Compuware To Drive CARS Via The Channel

As part of that strategy, the Detroit-based vendor recently began recruiting partners to sell its Compuware Application Reliability Solution (CARS), a combination of methodology, tools and a Web-enabled interface for managing the quality assurance (QA) and testing phase of the application development life cycle, said Gery Plourde, CARS director for Compuware. The vendor previously sold CARS, launched June 2003, only through its direct-sales team, he said.

So far, about 15 partners have signed on to sell CARS. The company currently has about 400 partners--including ISVs, systems integrators and OEMs--in its Compuware Business Partner Program, Plourde said. Compuware expects 30 percent year-over-year growth in partner-generated revenue by the end of 2004.

Compuware is a leader in the QA and testing market behind Mercury Interactive and IBM, said Melissa Webster, IDC's research director for application development. QA and testing was a $1 billion market in 2003 and should grow to just less than $1.6 billion in 2008, she said.

Dan Hannigan, vice president of the software control testing practice at Sogeti USA, Dayton, Ohio, said Compuware approached his IT consulting firm earlier this year to sell and market CARS in the United States after the two companies' success in Europe.

One benefit of CARS is that it allows solution providers to replace Compuware's Quality Point module with their own QA and testing methodology. For instance, Sogeti is selling its 30-year-old TMap-structured QA process with CARS because it considers TMap a more "thorough" and well-known methodology, Hannigan said.

CARS is sold as a yearly subscription for an unlimited number of users. Subscription prices can range from about $40,000 to $300,000, depending on the number of tools a customer chooses to deploy, Plourde said.