BBVA Compass uses DeviceAnywhere to test its rapidly growing portfolio of mobile apps with a large number of mobile devices during the development process to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction in a cost effective manner.

"Mobile apps are an increasingly critical service - and we want to make sure they work flawlessly before they are available to customers," explained Chris Causey, mobile channel manager at BBVA Compass. "DeviceAnywhere allows us to test our mobile apps with virtually any mobile device without the need to purchase expensive service plans or ship the device to different development centres. With this capability, we can fix glitches early in the development process to reduce costs and improve the customer experience. Prior to implementing Keynote DeviceAnywhere it was challenging to fully and adequately test our applications because we could only test them with a limited number of devices."

With the DeviceAnywhere platform, companies have the ability to access hundreds of real mobile devices including iOS, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry devices from anywhere in the world. Companies can also utilise a free tool (Test Case Manager) to build, manage, and maintain their test cases all in one, convenient location.

BBVA Compass developed many test cases using the Test Case Manager tool within DeviceAnywhere, allowing its team members to capture results for review. These test cases allow them to examine functionality such as checking account balances, looking up transaction histories, paying bills and transferring funds between accounts. Developers also perform ad hoc testing by going through varying sequences of opening windows and tasks to identify the source of errors that occur on one version of a device but not another.

"Using DeviceAnywhere, our customer satisfaction scores have improved steadily because we understand what our customers see and can quickly diagnose problems," said Causey. "In additionn addition, we're getting significantly higher ratings for applications that we make available through app stores."

Development costs are also lower. The company's development experience backs up estimates that costs are 50 to 200 times higher to fix bug issues as the project life cycle progresses and gets closer to implementation. (Source: "Software Project Survival Guide," Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press)

In the near future, BBVA Compass plans to expand its use of DeviceAnywhere to its customer service centres. By making available hundreds of mobile devices to customer service agents from all over the U.S. through the Internet, agents will be able to test apps using the same devices customers use so they can replicate what the customer sees and more quickly troubleshoot problems.

"DeviceAnywhere was designed specifically to allow organisations to test mobile apps and websites on any mobile device from any location," said Thomas Gronbach, director of marketing for Europe at Keynote. "BBVA Compass' use of DeviceAnywhere for its development and customer support operations is a perfect example of how organisations can use this solution to improve customers' satisfaction with their mobile solutions."