Object Consulting launches TeamGuide for Microsoft Visual Studio to make the process of application development a whole lot easier

New Process Mentor TeamGuide injects process into the development environment to improve collaboration and increase productivity

SYDNEY, 27 March 2007 – Object Consulting, a specialist Australian consultant, trainer and developer of enterprise software solutions has announced the release of Process Mentor^® TeamGuide for Microsoft Visual Studio.  TeamGuide provides direct access to a set of pre-defined Process Mentor software engineering Roadmaps that can be tailored to suit the style and size of a project. Process Mentor is Object Consulting’s world-class software engineering process.

The integration of Process Mentor and Visual Studio made possible by the TeamGuide plug-in results in greater productivity, efficiency and flexibility due to the increased collaboration and visibility of process, as well as reduced communication overheads.  Process Mentor TeamGuide also enables better risk management and governance in the development process. By bringing process into the development environment, Process Mentor TeamGuide breaks through the major barrier to the successful adoption of process within organisations – how to get everyone to use the same process every day.

Dr Julian Edwards, Object Consulting’s chief operating officer, said “Visual Studio has given us the technical platform to bring our software engineering process to life, and makes our goal of ‘enabling process’ for developers a reality. We have built our UML-based Process Mentor directly into Microsoft’s development environment, combining the strength of the Microsoft .NET Framework with the industry standard UML modelling language.”

Object Consulting, a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has released two editions of Process Mentor TeamGuide - a Developer edition and an Enterprise edition. Dr Julian Edwards said “We recognised that smaller development houses are still going to need the benefits of a proven world-class process to deliver their applications, but that they don’t necessarily need access to the extensive suite of enterprise roadmaps we have developed.”

The Developer edition of Process Mentor TeamGuide contains six roadmaps, and has been priced to reduce the cost of entry to an improved process guidance environment.  It can be downloaded and purchased from www.processmentor.com. There is also a free trial edition of Process Mentor TeamGuide available for download from the website that can be used to explore and evaluate the product. The Enterprise edition of Process Mentor TeamGuide provides access to the entire content of Process Mentor within the Visual Studio environment and is available on request from Object Consulting.

A current user of the Process Mentor TeamGuide, Laurie Facer, Electronic Catalogues Development Manager at Infomedia Ltd, said, “When looking to take our online electronic parts catalogue product, Microcat® MARKET™, to the next level of functionality we knew that we had to build a more complex and robust system. We recognised the need for a stronger methodology through the entire design, development, and delivery process. To achieve this goal we turned to Object Consulting and Process Mentor utilising Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. Object Consulting was terrific at transferring their methodology to our development team and Process Mentor has proved to be excellent in giving transparency, certainty, and productivity to the development process. We will certainly be utilising Process Mentor for other projects.”

Prashant Sridharan, group product manager of the .NET developer product marketing group at Microsoft said, “Microsoft designed Visual Studio Team System so that it could be customised and extended, and as a result, it had fostered a vibrant ecosystem of partners.  The integration of Object’s Process Mentor is exactly the type of integration that we envisaged when we started building Visual Studio Team System several years ago.  It is great to see a successful Australian company like Object Consulting using it as we intended.” 

Object is currently looking for potential distribution and deployment partners for Process Mentor in the United States and Europe.  For additional information about becoming an Object partner please contact Carl Rogers, Process Mentor Product Manager on +61 2 9459 3300. 

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About Infomedia
Infomedia Ltd is a leading global provider of information solutions to the post-sale parts and service sector of the global automotive industry. The Company’s automotive products are subscribed to by over 52,000 users from franchised dealers and independent auto dealers and independent auto trade repairers in over 160 countries around the world. Infomedia’s Microcat® electronic parts catalogues, or EPCs, enable dealers to perform the critical function of quickly and accurately identifying for sale replacement auto parts manufactured by the world’s leading auto manufacturers – often referred to as “genuine” or Original Equipment (OE) replacement parts.  Infomedia also provides other high-value, complementary products to the dealer and trade repairer market, including its Superservice Menus™ for quick and accurate service quotations and other parts and service related data products. The Company is also utilising its proprietary technology and process expertise to introduce EPCs into other complex parts and service dependent industries, including the whitegoods industry with its PartFinder® brand EPC.

About Object Consulting
Object Consulting is Australia's leader in delivering enterprise business solutions using component-based technologies.  Object Consulting was formed in 1989 and provides consulting services on how to achieve cost-effective and technically efficient IT solutions to business problems.  Object also develops, supports and maintains software that helps differentiate companies from their competitors and trains and coaches IT professionals to increase their productivity.  Object recognised that a well-defined process was necessary to meet customer's requirements for quality systems delivered on time and within budget. The result was the creation of the Process Mentor methodology which today is the foundation of Object’s business - developing and supporting complex distributed enterprise systems and helping other organisations do the same. Object currently has 220 employees and has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.  Object is a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

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Media Enquiries:
For additional information, please contact:
Tracy Pendergast, Pentica PR: 0411 034 868 or via e-mail tracy@pentica.com.au on behalf of Object Consulting Pty Ltd