“Having a tool that allows us to quickly share access to a physical device, not a simulator or emulator, and allow anybody from QA to a designer or a developer to check out was very important to us.”

ADAM JONES

Director of Mobile Apps and Emerging Technology, VMLY&R

How HeadSpin Helped VMLY&R in
Analyzing Mobile App Performance

About VMLY&R

VMLY&R’s Mobile Apps and Emerging Technology team works across the organization to lay out best practices in the design, development, and launch of memorable mobile applications for clients. Adam Jones, Director of Mobile Apps and Emerging Technology at VMLY&R, is a part of this team that works across the application lifecycle.

VMLY&R is a global brand and customer experience agency that harnesses creativity, technology, and culture to create connected brands. The agency is behind award-winning campaigns for blue chip client partners including Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dell, Ford, Intel, New Balance, Pfizer and Wendy's.

Challenges

With offices around the world, including a team in Poland, and unique clients across various industries, Adam’s team was searching for a simpler alternative to their internal device lab and increased visibility into user experience and app performance.

Limited and complicated device access

VMLY&R has their own device lab, but the process of having designers and developers obtain devices was analog and cumbersome. This process was further complicated as the devices had to be approved through their clients and that their teams were distributed around the world. Their teams recognized the need for a faster and more simplified method for obtaining devices and were looking to expand their device library.

Location restrictions

Adam’s team is closely integrated with another team inPoland. With their client’s app only available in the US andCanada, the Poland team had to find loopholes and ways, such as proxying a VPN, around testing specific location feature sets.

Perfecting digital experiences

VMLY&R creates connected experiences for brands across industries. These experiences often included features that needed to be quickly accessed, if not fully accurate and reliable from day one. One specific client their team was utilizing HeadSpin for, relied on seamless user experiences, and the VMLY&R team needed a tool that could pinpoint and resolve issues swiftly for pre and post release cycles.

Optimize user experience and app performance

Solution

HeadSpin provides VMLY&R the ability to test and
analyze their clients’ mobile app performances on
real devices across select locations.

Dedicated devices, without the hassle of any
time-consuming processes

HeadSpin offers VMLY&R local access to remote test devices in multiple locations in the US, allowing their globally distributed teams, such as their team in Poland, to remotely control and debug their apps simultaneously. By not having to undergo a complicated and time-consuming process of getting approval for and tracking their own internal devices, the VMLY&R team can spend more time building and innovating.

“It was important having a tool that allows us to quickly be able to share that access to a physical device, not a simulator or emulator, to allow anybody from QA to a designer or a developer that wants to for example know how Android is presenting a modal differently than on iOS.” says Adam.

Testing features where they want, when they want

With HeadSpin’s global device infrastructure, VMLY&R’s team in Poland is able to test specific location feature sets, on the devices of their choice, just as they would if they were physically located in the US. HeadSpin also helps their teams perform more automation and strengthen their regression testing, thus not having to rely on collaboration tools for tasks they need to be more dynamic with.

In-depth performance monitoring and optimization

VMLY&R can pinpoint issues early in and throughout the development lifecycle using HeadSpin’s performance monitoring and optimization tools. HeadSpin automatically surfaces QoE issues, identifies underlying root causes across all layers of the stack, and offers AI-powered recommendations to improve performance. With this visibility, VMLY&R can examine their apps at a more granular level and fix issues much quicker.

ReSUlTS

“The performance piece is the part that I’ve never had the ability to do for analysis. We’ve used other tools in the past, but they don’t spit out the documentation or fidelity that HeadSpin does on the performance view.”

In-depth performance visibility

VMLY&R is able to examine their apps at a more micro level and resolve issues faster for optimal performance.

Real-time, global testing

With HeadSpin's vast and diverse device catalog, VMLY&R can test their apps on the real devices and locations of their choice.

Improved team collaboration and efficiency

HeadSpin helps their global teams automate and strengthen their regression tests.

ADD-ON PRODUCTS

ENTERPRISE ADDON PRODUCTS

SUPPORT

RESOURCE CENTER

Resource Center

ABOUT US

ABOUT US

ABOUT US

How HeadSpin Helped VMLY&R in
Analyzing Mobile App Performance

About VMLY&R