What would you look for in your software testing service provider?

Cost leads but high level of speed of responsiveness critical
 
Economic uncertainty drives continued focus on rationalizing cost with higher quality.  According to IDC the three overarching themes that an enterprise looks for while choosing its testing services provider are: 
  1. Reasonable costs
  2. High level of responsiveness
  3. Ability to support a range of products and platforms
In their applications services survey IDC asked the participants to rank the most important things that they would look for while zeroing in on their testing services provider. The parameters for consideration included costs, responsiveness, ability to support a range of products and platforms, communications skills, understanding of business and IT, process documentation, SOA testing experience, industry specific technical skills, Oracle/ SAP testing experience and IP protection.
 
The entire survey results can be classified broadly into three in order of importance:
  1. Cost leads but high level of speed of responsiveness critical
  2. Support a range of application platforms, strong communication & collaboration skills
  3. Understanding of the business and IT as well as industry specific skills should be demonstrated