Musala Soft JSC is a leading software services provider in Southeast Europe. It was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company is an established and growing market force which embraces constant evolution to bring together technology and innovation.
Today over 500 Musala Soft professionals work in the ‘hot’ fields of IoT, Big Data, Cloud, AI, Information Management, Automation Testing, Business Analysis, and UI&UX.
A Driven Leader
The founder and CEO of Musala Soft JSC, Delyan Lilov has turned his passion for competitive programming into a growing international business. Establishing a team of former members from the National Olympiad in Informatics team, like he is by himself, and combining it with visionary business ideas he has kept Musala Soft growing and cemented its reputation as a prestigious, reliable, and long-standing partner both locally and internationally.
The Blueprints of Success
Since 2005, the company’s strategic focus has been on Test Automation and it takes great pride in being among the first companies to adopt that approach so early.
Working with Fortune 500 companies, the company noticed a demand for software testing services and the need for the automation of work processes. There was a need for unconventional and creative approaches; Musala Soft was confident of success because it already had high quality standards and owned the expertise needed. Its software development background and resources, and the fact that it specialized in the full software development lifecycle were huge advantages. Today, the team force of automation test engineers is 70+ experts, all of them ISTQB certified, and experienced in the entire project lifecycle. “We truly believe that the qualitative implementation of automation testing is much more than qualitative test scripts development. As an established practice for 13 years already and tens of projects successfully implemented, we have deep expertise in wide range of tools – proprietary like Rational and HP testing suits, Microsoft Visual Studio Team Edition for Software testers and Perfecto Mobile, open source like Selenium, SoapUI, JMeter, Appium and even own developed e.g. ATMOSPHERE (http://atmosphereframework.com). And the extensive list is much longer. It is the selection of proper tooling for each particular case and situation, the versed design and implementation of automation framework and environment, precise scoping and ROI based analysis, which makes the benefit of the automation testing implementation.”
The customers of Musala Soft benefit technological but also domain expertise in Telecom and Banking. The company has established long-term partnerships with several of the biggest Telecommunication companies in Europe, and some of the top Banks, which recognized Musala Soft as a center of excellence and has entrusted the software testing and quality assurance of flagship products as well as consultancy and implementation of testing optimization initiatives.
Overcoming Challenges
The software development and testing industry is under constant and concerted pressure to achieve even higher levels of optimization and efficiency. Musala Soft has QA vision and strategy for early adoption of new technologies, tools and methodologies of software development through test automation from its very inception. This has facilitated unprecedented speed and quality of developments.
The software testing field favors competent players who adopt and apply the latest advancements in technology and methodology to provide high-quality, high-efficiency solutions. This is intimately related to IT talent; companies with qualified staff who display curiosity and a knack for unconventional and creative approaches are the ones that succeed.
Finding, attracting, retaining and developing the appropriate IT talent is another key challenge. The global shortfall of IT specialists is around 4.5 million and in Europe alone, the figure was around 1 million.
One of the key differentiators at Musala Soft is its focus on investing in human capital, both internally with its employees, and externally, by contributing to IT education projects and the development of the IT community in the region.
Voyaging through Difficulties
18 years ago, Delyan Lilov saw great opportunities in the software services industry when very few were looking in that direction. “Like any other business, it took a lot of work, a little bit of luck, and a good network of contacts to succeed initially. We had all the pieces of the puzzle; we were young, brave, and the endeavor was challenging!” reveals Delyan.
The company has had ups and downs in its 18 years. However, its priority has been to evolve through the experiences to emerge as a sustainable business. Delyan is extremely proud of the way his team has helped the company grow organically and develop into a large and diverse team of qualified professionals.
Aiming for Eminence
Musala Soft intends on achieving its targets to sustain and flourish in the ever-competitive software market.
The company team currently consists of over 500 professionals and the plan is to reach 1,000 employees by 2020. It also plans on maintaining a year-on-year revenue growth rate of 25%.
Delyan concludes, “In its essence, this is the strife for innovation, creativity, the positive attitude and enthusiasm and the united team efforts of everyone because united we are stronger.”