Compuware gearing business development programme to drive market penetration

Compuware Corporation`s South African office is driving the development of its business by actively identifying and recruiting new partners.

According to business partner manager Fred Brady, the organisation`s business development strategy is focused on identifying and assisting its partners to capitalise on mutual business opportunities.

"Compuware has a highly structured programme that affords partners the flexibility to customise the nature of the relationship with us to best suit their individual needs," he says.

Brady notes that the organisation is highly selective in the appointment of partners as its advanced technology solutions, which span the entire application development lifecycle, require the appropriate level of knowledge and understanding to take them to market.

He says Compuware products and services provide partners with the technical capability to extend service offerings and the scope of application development projects.

"Partnering with Compuware enables technology companies to raise new services revenue and increase margins, cut time to market and reduce the risks of complex IT initiatives," he explains.

Compuware offers a business partner framework within which various types of partnering are catered for, however Brady says Compuware almost always customises each individual partnership. In these cases channel management professionals work with identified organisations to define a mutually rewarding partnership tailored around specific business goals.

In identifying and recruiting business development partners, Brady explains Compuware looks for organisations that have the competency to add business value and benefits to South African businesses. "Because we have always had a strong focus on black economic empowerment and social responsibility, these are key criteria for our partners," he adds.

Compuware South Africa has a number of channel and business partners; some of which are Compuware Corporation Global Partners, however, due to the unique situation in SA, the local operation also has a number of empowerment partners.

"The value that our business development programme adds is considerable as, through our partners, we are able to reach a much larger portion of the market, while leveraging the strengths of the partners to add the maximum value to client deliverables," says Brady. "With this understanding, we are increasing our efforts to identify and recruit additional partners that can take our application lifecycle solutions to a wider spectrum of the local market."