George Mehok on Implementing Mobile Appcelerator and SOASTA

On January 24, CustomerThink published an article entitled Appcelerator and SOASTA Partner to Empower Mobile Enterprise Developers with First Integrated Test Automation Solution.  In it, George Mehok, Safeguard’s chief information officer is quoted discussing the implementation of  the pair.

Appcelerator and SOASTA Partner to Empower Mobile Enterprise Developers with First Integrated Test Automation Solution

New integration and distribution agreement bring SOASTA’s TouchTest to Appcelerator’s global enterprise customers.
 
Mountain View, CA – January 24, 2013 – Appcelerator®, the leading mobile development platform, and SOASTA, the leader in cloud and mobile testing, today announced a new integration between Appcelerator Titanium 3.0 and SOASTA’s TouchTest mobile test automation solution and a distribution agreement between the two companies.
 
This integration allows mobile developers at Appcelerator’s 1,400 enterprise customers to access TouchTest for continuous automated testing as part of the mobile application development lifecycle. Test automation is a mandatory requirement for mobile app development, and TouchTest delivers the speed, precision and affordability required by mobile development teams to scale their development practices that demand a continuous release process.
 
TouchTest is the first enterprise test automation solution to support Appcelerator’s Titanium 3.0.  The integrated solution provides a cost-effective, rapid and continuous product development lifecycle for mobile developers.
 
We’ve adopted mobility as a key enabler to providing productivity enhancing technologies to our nationwide network of contractors and inspectors, in addition to delivering superior quality to our clients, said George Mehok, Chief Information Officer of Safeguard Properties, the largest mortgage field services company in the U.S.  “As an innovator in mobility, we’re actively implementing the integrated solution between Appcelerator Titanium and SOASTA TouchTest to further optimize the quality of our apps, reduce development cycle time, and accelerate adoption.”
 
The new distribution agreement between Appcelerator and SOASTA enables Appcelerator customers to easily add TouchTest to their mobile development environment. Combining TouchTest with Titanium provides an integrated mobile development and testing environment, and accelerates time to success.
 
“Mobile is driving much shorter release cycles for application development,” said Jeff Haynie, Appcelerator CEO.  “SOASTA’s TouchTest integration with Appcelerator Titanium 3.0 enables our customers to meet their time-to-market demands while improving overall application quality.”
 
As enterprises and developers build mobile applications for a variety of devices and operating systems, they can now rely on TouchTest to simplify the testing process, utilizing SOASTA’s patented visual test environment, precision capture and re-play technology.  Apps are now continuously testable, thoroughly validated and fully supported through the development lifecycle by leveraging TouchTest’s embedded Jenkins plugin for 100% hands-free mobile test automation.
 
The mobile application lifecycle presents the opportunity for enterprises to re-think their approach to software development, said Tom Lounibos, SOASTA CEO. Appcelerator and SOASTA recognized this, and have combined our best-of-class solutions to present mobile development teams with the fastest, most complete development platform to support continuous testing of mobile applications.”
 
Availability
TouchTest supports Titanium 3.0 today. For more information about functional testing for Titanium applications, please visit
www.appcelerator.com/platform/functionaltest/ or www.soasta.com.

About Appcelerator
Appcelerator is the leading mobile development platform of choice for thousands of enterprises including eBay, Merck, Mitsubishi Electric, NBC, PayPal and Ray-Ban, as they become mobile-first organizations. With more than 50,000 mobile applications deployed on 100 million devices, Appcelerator’s award-winning open source development platform (Titanium) and Appcelerator Cloud Services are used to create native apps across multiple devices including iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry, as well as hybrid and HTML5 mobile web. Customers who standardize on Appcelerator’s solutions
get to market 70 percent faster and achieve a significant competitive advantage. Appcelerator’s worldwide ecosystem includes 400,000 mobile developers and hundreds of ISVs and strategic partners including SAP and Cognizant. For more information visit www.appcelerator.com.

Appcelerator is a registered trademark of Appcelerator Inc. Appcelerator Titanium is a trademark of Appcelerator Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.

About SOASTA
SOASTA is the leader in cloud and mobile testing. Its web and mobile test automation solutions, CloudTest and TouchTest, enable developers, QA professionals and IT operations teams to test with unprecedented speed, scale and precision. The innovative product set streamlines test creation, automates provisioning and execution, and distills analytics to deliver actionable intelligence faster. With SOASTA, companies can have confidence that their applications will perform as designed, even in peak traffic. SOASTA’s customers include many of today’s most successful brands including
American Girl, Bonobos, Chegg, Gilt Groupe, Hallmark, Intuit, Microsoft and Netflix. SOASTA is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information about SOASTA, please visit www.soasta.com.

To view the online article, please click here.

About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees  and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with more than 1,600 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

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CEO

Alan Jaffa

Alan Jaffa is the Chief Executive Officer for Safeguard Properties, steering the company as the mortgage field services industry leader. He also serves on the board of advisors for SCG Partners, a middle-market private equity fund focused on diversifying and expanding Safeguard Properties’ business model into complimentary markets.

Alan joined Safeguard in 1995, learning the business from the ground up. He was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2002, and was named CEO in May 2010. His hands-on experience has given him unique insights as a leader to innovate, improve and strengthen Safeguard’s processes to assure that the company adheres to the highest standards of quality and customer service.

Under Alan’s leadership, Safeguard has grown significantly with strategies that have included new and expanded services, technology investments that deliver higher quality and greater efficiency to clients, and strategic acquisitions. He takes a team approach to process improvement, involving staff at all levels of the organization to address issues, brainstorm solutions, and identify new and better ways to serve clients.

In 2008, Alan was recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business in its annual “40-Under-40” profile of young leaders. He also was named a NEO Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award finalist in 2013.

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Esq., General Counsel and EVP

Linda Erkkila

Linda Erkkila is the General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Safeguard Properties, with oversight of legal, human resources, training, and compliance. Linda’s broad scope of oversight covers regulatory issues that impact Safeguard’s operations, risk mitigation, strategic planning, human resources and training initiatives, compliance, insurance, litigation and claims management, and counsel related to mergers, acquisition and joint ventures.

Linda assures that Safeguard’s strategic initiatives align with its resources, leverage opportunities across the company, and contemplate compliance mandates. She has practiced law for 25 years and her experience, both as outside and in-house counsel, covers a wide range of corporate matters, including regulatory disclosure, corporate governance compliance, risk assessment, compensation and benefits, litigation management, and mergers and acquisitions.

Linda earned her JD at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She holds a degree in economics from Miami University and an MBA. Linda was previously named as both a “Woman of Influence” by HousingWire and as a “Leading Lady” by MReport.

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COO

Michael Greenbaum

Michael Greenbaum is the Chief Operating Officer of Safeguard Properties, where he has played a pivotal role since joining the company in July 2010. Initially brought on as Vice President of REO, Mike’s exceptional leadership and strategic vision quickly propelled him to Vice President of Operations in 2013, and ultimately to COO in 2015. Over his 14-year tenure at Safeguard, Mike has been instrumental in driving change and fostering innovation within the Property Preservation sector, consistently delivering excellence and becoming a trusted partner to clients and investors.

A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mike earned a degree in Quantitative Economics. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Branch, where he specialized in supply chain management. Before his tenure at Safeguard, Mike honed his expertise by managing global supply chains for 13 years, leveraging his military and civilian experience to lead with precision and efficacy.

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CFO

Joe Iafigliola

Joe Iafigliola is the Chief Financial Officer for Safeguard Properties. Joe is responsible for the Control, Quality Assurance, Business Development, Marketing, Accounting, and Information Security departments. At the core of his responsibilities is the drive to ensure that Safeguard’s focus remains rooted in Customer Service = Resolution. Through his executive leadership role, he actively supports SGPNOW.com, an on-demand service geared towards real estate and property management professionals as well as individual home owners in need of inspection and property preservation services. Joe is also an integral force behind Compliance Connections, a branch of Safeguard Properties that allows code enforcement professionals to report violations at properties that can then be addressed by the Safeguard vendor network. Compliance Connections also researches and shares vacant property ordinance information with Safeguard clients.

Joe has an MBA from The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), and holds a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University’s Honors Accounting program.

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Business Development

Carrie Tackett

Business Development Safeguard Properties