User experience and the availability of digital services can have a huge impact on the user’s perception of the service provider. That’s why user experience is fast becoming an important factor to determine service quality
Founded in Tampere in 2002, Gofore — designer and provider of digital services — is one of the brightest stars in its industry. Ranked year after year as one of the most sought-after jobs, Gofore has hit double-digit growth rates.
Along with the organic growth achieved through a successful strategy, the company has made several great acquisitions over the last couple of years. In 2018, Gofore’s net sales were EUR 51 million — a 49% increase over the previous year. The company now employs around 600 people.
Growing importance of user experience
Director of International Operations Ville Tuominen explains what customers’ business continuity means for Gofore’s success.
“We provide our customers with uninterrupted services because it maintains both our customers’ trust and their brand image. For example, if a citizen needs to get in touch with any authority for permits, the service needs to work or else the citizen will lose confidence in the service provider.”
B2B digital services along with professional applications are another area where user experience determines the success of a service. Digital tools for work environments demand good mobile application functionality. “The digital service must be continually and easily accessible, without which users lose their trust in the service provider. That’s why the topic of business criticality has evolved and expanded to cover user experience,” Tuominen says.
Testing at all stages of product development
Gofore works together with its software testing partners to ensure the quality of its services. Since 2017, Qentinel has introduced automation to its testing which has sped up and simplified the process.
“It is interesting that at Qentinel, test automation is integrated into the product life cycle. We currently have a couple of industry-oriented projects where we work together or independently using the Qentinel Pace tool.”
Gofore and Qentinel’s partnership is characterized by the fact that automated application testing and quality assurance is an integral part of Gofore’s product development. Thanks to automation, test data can be utilized at all stages of product development.
“Testing provides us with quality that matters to our customers’ end-users when it comes to the functionality of the application — how long does it take to perform tasks with the application and how accessible is the service to users. On the other hand, quality also matters in user experience — how easy is it for the end-user to use the service,” Tuominen observes.
With apps getting increasingly personalized and more complex, it can be challenging for testing to keep up with the changes. “When systems become simpler for users, at the same they also become more technically complex to maintain. If the system is different for each user, the test system must take this complexity into account.”
Benefits of automation for clients’ customers
There is a special emphasis on user perspective in application testing. During the product development phase, thanks to automated testing, applications are available to the customer and its end-users in a timely manner and remain of high quality. It also ensures that the application can be used without disruption during the further phases of its development.
When it comes to large-scale information system projects, test automation must be the responsibility of one operator. There must be a clear
channel of communication between the operators to communicate system changes even before they are made.
“It is important that one operator has a plan, and the responsibility and ability to communicate about projects in a way that the overall quality can be secured without any gaps. The final step is the overall end-user testing of the system, which can be done through Qentinel’s Pace testing service.”
There are clear reasons and goals for the continued and well-established working relationship between Gofore and Qentinel. “We want to invest in working with a partner who develops test automation with us and has the resources to increase the role of automation. This way, we can improve customer value and also increase the efficiency of our own service production. There are also plans to introduce machine learning as part of test automation. It will play a more important role as we move from static to dynamic services.”
Qentinel’s experienced experts have been bringing test automation know-how to Gofore’s projects for a couple of years now. This has led to projects moving very quickly from design to production work.
“It really matters to us that Qentinel is constantly developing its test automation and wants to be at the forefront of its field. Their willingness to experiment and a passion for using new technologies has convinced us to continue our partnership,” Tuominen sums it up.
