Our customers improve the Safety and Security of their Software with Verifysoft’s Technology – even on Mars

Klaus Lambertz, founder and CEO of Verifysoft Technology, talks about the contribution of Verifysoft to enhancing software security, as well as the development and strategy of the company.

What does Verifysoft Technology do?

We are a producer and distributor of software test and analysis tools. That means we oversee the safety and security of peoples´ lives.
Moreover our customers save money – they avoid bugs and increase productivity.
We sell safety and security.

What does that mean exactly?

We deal with software. Software is everywhere in todays´ world, you can find it in cars, trains, airplanes, mobile phones and kitchen equipment to name a few. There is hardly any area in which software plays no part. Verifysoft ensures that software performs as intended.
One of our business segments is development, sale and support of software test tools.
We´ve also offer training for software developers and quality managers.

How important is software quality?

How important is software quality, when you get on an airplane?
How important is quality of software in your car, which controls your brakes and airbags?
How important is the functionality of software in a heart pacemaker or computer tomographic?
Incorrect software can cost human lives and Verifysoft helps to save them.

...and to create lives.

The software quality in medical devices is guaranteed by tools by Verifysoft. We´ve got customers that optimize their equipment for artificial insemination with our tools.

Is software equally important everywhere?

For safety critical software the quality is extremely important. You can find safety critical software for example in aircraft controls, cars, trains and in medical technology. Bugs can cause catastrophic consequences. If there are bugs in this kind of software, people could be injured or even killed. As a result, there are industry standards that require intensive tests.
But software quality is also important in other sectors.
One example: A few years ago, whilst on a holiday, our camera failed because of a software bug resulting in our pictures being lost forever. You won’t be surprised to hear, we haven’t bought a product from this company again. As you can see, bad software quality can irredeemably damage a company’s image. We call it mission-critical software.
Many of our customers want to supply top quality, where human life is concerned.
One of our customers is a large provider of milking machines. If bugs occur here, the farmer would have to get out of his bed in the middle of the night causing him a lot of stress and tiredness (watch the video here/ read the customers testimonial).
There are many companies which make a living out of a good quality of their products.
Bugs in software could affect reputation and competitiveness in the market and in extreme cases result in company insolvency.

Can´t software get fixed subsequently by internet updates?

In some segments like mobile phones it is very easy to get updates via the internet. Nevertheless it´s also expensive and bug fixes in one component could reveal bugs in another. That´s why we´ve got leading mobile phone manufacturers in our customer base.
Unfortunately there are dangers inherent to the internet. Networked software can be attacked from the outside, if it isn´t programmed cleanly. With our software test tools security risks can be detected.

Which importance do software tests have during software development?

About 50-60% of the budget is spent for testing and validation, the phase spent uncovering and resolving software bugs. High safety critical software absorbs even more. An aircraft manufacturer confirmed that depending on the project, more than 90% of the total budget is invested in software quality.
Many companies, who were relying for customer feedback to discover bugs have understandably disappeared from the market.

How do Verifysoft test tools support software development?

On the one hand, we´ve got tools which help limit bugs by controlling the software complexity and enforcing programming guidelines.
Software for static code analysis automatically investigates the software for bugs ,like a spellchecker tool in a word processor.
On the other hand, we´ve got tools which measure the code coverage Those tools show which parts of the software are already tested and for which parts you still have to write tests. For example the software for aircraft control has to be tested 100%. Code coverage tools help to achieve and to document that aim.

How do you assess the development of the market for software test tools?

We are a growing market, amount and size are both increasing rapidly, the requirements on software increase constantly.
Current areas are autonomous driving and Internet of Things (IoT). As these areas mature, it´s only possible to maintain quality with meticulously tested software.
In the future testing will be more intensive and more important in many segments.

How will Verifysoft develop?

At the point of formation in 2003 we were only two people working for Verifysoft (> more about the history of Verifysoft).
Soon, that number will be nearly 20 employees. In addition there are more than 30 active support- and sales employees at our resellers in the USA, UK, Italy, Romania, Israel, India, Japan, Korea and China, which take care of our “Testwell” product line.
At first we too were only a distributor for Testwell tools in some European countries.
As the market developed due to strong sales growth, the owner of these tools, the Finnish company Testwell, offered us in 2013 the rights to the tools.
We sell the tools worldwide, the demand for good and simple test tools increases constantly.
In addition we´ve trained over 1000 software developers, project managers and quality managers.
We´ve got professional involvement from the Universities of Offenburg and Paris as well as specialists from practice. The demand for training about software quality is continuous. That´s why we continue to expand our seminar program.
Our revenue increased over 50% in the last year.
The earnings are invested in further development of our company and products, we are on a growth path.

Would a higher growth be possible?

We could increase the marketing budget with venture capital and business angles to accelerate the growth.
However, it is not enough to have good products, they have to be known by companies and customers outside.
We are proud of having funded our growth by cash flow, just through the sale of our software.
That speaks for the quality of our products and services, and for our hard work.
We want to stay “master of our house”, we founded the company to be independent.

What is meant by long-term strategy?

The customers’ satisfaction is more important than making a fast buck for our quarterly result.
The most important factors are our customers and employees.
Our customers get optimal support and we can be proud of their excellent perception of us.
Furthermore our employees form a motivated team. Everyone is important and contributes to the success. A great working atmosphere is essential, lastly we spend the whole day together.
If they love what they do, the results match.
We´ve got good products and develop them by customer demand, so provide them value. We believe success is guaranteed in middle and long-term.

Who are your customers?

Almost all our customers are working in aerospace, automotive, automation and medical technology.
We´ve got international customers like Airbus, Audi, BMW, Bosch, Daimler, Siemens, Volkswagen and many more.
However, many more customers are medium or smaller companies.
None of our customers contributes more than 5% of our total turnover, so we appreciate all customers but we are not reliant on individuals.
In spring 2016 we exceeded the 500 customers´ mark. Actually we´ve got an exponential growth, we anticipate at least 100 new customers in the next year.
We have customers in over 30 countries, our aim is to get that over 50 countries in the next two years and we are well on our way.
Indeed, we have also got tested software on Mars, not only on earth!