Mercury Interactive appoints PM.IDEAS as a channel business partner

PM.IDEAS, a project management company with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, has been appointed as a channel business partner for Mercury Interactive in South Africa.

Rob Allcock, CEO of PM.IDEAS, says his company aims to capture the key services market space in the Western Cape as well as focus on selected customers in Gauteng and elsewhere.

"We believe that we can add value in the services area as well as recommend new clients to the product set, while our project management and leadership skills will add value to the Mercury Interactive offerings.

"In addition, it is an area that has a window of opportunity for us," Allcock says.

PM.IDEAS offers professional, value-added project management services through the application of world-class project management techniques and training. Divisions within the company include a project management academy, a consulting section, project office automation and project management delivery.

With clients including De Beers, Absa, SBSA, Atraxis and Compuware, the new company expects a turnover of more than R5 million in its first year of operation.

Cape-based Director Keith Webster explains that the company has already had five staff in its Cape Town branch attending Mercury Interactive product training while three staff members in Johannesburg have attended sales training.

"We have also taken on five contracting staff in Cape Town to assist us with our venture into this new market," Webster says.

PM.IDEAS will initially focus on Test Director, Winrunner and Astra Quick Test in the functional regression testing area, and on Loadrunner and Astra load test in the performance stress-testing arena. Topaz will be strong from a sales perspective.

"We aim to utilise our channel partnership agreement with Mercury Interactive as a sound basis from which to capture the key services market space in the Western Cape, as well as winning selected customers in Gauteng and throughout SA," concludes Allcock.