Tali Shem Tov, MD at Qualitest Israel, recently spoke about some of the future focus areas of Qualitest in an exclusive interview with TechTime  An english translation is provided below.

Qualitest develops testing tools and processes for the hottest fields in the technology world. Managing Director of Qualitest Israel says: “We take full responsibility for product quality – from A to Z.”

The field of software testing and quality assurance is developing in parallel with the latest trends in technology. New advances such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, 5G, and IoT require new testing tools and processes that are better suited to the unique characteristics and devices of each field.

Qualitest, the world’s #1 pure-play quality assurance company, strives to continually innovate to stay current and relevant with emerging technologies. Today, the company puts its focus on developing expertise in the following areas of growth: gaming, cyber security, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and 5G.

Tali Shem Tov, who has been managing the Qualitest Israel headquarters for over a decade and is also responsible for the company’s operations in Eastern Europe, is leading a number of current strategic initiatives for the company.

One such project is the establishment of a large off-shore center in Romania in late 2018, which focuses mainly on the gaming industry. Qualitest has already gained a significant foothold in this field after signing service agreements large game entertainment providers – Playtika and implementing projects for Gameloft in addition to existing customers such as Camelot and Intralot. “Gaming is a unique sector that requires specialized approach to software testing, infrastructure, and practice, and we are continually broadening our knowledge in this field to become the go-to expert for gaming companies,” says Shem Tov.

The partnership between Playtika and Qualitest highlights the growing importance of software testing for the game entertainment industry. The newly opened testing and development center in Bucharest offers a dedicated platform that provides testing and quality assurance services for Playtika games. The center was established at an initial cost of $6M and will be staffed with more than 300 employees.

Another notable project is the establishment of a new cyber security practice, which will address one of the most urgent needs in today’s digital world. Qualitest’s new dedicated cyber division is based in Israel and is managed by Uri Bar-El, who bring years of experience in communications security. “Our cyber operations began with the acquisition of the US company Phyteus a year and a half ago,” explains Bar-El. “And we continue to expand our cyber services to provide a more comprehensive framework that integrates cyber security and DevOps with other testing and quality processes. We are also working on integrating cyber security practices into gaming— an emerging sector which currently lacks a consistent and comprehensive approach to quality.”

A $47 Billion Market

Fueled by an ongoing digital revolution across many industries, the software testing market has been experiencing rapid growth in recent years. In 2016, the global software testing market was estimated at $26 billion, and by 2020, it is expected to grow to $47 billion.

While many large IT companies offer testing functions as part of their operations, Shem Tov believes that Qualitest has a strong competitive advantage by being exclusively focused on quality assurance. “There aren’t many companies like us,” says Shem Tov. “Quality assurance is at the very core of our business, it’s the foundation for everything that we do. Our teams of dedicated specialists provide a broad range of services that go beyond functional testing. We can flexibly scale our services depending on the industry, technology requirements or our clients’ precise needs. Everything we do is driven by the goal to improve the quality of our client’s applications.”

Not Just Debugging

Qualitest serves more than 400 companies and organizations in a variety of fields, including Telecom, IT, Health, Finance, Security, and more, including some of the world’s largest corporations. Depending on the client’s needs, Qualitest assigns testers to work at the customer site – sometimes hundreds of employees – at any location around the world.

Qualitest is a private company and is not required to release revenue numbers. However, the scale of the company’s operations can be gaged from the number of its employees – approximately 3,600 employees currently working at the company’s centers in Israel (about 1,500 employees), US, UK, India and Romania.

Modern software testing is not just about debugging, but an integral part of the entire product development process. The discipline of quality assurance has transformed from simply validating that the finished product functions as expected, to ensuring that the system meets user requirements, delivers excellent user experience and fulfills its business purpose.

To deliver the best services for our customers in each area, Qualitest strives to bring and retain the best talent and expertise. The company employs experts with diverse backgrounds, emphasizing the importance of industry and domain knowledge. For instance, the company’s security testing division includes employees with military background, while the banking and finance service arm attracts people with in-depth understanding of business processes in the financial sector.

“In order to test a system, we need to understand its purpose, the way it operates, who its target audience is,” says Shem Tov. “We basically become our customers’ partner – we learn their core business and all its supporting systems from the inside. But we also bring outside expertise and a broad array of industry and testing discipline knowledge. This gives us a perspective that does not necessarily exist within the company’s own developer pool.”