fields to be (such as dropdowns or text fields). For the Next element, Tosca determined it to be a button. It was time to run the test. Watching what Tosca did here was a big shock—but in a good way. I didn’t need to write any code at all. Yet, Tosca could enter data on a demo site with these same fields on it. The fields on the demo form were even in a different order than the mockup, but that wasn’t an issue. As Tosca navigated the form, it looked for the essential properties of each field or element and performed the action or input requested by the test case. As Tosca finds each item, it makes a log of the success or failure of each step, abstracting all the code used to implement it. Keeping Up With Changes In addition to building test suites based on a mockup, Vision AI also lets us keep our tests intact even as changes are made to the less critical parts of the page being tested. For example, if Tosca detects that the position of fields has changed, it can still perform the tests you trained it to do previously. Here’s how Tosca handled another implementation of the same form but restructured to take up two columns. Tosca can deal with position changes, but it can also attempt to “self-heal” if something like a label has changed. For example, consider a button the user must click to continue. When we originally built the form, the button label was Next, but we later changed it to Continue. Tosca will still be able to recognize what to do. All I needed to do was enter a few testing parameters for Tosca to enable self-healing tests. Vision AI uses various algorithms to retry a test until it’s sure it really can’t find the element. Here’s what a passing test looks like for the example where the button label has changed from Next to Continue. When Tosca couldn’t find the button label it expected, it self-healed and updated its model to use the label that it was able to find instead. Pretty amazing! Vision Isn’t Everything It’s nice to know that the visual aspects of your application are well-tested. However, it’s important to remember that accessibility (a11y) is critical as well. You want to ensure that as many people as possible can use your application. Even though Tosca can use computer vision to verify the visual aspects are working as expected, Tricentis has also designed its development tools for accessibility. The most recent version of Tosca has an updated a11y report detailing information on adherence to WCAG 2.2. You can generate this report for any features under test. Adding accessibility testing is straightforward and doesn’t require any additional coding. Just drag the Check Webpage Accessibility into your test case, and Tosca will give you a quick summary of the state of the site you’re testing: Finding 11 critical issues seems pretty concerning! To look more deeply, you can export the a11y report. You can even choose what standards Tosca should report against: As soon as the results were compiled, my report opened up, showing me helpful charts about where the issues were and what needed to be fixed. Fortunately, regarding what needed to be fixed across the site, the report showed me that I didn’t have quite as much to do as I had feared. Conclusion Vision AI opens up a world of possibilities for simplifying and enhancing UI testing. From building tests directly from mockups to handling changes with ease, it’s a game-changer for anyone dealing with dynamic, visually complex applications. It’s not just about saving time—it’s about making the entire testing process smarter, more reliable, and less tied to brittle implementation details. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible, but what I’ve seen so far has left me thoroughly impressed. How are you using it for your app testing workflow? Is it making your testing (and test writing) of visual interfaces faster? Share your stories! Have a really great day! Recently, I’ve been looking into Tricentis Tosca to better understand how its testing suite can benefit my app development workflow. In my last article about Tosca , I wrote about some of the tool’s visual capabilities, such as QR code testing. Testing QR codes is great if you need an effective way to validate that specific part of your app. Then, I discovered Tosca’s Vision AI tools. last article about Tosca Vision AI Imagine giving your testing tool some simple visual cues for how your system should work, and then building the functionality to make the tests pass. That’s what these tools are designed to do. Writing tests that reflect how users interact with your app is crucial. But as your interface becomes more visual, testing gets trickier. You’ve likely had to include app-specific markup in your tests, which isn’t ideal—you’re supposed to test the app, not rebuild it in your tests. So, how do you avoid this? In this article, we will look at how to shift UI testing away from technical implementation details, instead describing visual cues to ensure things work as expected. Let’s dive in! Mockup-Driven Development With Vision AI, you can start with a mockup and build the actual UI later. I don’t think I’ve encountered anything like this before. When it comes to interface visuals, I’m used to building tests that are—unfortunately—tied more closely to my implementation details than I’d like. And these tests are fragile. Vision AI allows me to point my tests to a prototype and train my test suite on the desired behavior. I say “train” because Tosca’s Vision AI features use convolutional neural networks underneath to build test suites using computer vision. convolutional neural networks In Tosca Commander, I instructed Tosca to scan an application and set up a new testing module based on whatever application I wanted to use. I took a simple wireframe of a web form and opened it up in Microsoft Paint. Then, I used the Select on-screen functionality in the screen scanner to choose the right elements from the page to make a testing module. As you can see, I simply clicked on the boxes drawn in the wireframe, and Tosca could pick them out from a list of items it saw when it scanned the “application.” Not only that, Tosca could parse out what the mockup likely indicated on the “form” it saw. From there, to build out a test, all I needed to do was provide the values I wanted Tosca to enter on the form: Each form element had an icon next to it, indicating what Tosca determined the fields to be (such as dropdowns or text fields). For the Next element, Tosca determined it to be a button. Next It was time to run the test. Watching what Tosca did here was a big shock—but in a good way. I didn’t need to write any code at all. Yet, Tosca could enter data on a demo site with these same fields on it. The fields on the demo form were even in a different order than the mockup, but that wasn’t an issue. As Tosca navigated the form, it looked for the essential properties of each field or element and performed the action or input requested by the test case. As Tosca finds each item, it makes a log of the success or failure of each step, abstracting all the code used to implement it. Keeping Up With Changes In addition to building test suites based on a mockup, Vision AI also lets us keep our tests intact even as changes are made to the less critical parts of the page being tested. For example, if Tosca detects that the position of fields has changed, it can still perform the tests you trained it to do previously. Here’s how Tosca handled another implementation of the same form but restructured to take up two columns. Tosca can deal with position changes, but it can also attempt to “self-heal” if something like a label has changed. For example, consider a button the user must click to continue. When we originally built the form, the button label was Next , but we later changed it to Continue . Next Continue Tosca will still be able to recognize what to do. All I needed to do was enter a few testing parameters for Tosca to enable self-healing tests . Vision AI uses various algorithms to retry a test until it’s sure it really can’t find the element. a few testing parameters for Tosca to enable self-healing tests Here’s what a passing test looks like for the example where the button label has changed from Next to Continue . Next Continue When Tosca couldn’t find the button label it expected, it self-healed and updated its model to use the label that it was able to find instead. Pretty amazing! Vision Isn’t Everything It’s nice to know that the visual aspects of your application are well-tested. However, it’s important to remember that accessibility (a11y) is critical as well. You want to ensure that as many people as possible can use your application. Even though Tosca can use computer vision to verify the visual aspects are working as expected, Tricentis has also designed its development tools for accessibility. The most recent version of Tosca has an updated a11y report detailing information on adherence to WCAG 2.2 . You can generate this report for any features under test. WCAG 2.2 Adding accessibility testing is straightforward and doesn’t require any additional coding. Just drag the Check Webpage Accessibility into your test case, and Tosca will give you a quick summary of the state of the site you’re testing: Check Webpage Accessibility Finding 11 critical issues seems pretty concerning! To look more deeply, you can export the a11y report. You can even choose what standards Tosca should report against: As soon as the results were compiled, my report opened up, showing me helpful charts about where the issues were and what needed to be fixed. Fortunately, regarding what needed to be fixed across the site, the report showed me that I didn’t have quite as much to do as I had feared. Conclusion Vision AI opens up a world of possibilities for simplifying and enhancing UI testing. From building tests directly from mockups to handling changes with ease, it’s a game-changer for anyone dealing with dynamic, visually complex applications. It’s not just about saving time—it’s about making the entire testing process smarter, more reliable, and less tied to brittle implementation details. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible, but what I’ve seen so far has left me thoroughly impressed. How are you using it for your app testing workflow? Is it making your testing (and test writing) of visual interfaces faster? Share your stories! Have a really great day!

Stories, News & Mentions about TRIGENT

Trending Topics

Classic

Neon Noir

Minty

Newspaper

HN StartUps