Israeli mobile testing firm set to go on hiring spree

The mobile world is growing faster than ever, with no sign of a slowdown, as devices, apps, and operating system updates get churned out on a nearly daily basis. That’s good for Israeli testing firm Perfecto Mobile, and could be good for dozens of tech professionals in Israel, as the company is looking to hire “as many as fifty or sixty people” to handle its burgeoning business, said CEO Eran Yaniv.

“There are so many developers out there who have no way to test their apps, and our virtual device and operating system environment lets them ensure that their code is up to par. We’re already the largest company in the world providing this kind of virtual testing platform, and as our reputation grows, we are getting new customers almost every day.”

As businesses go mobile, they demand apps and interfaces that work the same way on all devices. A bank, for example, would want customers to have the same user experience on its main website, its iPhone and iPad app, and its Android interface. But that’s a major challenge for developers; each operating system works differently and requires different code, so in essence a developer has to come up with several versions of their app.

But even with development of different versions of the code, their work is just beginning. Once the app is developed, it has to be tested on a wide variety of devices and under a variety of circumstances to ensure that it works properly.

“We’ve seen any number of programming glitches as firms tried to develop mobile versions of their apps, such as in 2012 when Citibank’s bill-paying app charged customers twice for the same transaction,” said Yaniv. “Organizations can’t afford that kind of mistake, as it drives customers away.”

The Perfecto platform supplies developers with everything they need to test their apps under any circumstances that they might be used under. Programmers can select the device their app will be used on, the operating system and version, network environment location emulation (to mimic GPS function), accelerometer functions such as shaking, touch interfaces, and anything else they would have on a device they could test on in their offices. With Perfecto, though, they do not have to go out and buy dozens of different devices to test on – which wouldn’t do them any good anyway. According to industry experts, there are over 4,000 versions of the Android operating system in use today.

One feature of the platform that developers cannot buy – unless they could somehow do their development in different physical locations – is the ability to work within the strictures of a specific network. “Different companies have different working conditions, and our platform allows for developers to take these differences into account,” said Yaniv.

Perfecto’s system is certainly neater and safer than the usual situation in many R&D facilities, where dozens of devices are left lying around for testing in a lab, with the requisite jungle of cables, connectors, power supplies, and accessories for each device.

Those devices, used for testing code, have valuable intellectual property on them, and there is a great risk that someone may take one of them out of the office, or just forget that he was carrying it in a pocket, and then take it out later and forget it somewhere. By offering developers a secure, online, no fuss and no muss testing system, Perfecto ensures that developers not only have access to the devices and networks they need, but also avoid the security risk inherent in keeping physical devices in the lab.

Perfecto recently raised $20 million to further expand its virtual testing platform, and the company intends to use that money to open more offices and hire more people – given the huge demand for its services, said Yaniv.

Perfecto was established eight years ago, and after several difficult years “business just took off for us a few years ago,” said Yaniv. Right now, about 170 people work for Perfecto – 100 in the Israel R&D center (where all the programming work takes place) and 70 in sales offices in the US, Canada, several European countries, and India.

The Israeli staff is set to grow significantly. “The market is very fluid and dynamic, and there are so many problems in development that are seeking solutions,” said Yaniv. “We’re at a tipping point – once we had to go out and look for customers, and now they come to us. There are lots of options for us now, and we intend to hire more people at our labs here in Israel to meet that demand.”