Needless to say, it was a quite a busy start of autumn here at Euro Testing Software Solutions. And it all started with the MESS conference in Phoenix, Arizona. However, now that we are back in the office, we went over our notes and decided to share what we found especially interesting at the conference.
- Basic needs are important: Although it’s considerably larger than Europe as a market, the US medium enterprise market seemed smaller in terms of variety of project requests, mainly consisting of lots of clients that try to find solutions to somewhat basic software testing needs. However, while the complexity of demands is not that vast, the expected scale of implementation is.
- Cybersecurity focus: We’ve noticed that most project requests for application development revolved around cybersecurity. It remains a hot topic in the US market. Following that, the most sought expertise was software testing automation and related services (DevSecOps, RPA). Lastly, there was a lot of discussion around cloud architecture and IoT.
- Every cent counts: Most IT infrastructure/ Development budgets seemed to be allocated towards clearly defined, fixed-price projects and less on broader service offerings (off-shoring, managed services etc.). All-in-one services were a tough sell.
- Trust trumps hype: Regardless of project size, having great references is key for the US market. This becomes especially relevant when new(er) products & services are introduced. We were pleasantly surprised that people remembered us from last year’s conference, and this worked as an argument for new engagements.
- Software Testing as a Pizza: Lastly, the “reinterpretation” of our services was a hit. Repackaging functional testing, regression testing, performance & security testing as types of pizza (plus positioning RPA & Automation as toppings) helped participants get a better understanding of their relevance in specific stages of an application’s lifecycle.
Fun fact: We found it very interesting that there were a lot of discussions around Arizona’s 5 key industries: cotton, cattle, citrus, copper & climate. We hope our experience can prove helpful. If you would like to know more about our mix & match software testing services, contact us for more information.
