Compuware to Add Troubleshooting Service

Compuware Corp. at the end of the month will add a new service offering into its professional services mix that provides a quick fix for a fixed fee.

The Farmington Hills, Mich., management software providers Application Triage service, for a fixed fee of $10,000, provides professional troubleshooting help to quickly identify and fix the source of application availability or performance problems.

The service uses at its core Compuwares Application Vantage troubleshooting software to gather management data. Compuware service professionals analyze the gathered data and report on their findings to pinpoint for clients the source of such problems.

Compuware found that most customers are too busy fighting fires to take time out to evaluate tools such as Application Vantage. But most technical teams use a time-consuming process-of-elimination method of troubleshooting, said Wayne Slomiany, director of product solutions at Compuware.

"We try to instrument the (customers) environment with our tools, collect the information and (directly) identify what the problem is, instead of doing a process of elimination. Weve been able to ID problems that would typically take the customers weeks in a matter of days," he said.

In fact, most engagements typically take three days, although professionals will stay on the job longer for more challenging problems.

The $10,000 fixed fee includes travel expenses for the service professionals.

"Thats not a bad deal," said Rick Ptak, vice president of e-business infrastructure strategies at Hurwitz Group, in Framingham, Mass. "It wont work for every organization, but for a reasonably sized organization with a problem that impacts their business, it is a pretty good deal. Theyve clearly thought this through."

The service is available now in North America, and six dedicated service professionals will travel to customer sites. Compuware intends to expand it globally across all of its service organizations branch offices.