Compuware Corp’s Windows testing tools acquisition, NuMega Technologies Inc (CI No 3,304), has launched the Visual C++ version of its TrueTime performance analysis tool and DevPartner suite of Smart Debugging tools, and hopes to take them into major corporates with the help of its new parent. NuMega, Nashua, New Hampshire, was a 100-person business before being bought by Compuware last year, and, according to Compuware’s product marketing manager of the NuMega Lab Shari Zedeck, its small direct sales force had previously sold mainly to independent software vendors and small companies. Now, with the weight of the Compuware team behind it, and a headcount that had already grown to 165 by the beginning of this year, it has begun to go direct to major corporates, Zedeck said. NuMega says its tools enable developers to quickly diagnose and repair both software errors and performance problems, thus reducing the time and cost spent on development. The company sees its market driven particularly by a lowering of the skills available in the market place, and says the tools enable debugging and error correction times to be drastically reduced. Compuware sells the NuMega tools, including the well-known BoundsChecker, and TrueTime, either separately or bundled together as software suites, known as DevPartner, for different languages, currently Visual Basic, C++ and with some tools already released for Java. The tools can then be integrated in a product called DevPartner Studio, to enable developers working on component-based applications using different languages for different components, to test the whole application. The suites include; automatic error detection; system debugging and performance analysis, with code coverage analysis due at the end of this year, and deployment analysis already available for Visual Basic and due for C++ and Java next year. To entice developers into the fold, the company offers a SmartSubscription Program, which enables them to pay an annual subscription fee, and, in the case of individual tools, get a guaranteed major upgrade in with the initial price – if an upgrade is delayed for any reason, the annual subscription runs on until the point where the upgrade is released. In the case of the software suites, the annual subscription covers any new applications delivered as part of that suite during the year. For example, anyone buying DevPartner for Visual C++ now, will get Code Coverage Analysis free when it is released later this year. Compuware says the value of this SmartSubscription could be as much as $1,500- $1,600, whereas the annual subscription for DevPartner for Visual C++ is around $730. DevPartner for C++ is available now. TrueTime for Java is also available, and has just been launched in the UK. DevPartner for Java will be available in August.
