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We are on the shortlist with sixty other startups who are exhibiting at RISE. This list will pitch on the RISE stage on May 31 and June 1 in Hong Kong.  A distinguished panel of judges will then choose 12 startups to advance to the semi-finals which will take place on the afternoon of June first.  From the semi finals will come three finalists who will then pitch on the RISE center stage on June second, for the title of Rise Best Startup.

Startups will have seven minutes in each round to impress the judges: four minutes for their pitch followed by a three-minute Q&A with the judging panel.

Six startups will pitch each hour from 9:15am to 5pm on May 31st and from 10 am to 1 pm June 1st. The winners will then go on to the semi finals from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. From these, three semi-finalists will be chosen to battle it out for the crown of best RISE startup 2016 on the following day.

The final PITCH winner will be awarded airfare and hotel accommodations for their team to attend the Web Summit in Lisbon in the month of November.

Not only have we been selected for Web Summit BETA  but we are now on the list of less than 6% of  startups globally chosen to pitch at the 2015 Web Summit in Dublin Ireland.

Web Summit is the annual technology conference held in Dublin, Ireland since 2010. It is centred around internet technology and is attended by 30,000 people including representatives from many of the most important tech and fortune 500 companies from around the world.

It’s an honour to have made the short list and have the ability to pitch before important investors, media and a crowd of Thirty-thousand. Not only does this give us the opportunity to share our knowledge with and learn from the best and the brightest, it also gives us a chance to present on the main stage and perhaps receive the Winner of PITCH 2015 Crown.

Pitching will happen on three special stages during the 48 hours before the smashing conclusion held on day three of the event, where the finalists will compete for the Crown.

PITCH, sponsored by Audi, is a fantastic opportunity to present to and network with the top movers and shakers in the industry, including investors, media and top business executives from the most influential companies.

Previous PITCH panels have included such luminaries as Robert Scoble, the Startup Officer for Rackspace and Sequoia Capital's Alfred Lin.

And we are thrilled to be finalists at such a prestigious event.

As a side note, Audi is the official sponsor of this year's Web Summit startup competition. As an element of that sponsorship, Audi is giving PITCH winners a private track day at the FAST Parcmotor racetrack near Barcelona Spain, at which winners will experience test rides in the driverless RS7 motor vehicle at racetrack speed. This will be followed by a dinner hosted by Boris Meiners, Audi’s head of brand development and service design.

As the RS7 motor vehicle proves, the future of digital technology is limited only by imagination. And the massive Web Summit Event gives us and cutting edge companies from around the world the chance to network, share ideas and use their collective imagination to build the future.

IBM SmartCamp is part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program and offers a unique combination of networking event and mentoring boot camp that provides startups with the opportunity to pitch their services on a worldwide basis.

Only five companies have been selected to a full day event, where Bugwolf will work intensively with industry leaders in technology and venture capital. The day includes the opportunity to pitch to a panel of industry experts, receive feedback throughout the day during intimate mentoring sessions, followed by a presentation to over 100 people.

The CEO & Founder of Bugwolf, Ash Conway said “It's an absolute privilege to be selected as a finalist. IBM have always been a big supporter of Bugwolf and our team. Its great to be recognised for our ongoing success and a testament to the hard work of our team in building a great product and service.

We have some of the smartest people from tech; design, and marketing, who are really passionate about the problem Bugwolf is solving. It’s a growing challenge which impacts any organisation with a digital presence. We are a looking forward to our continued partnership with IBM around the world and wish the lucky winner on the day all the very best.”.

The Australian SmartCamp winner will receive a massive USD120,000 in IBM Cloud credits including mentoring, technical and go-to-market support. In addition, the winner will also get the opportunity to advance to the semi-finals and study and demo at Launch Scale, and the chance to compete at the 2016 global Launch Festival - the largest startup conference in the world.

IBM SmartCamp is held in over 30 cities around the world this year, previous winning startups in Australia and New Zealand include 9 Spokes, Temando and CropLogic. A public event will be held between 3 and 6pm next Tuesday 15 September, and you can be a part of the audience by registering at the IBM SmartCamp website.

And Bugwolf comes highly recommended. "What they can do in weeks would take us months….we could get a bug-free product out there much faster," said National Australia Bank's GM of Digital Todd Copeland. Australia Post’s General Manager for Digital Channels and Innovation, Steve Maidment, Head of Digital Innovation and Online Channels at Australia Post,  also didn’t hesitate to provide positive feedback, on the outcomes delivered by Bugwolf, "[they] assembled an elite team of beta testers where our customers are and issued each with credit cards. This meant they tested our e-commerce platform in a real world environment and found bugs we didn’t even know existed."

Recently announced as one of the Top 25 Most Promising QA Vendors/Services [hyperlink to blog post], Bugwolf anticipates its rapid  growth to continue with a raft of new clients coming on board recently.“We are really proud to work with outstanding organisations such as Australia Post, Treasury Wines Estates and National Australia Bank as well as a number of international clients. Our custom built SAAS platform allows our clients to be more nimble in delivering digital innovation and quality faster to millions of customers, and in turn we gain valuable feedback that allows us to continue to strengthen our product and service offering”, said Ash Conway CEO and Founder of Bugwolf.

Summary of the recent announcements:

• NAB’s partnership with Melbourne-based technology startup Bugwolf to utilise a new platform for testing projects in the development phase.
• General Manager of Digital at NAB, Todd Copeland stated “What [Bugwolf] can do in weeks would take us months. Crowdsourcing a lot of fresh eyes on to it meant we could get a bug-free product out there much faster.”
• Crowdsourced testing start-up Bugwolf’s partnership with Australia Post has seen their apps through it’s paces to identify potential problems and iron out customer issues.
• Bugwolf transformed Australia Post's testing methodology to accelerate the process and increase the test coverage of customer facing applications – reducing the likelihood of poor customer experience being released to market.
• Bugwolf has been declared as one of the most promising QA companies globally after Outsourcing Gazette completed a detailed evaluation of the industry, appraising hundreds of QA companies for competence and their ability to deliver results.

An introduction to the Bugwolf platform:

• Web-based service that uses gamification to test a company's website, apps and online products for service errors or bugs before launch.
• Gamification process involves releasing digital services or products to a group of technology experts in the form of a game.
• Unique on-demand marketplace and SaaS platform which gamifies the testing process where elite testers compete to perform tasks like customers.
• Recognises that real world users do not follow test scripts and the journeys customers take are varied and at times unpredictable.
• Attracts the best software testers from around the world and are not limited by their geographic location providing access to a wide variety of testers who would typically not be available.
• Provides a fresh set of eyes reviewing digital products prior to release and a team of elite testers who rigorously test them in the same way customers use them.

Next Money exists to increase the level of cooperation between banking and finance and technology.  It is the world's fastest growing fintech collaborative platform, bringing together innovators from across the globe in order to improve the future of finance.

Fintech has had, and is continuing to have, a disruptive influence on the marketplace.  The final outcome of this disruption is unknown.  Fintech is changing the way people buy and invest, and it is also changing the very definition of money.  However, this isn't necessarily bad.  The changes in civilization over the last 50 years have been such that if fintech didn't exist we would have to invent it.  Money needs to move farther and faster than ever before.  And fintech is set to fill in the gaps created by lack of liquidity and limitations on gov't issued currency.  The very definition of what constitutes money is changing and Next Money is bringing people together to help determine what that new definition will be. But, fintech must rely on software to succeed and the quality of software is by no means assured.

The rapid spread of digital technology over the last 30 years has brought businesses more and more into the digital space.  This means that customer engagement has become ever more reliant on IT, and so has finance.  Financial institutions now rely on digital technology for most day to day activities and so the combination of business and finance going digital has created an unprecedented reliance on software to the point where it could literally cost millions of dollars if something goes wrong.

Cambridge University issued a report back in 2013, which stated that software bugs were costing the economy 312 billion U.S. dollars annually.  This cost was projected to reach a trillion dollars annually in the next 5 to 10 years.  And this increased cost has made quality assurance of vital issue in the coming years.

Ash Conway will make an important presentation at the Next Money event in Hong Kong regarding the future of quality assurance in software development.  This is a vital subject which isn't receiving sufficient attention.  While quality assurance has certainly improved, the cost of poor quality software continues to increase and is exponentially driving up cost, thereby increasing the need for greater quality assurance. Ash will describe how Bugwolf's innovative combination of quality testers plus gamification will bring down the cost of quality assurance.

You can find more information and buy tickets here.

But, what is super connecting? Super connecting means connecting supply with demand. For example, Uber, the world’s largest taxi company owns no vehicles, and Facebook, the world’s most accessed media platform, creates no content. The new game is connecting supply with demand, rather than attempting to compete as a traditional supplier.

The Strategy & Innovation World Forum was one of the largest events of its kind. Among the speakers was Erica Hughes who spoke on business transformation and innovation. Erica has been a consultant to major corporations on innovation, transformation and change management. She has also begun a number of startups which include the challenging medical space plus she has set up Westpac Banking Corp’s innovation lab.

Mark Sheppard also made a presentation on the Industrial Internet. Mark is the Chief Digital Officer for GE Australia, PNG and New Zealand.  He has headed up the digital transformation of GE’s oil and gas, energy, aviation and global mining operations.  

Altogether, there were thirty-five speakers presenting unique ideas that will help establish a new business model for the future. It is a model without the traditional entry barriers, where expert knowledge isn’t always required and where established organizations and startups must have a revolutionary view of supply and demand.  

Communication is the key to success as a 21st Century enterprise. The ability to connect supply with demand is a major part of the new less centralized business model that has grown and continues to grow out of the digital revolution. From fintech to agile management, innovation is remaking the world of business in ways that could not have been imagined only a generation ago. Success in this brave new environment depends on strategy and innovation. Which is what the Strategy and Innovation World Forum was all about.

APAC CIO Outlook researches and presents the best emerging APAC companies that are pushing the edge of the digital envelope. The magazine’s editorial team approached Bugwolf as indisputably part of their “Top 25”, and upon further deliberation ensconced us on the front cover.

At Bugwolf, we are committed to developing cutting edge testing protocols that make software testing cost effective and help increase return on investment while also improving testing effectiveness. The intention is to quickly establish the right methodologies for a given company and deliver results through rapid and effective testing based on competitive interaction between testers. Bugwolf’s managed tests and platform can accommodate unique client needs and provide an integrated testing system that allows early client engagement in the testing process.

We are dedicated to empowering the client by providing a unique testing methodology that is both effective and adaptive to client circumstances. We are honoured that APAC CIO Outlook magazine has chosen us to be their cover story for this issue and are committed to remaining an innovative company that deserves such recognition by continuing to develop software testing procedures that place the customer first.

This year's judges were looking for CIOs who demonstrated true innovation and leadership.

The winners for this year included 31 executives new to the CIO50 list, representing a wide range of business, non-profit, and government sectors. Over the past year, these executives have been changing their companies for the better with cutting-edge tech including artificial intelligence, machine learning, the blockchain, virtual reality, data analytics, cybersecurity, and more.

1. George Hunt, CIO of Sydney Water

Using the latest technology to conserve water and prevent service interruptions, George Hunt has helped turn Sydney Water into a hyper-connected utility provider. Projects launched under his leadership include the Spatial Hub, a tool that creates visualisations of customer issues, using data collected from over 400 IoT devices. Hunt also created #mBrace, an inclusive, staff-driven movement that promotes diversity of thought and culture in the workplace.

2. Dr Steve Hodgkinson, CIO of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services

Dr Hodgkinson has brought an agile, platform-based approach to technology-driven initiatives at Victorian DDHS, bringing more than 35 new business systems online within the past 3 years. Key projects have included cybersecurity enhancements, the housing register online application system, a family violence referral portal and the cloud-based, API-enabled Victorian Health Incident Management System.

3. Aidan Coleman, CTO of Charter Hall

Aidan Coleman placed at #23 on last year's CIO50 list and rose twenty spots this year...

Applications must now interact with an increasing variety of systems and software. These two routes of development have significantly lowered the effectiveness of traditional ways of software testing.

The first of these traditions was automation. Automated testing is the use of specialised software to test other software. It’s an idea that has been around for a long time. Various tools operating within an automation framework do bug testing within target applications. The problem is that, no matter how hard anyone may try, the automation environment is not the real world.  System/integration testing can reduce this problem, but it can’t eliminate it. And Application Under Test (AUT) can also compensate, but test scripts can’t always address every eventuality. Ultimately, it comes down to GIGO, Garbage In equals Garbage Out.

Manual software testing is the second traditional method. While it can compensate for the drawbacks of automation, it has problems of its own. Manual testing can be very expensive, both in terms of money and time. It can lack accuracy and it requires direct briefing of the software tester, which opens the possibility of human mistakes. Also, manual testing isn’t practical for performance testing and quite simply doesn’t work well by itself on large scale projects.

Agile testing was developed to handle these problems by creating an interactive framework that doesn’t force the application to fit the test but rather develops a testing environment that more accurately reflects the real world. Bugwolf has taken this concept to a new level by introducing gamification, where highly vetted software testers compete to improve the quality of an application. Gamification also means that product testing is made with minimal prior briefing, thereby eliminating prior assumptions that can get in the way of successful testing.

As digital products are increasingly required to do more and to interface more deeply, there may come a time when Bugwolf’s approach will become the industry standard for software quality testing. 

This is all being driven by advances in digital technology and the fact that clients are no longer as trusting as they once were. The instability of the investment sector has made people more cautious and more willing to step back and evaluate investment opportunities for themselves, rather than rely on experts. While they still want the information, opinions and evaluations that experts can provide, they are less willing to take action without careful personal consideration.

Clients are relying a great deal more on their own understanding than they were before, and they want their understanding to be as complete as possible. Fintech is now stepping in to fill that need. Analytics tools and big data are facilitating the development of new investment possibilities. Also, mobile computing has allowed access to investment strategies and opportunities that were once reserved only for major players. Couple this with a continuously growing number of startups in the financial sector whose presence increases competition, thereby bringing costs down, and the result is more information moving at a faster rate resulting in greater net returns.

But, it isn’t just startups who are embracing fintech. Major financial institutions such as NAB and others are reaching for the efficiency, and increased profits that fintech can provide. These include USB, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan is working on blockchain technology to improve liquidity management. Bank of America has also filed patents for eleven cryptocurrency applications and is drafting twenty blockchain technology patents.

Fintech is generating all sorts of future opportunities. It will soon be possible to create comprehensive databases that will help investors and money managers make decisions using an unprecedented level of detail. They will be able to drill down through consistently updated information on stocks, bonds and even money management firms themselves.  We may even see major technology firms like IBM and Google entering the money management field. Fintech has opened the door to new ways of asset management, and the world is walking through it.