Blueprint, a Toronto-based software solution vendor, is looking to grow its existing partner and end-user base by today adding its Blueprint Requirements Center 2009 solution to its flagship Requirements Center solution portfolio which targets business analysts.
The company, which was founded in 2004, develops solutions that help business analysts throughout all of the phases of the requirements definition lifecycle, which enable efficient system and business projects and designs. Tony Higgins, vice-president of products for Blueprint says the company has a presence in Canada, the U.S. and Europe and plans to further extend its reach in Canada on both the channel and customer side.
“Since we were founded, we’ve had 100 per cent year over year growth and that’s accelerating,” Higgins said. “We have a rapidly growing ecosystem of partners which includes resellers and service partners and we’re working to expand on this,” he added.
Some of Blueprint’s partners include, HP Software, where both companies work together on co-marketing and co-sales initiatives, and Toronto-based MIC Partner, a technology and software consulting company, as well as some boutique-specialist consulting companies, such as New York-based Sky I.T. Group. Higgins said the company also has various technical partnerships with companies such as IBM, Borland and Telelogic.
Matthew Morgan, chief marketing officer for Blueprint, said in addition to these partners, Blueprint is also actively seeking out more Canadian boutique partners to help build out its base North of the border.
“We’re working with our Canadian sales organization to find the right boutique partner that’s focused on the business analyst,” Morgan said. “We want Requirements Center to be more of a consultative sale with our partners.”
Roughly half of Blueprint’s overall business comes from the financial and insurance vertical markets, Higgins said, with the majority of its customers representing Fortune 500 companies. Higgins said the company also does work in other industry verticals such as pharmaceuticals and telecom businesses.
Higgins explains that many of the customers who look to a Blueprint solution have not previously worked with a purpose-built solution designed specifically for requirements definition.
With today’s launch of Requirements Center 2009, Higgins said the solution has been modularized to make it easier for business analysts to do their jobs because the steps in the solution have now been automated. The solution has been broken into four different parts, each representing a different phase in the requirements definition lifecycle, Higgins said. These parts include the elicitation, elaboration, validation and acceptance phases. The solution allows business analysts to quickly capture initial requirements concepts, and also gives them the ability to customize the user interface, as well as allowing them to use visual mockups to describe requirements, among other things.
“By formalizing these processes, we’re bringing together the business analyst with IT and the business,” Higgins said. “The role of the business analyst is maturing and they need to act as the universal communicator with their IT department and business to provide solutions. With Requirements Center 2009, we’re providing a common business analyst workbench.”
Margins for Requirements Center are in the double digit range, Morgan said and to help support its partners, the company has also set up an online industry consortium which can be found at www.requirements.net. Through this Web site, partners can help view best practices and find ideas on how to best approach the market, Morgan adds.
