I have heard a few developers building iOS mobile apps noting frustrations with TestFlight, the service that lets you beta test an app before being submitted to Apple and hitting the app store live. Boston-based Apperian, a cloud based enterprise mobile app management platform, just released a new service that aims to quell some of these frustrations.
The service is called AppRamp, and it was built to dramatically improve testing and deployment of enterprise grade mobile apps, facilitating heightened collaboration between developers and testers. AppRamp aims to simplify how testers download and interface these beta apps. And for developers, they have built a streamlined web-based interface that helps them manage all their testers and deploy app updates to them.
Apperian made the announcement at WWDC, Apple’s worldwide developer conference happening this entire week in San Francisco. The announcement comes off from $9.5M in funding the end of March from some elite VC firms, including North Bridge, Bessemer, and Kleiner Perkins. Just last week the company was honored as one of only three Boston based companies in the prestigious OnMobile Top 100.
AppRamp appears to have been well received, with one company, Big Nerd Ranch and Small Society weighing in on the benefits they’ve realized with the new service.
“The process of beta testing iOS apps can be painful and difficult to manage for both developers and testers. AppRamp saves valuable time by ensuring our testers have easy and immediate access to the latest version, as we’re always sure we’re testing current code,” explains Aaron Hillegass, Big Nerd Ranch’s. “AppRamp is particularly good at giving us a secure and managed workflow to drive our testing, and apps are delivered automatically over the air to all our testers’ devices.”
“While there are other tools available, AppRamp is the only solution that scales to meet the needs of enterprise customers,” Raven Zachary, President of Small Society, noted in the announcement.
AppRamp is an additional component on the company’s EASE platform (Enterprise App Service Environment), which launched in November 2010 to streamline enterprise app development. According to the company, AppRamp’s key benefits include:
- Uses a single platform from test to production
- Gives developers total control over app distribution and versioning
- Provides a familiar and consistent experience throughout the app lifecycle
- Free to manage multiple projects with hundreds of apps and users
- Full reporting and analytics for developers
UPDATE: As for TestFlight, it is important to note that the service is offered free of charge to developers. Benjamin Satterfield of TestFlight in an email to BostInno also explained, “Most of the frustrations you hear about come from Apple limitations, not ours, and it is a small percentage of all of our users.”
To learn more and to register and start using AppRamp, visit their website.
