Tandem Expansion is a private growth capital fund seeking to invest in small and mid-sized Canadian companies in a variety of technology-based sectors. Tandem will act as a catalyst for growth and expansion by making targeted investments in companies with high growth potential and strong management teams. For more information, visit www.tandemexpansion.com

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blueprint™, the world leader in requirements management solutions for enterprise application development, has been honored with one of the Jolt Productivity Awards in the highly competitive Design, Architecture, and Planning Tools category. Blueprint was previously awarded the Jolt Product Excellence Award in 2009.

Blueprint provides the most comprehensive requirements management tool to define and manage software requirements that drastically improve software quality and accelerate project delivery. Blueprint users define requirements using integrated text and graphical formats, validate using generated documents and live simulation, and communicate base-lined requirements via integrations with developer and tester tools.

“We are very honored to be recognized for the second time with a Jolt Productivity Award,” said David Nyland, CEO of Blueprint. “Being a leader in this new generation of requirements tools that are lighter-weight, more collaborative in nature, and able to fit the changing needs of today’s globally distributed organizations is truly exciting.”

Since 1990, the Dr. Dobb's Jolt Award have been presented annually to showcase products that have "jolted" the industry with their significance and made the task of creating software faster, easier, and more efficient. Winners are selected from qualified nominations by an esteemed panel of judges consisting of Dr. Dobb’s editors, academics, consultants, and well-known authors.

“One of the most important elements of any project is defining requirements,” said Jon Kurz, a Jolt Award judge. “With no shortage of features, a simple interface, and a great attention to detail, Requirements Center has earned its place as a musthave tool, which will bring greater productivity and quality to projects of all sizes.”

Jolt Award judges not only examine the standard criteria of audience suitability, productivity, innovation, quality, ROI, risk and flexibility, but also seek to honor products that are ahead of the curve. Jolt-winning products are universally useful; are simple, yet rich in functionality; redefine their product space; and/or solve a nagging problem that has consistently eluded other products and books.

Jolt Award are presented by Dr. Dobb’s, part of UBM TechWeb’s InformationWeek Business Technology Network and one of the most respected and trusted brands for developers. A complete list of the 19th annual Jolt Award winners is available at http://www.joltawards.com.

About Blueprint
Blueprint is the world leader in requirements management solutions for enterprise application development. Its patented requirements definition and management software improves the expressiveness and quality of requirements, dramatically reducing the miscommunication that leads to rework, delays, and budget overruns. With Blueprint’s solution, business analysts clearly express requirements using a range of visual formats that are integrated to enforce consistency and remove conflicts, stakeholders understand and efficiently validate the requirements, and the team effectively leverages them throughout the entire lifecycle. Blueprint dramatically improves the software development lifecycle, accelerating delivery times and reducing costs for hundreds of major corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Blueprint has sales offices throughout North America. Visit www.blueprintsys.com.

About Dr. Dobb's (http://www.drdobbs.com/)
Dr. Dobb's is the most respected development-focused brand helping software development professionals make the right decisions for their businesses. Dr. Dobb's enables developers to think of new and dynamic ways to create business-focused solutions while balancing "what can be developed" with practical, real-world analysis on how architectures, platforms, and languages work together optimally. Dr. Dobb's gives developers the breadth and depth of content they need to make smart decisions, by focusing on the tools, technologies, people, products and services that are transforming the software development marketplace.

About InformationWeek Business Technology Network (http://www.informationweek.com)
The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides IT executives with unique analysis and tools that parallel their work flow—from defining and framing objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of solutions. Anchored by InformationWeek, the multimedia powerhouse that looks across the enterprise, the network scales across the most critical technology categories with online properties like DarkReading.com (security), NetworkComputing.com (networking and communications) and BYTE (consumer technology). The network also provides focused content for key IT targets, such as CIOs, developers, and SMBs via InformationWeek Global CIO, Dr. Dobb's and InformationWeek SMB, as well as vital vertical industries with InformationWeek Financial Services, Government and Healthcare sites. Content is at the nucleus of our information distribution strategy—IT professionals turn to our experts and communities to stay informed, get advice and research technologies to make strategic business decisions.

About UBM TechWeb (http://www.ubmtechweb.com)
UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and business information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its core businesses – media solutions, marketing services and professional information – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT Support managers, Web & Digital professionals, Software and Game developers, Government decision makers, and Telecom providers) actively participate in UBM TechWeb’s communities. UBM TechWeb brands includes: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat and Enterprise Connect; large-scale online networks such as InformationWeek, Light Reading and Gamasutra; research, training and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology. UBM TechWeb is part of UBM, a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

Contacts
Blueprint Software Systems
Rob Bartlett, 1-647-288-3384
rob.bartlett@blueprintsys.com

TORONTO & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blueprint, the global leader in requirements management solutions for software business analysts, and Doreen Evans Associates Inc., one of the foremost providers of business analysis services, today announced an alliance whereby Doreen Evans Associates Inc. will resell Blueprint Requirements Center and provide related consulting and mentoring services to their broad client base.

Doreen Evans Associates, Inc. (DEA) is one of the longest-running consulting organizations in the requirements space, specializing in enterprise architecture, business process, and requirements definition and management solutions for customers who undergo business transformation ranging from evolution of supporting technologies and systems to mergers or acquisition. Since 1992, DEA has overseen hundreds of transformative projects across many industries in companies such as Manulife Financial, New York Life, Verizon, Blue Cross / Blue Shield, and Pfizer.

“Doreen Evans Associates Inc. has built an impeccable reputation as one of the strongest players in business analysis and they are recognized experts in requirements definition and management,” said David Nyland, Blueprint’s Chief Executive Officer. “The professionals at DEA have an enviable track record of delivering high-quality business solutions for two decades leveraging extensive experience and a knowledgebase of best practices that are second to none. We are thrilled at Blueprint to have DEA incorporate our Requirements Definition and Management software as a central component of their client engagements.”

"Blueprint's approach to supporting the requirements lifecycle is exceptional," said Doreen Evans, DEA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "DEA has been in the requirements business for 20 years and we consider ourselves BA tool experts, having used repository-based architecture modeling tools on all of our client projects. After a comprehensive evaluation of requirements definition and management software solutions, it was clear that Blueprint’s technology for helping business analyst teams define, validate, and manage requirements was outstanding. We see this partnership as an opportunity to deliver even greater value to our clients and ensure success for their projects."

In addition to reselling and consulting on Blueprint’s products, Doreen Evans Associates and Blueprint are planning a number of joint-marketing initiatives over the coming months.

About Blueprint:
Blueprint is the world leader in requirements management solutions for enterprise application development. Its patented requirements definition and management software improves the expressiveness and quality of requirements, dramatically reducing the miscommunication that leads to rework, delays, and budget overruns. With Blueprint’s solution, business analysts clearly express requirements using a range of visual formats that are integrated to enforce consistency and remove conflicts, stakeholders understand and efficiently validate the requirements, and the team effectively leverages them throughout the entire lifecycle. Blueprint dramatically improves the software development lifecycle, accelerating delivery times and reducing costs for hundreds of major corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Blueprint has sales offices throughout North America. Visit www.blueprintsys.com.

About Doreen Evans Associates, Inc.:
Doreen Evans Associates, Inc. (DEA) is a consulting firm committed to Business Analysis and Requirements Excellence. DEA helps organizations establish, institutionalize and maintain best-in-class Business Analysis competency, and offers experienced business analyst practitioners to fill the skills gap found in many companies. DEA is aligned with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and incorporates IIBA best practices into a practical approach to fit the unique needs of each client. Founded in 1992, DEA is wholly committed to the business analysis profession, utilizing and continuing to improve a best-of-breed Requirements Life Cycle Process, enabled by robust and comprehensive BA tools and delivered by highly proficient, professional Business Analysts.
www.doreenevans.com

Achieving 50% growth in revenues, and 50% growth in customer base over last fiscal

Toronto, Canada - August 11, 2011 --Blueprint Software Systems Inc. (“Blueprint”), the leader in requirements definition and management software, today announced tremendous growth in their 2011 fiscal year, which ended on June 30th 2011. Blueprint's remarkable success was achieved by continued growth of 50% in revenues, and a record growth of their customer base by 50%. Major new customer acquisitions for the 2011 fiscal year include Genworth Financial, Southern Company, Independent Health, AmeriHealth Mercy, AMTRAK, Motorola Solutions, CAE Systems, International Monetary Fund, and CareFirst.

Blueprint’s software is purchased to eliminate inefficiencies in software delivery that impact business agility, efficiency and innovation. Constrained budgets and escalating software complexities create an invigorated focus of getting requirements right at the start of the process. Companies want to ensure that they are using the right requirements definition and management tools and practices to achieve IT project success. Enterprise adopters of Blueprint software include those who experience challenges to modernize their business processes and software infrastructure, manage distributed teams and 3^rd-party outsourcers, and those who want more collaborative and agile approaches to reduce cost and risk.

"In today’s sustained tough economic climate and uncertain outlook, enterprises are focusing their scarce discretionary IT spend on innovative technologies that can have a dramatic short-term impact on their business performance, namely eliminating cost, driving revenues, and reducing risk," said David Nyland, President & CEO of Blueprint. "Our business has continued to grow despite challenging economic conditions because we have repeatedly demonstrated that with our Requirements Definition and Management software, we can deliver results quickly. Based on strong ROI performance with initial projects, Blueprint has been successful in scaling the global adoption of our platform across Fortune 500 enterprises.”

For more information on our customers list and successes, please visit /customers/.

About Blueprint
Blueprint is the world leader in requirements management solutions for enterprise application development. Its patented requirements definition and management software improves the expressiveness and quality of requirements, dramatically reducing the miscommunication that leads to rework, delays, and budget overruns. With Blueprint’s solution, business analysts clearly express requirements using a range of visual formats that are integrated to enforce consistency and remove conflicts, stakeholders understand and efficiently validate the requirements, and the team effectively leverages them throughout the entire lifecycle. Blueprint dramatically improves the software development lifecycle, accelerating delivery times and reducing costs for hundreds of major corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Blueprint has sales offices throughout North America. Visit www.blueprintsys.com.

Contact:
Blueprint Software Systems
Rob Bartlett, 1-647-288-3384
rob.bartlett@blueprintsys.com

We all strive to write the perfect requirements. Many of us are familiar with the somewhat vague, ubiquitous and poorly conceived scribbling that are jotted down in the brief few minutes that we get to spend with the stakeholders and subject matter experts (SME).The stakeholders and SME’s tell us about a new, brilliant, wonderful and life changing system that will be implemented later this year….(hopefully); and we struggle to use our scribbling to write the requirements to bring this system to life.

Strengthening of Executive Team Positions Blueprint for Global Expansion and Sustained Leadership in Requirements Definition and Management Software

Toronto, Canada – June 9, 2011 – Blueprint Software Systems Inc. (“Blueprint”), the leader in requirements definition and management software, today announced two strategic additions to their executive management team. Israel Ben-Ishai joins Blueprint as Senior Vice President of Engineering, responsible for global development and QA activities. John Stetic joins Blueprint as Senior Vice President of Product Management, where he will be responsible for Blueprint’s product life-cycle process, including roadmap planning, requirements and acceptance testing, integration relationships with third-party software products, and product release management.

Before joining Blueprint, Israel Ben-Ishai was Vice President of Engineering for the Systems Management Product Group at Novell. Israel had executive responsibility for the $150 million product group, delivering Novell’s solutions for desktop, data center and business service management. Prior to that, Israel was Vice President of Product Development at PlateSpin, a highly successful Toronto-based technology company acquired by Novell in 2008. With over 25 years of product development and general management experience, Israel has been instrumental in transforming technology organizations into efficient and professional global product development leaders.

John Stetic also joins Blueprint from Novell, where was Vice President of Product Management. In that position, he guided product management across Novell's ZENworks, PlateSpin and Novell Operations Center (formerly Managed Objects) product lines. Prior to Novell, John was a founder and Senior Director of Products and Solutions at PlateSpin. John has extensive product management experience in extremely high growth situations.

“Israel and John have worked together as a proven product team for over 5 years,” said David Nyland, CEO of Blueprint. “As we embark on the next phase of our product roadmap, which will expand and solidify our leadership in the Requirements Definition and Management category, their leadership and experience in developing global product categories will be invaluable.”

Israel and John will both be based at Blueprint’s global headquarters in Toronto.

About Blueprint
Blueprint Software helps customers improve the economics of software development by improving software requirements. Blueprint’s award winning solution, Blueprint Requirements Center™ is the industry’s first enterprise-class requirements definition and management software tool purpose built for globally distributed requirements authors and stakeholders. Blueprint’s customers benefit from faster software project delivery, substantially lower costs, reduced rework and project backlog, and a dramatically improved relationship between business and IT. Blueprint is a global provider, headquartered in Canada, and with presence, partners and customers in North America and Europe. For more information on Blueprint, visit http://www.blueprintsys.com.

Contact:
Zenobia Godschalk
ZAG Communications
zenobia@zagcommunications.com
650.269.8315

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing.

• HP and Blueprint Requirements Lifecycle
• Blueprint and HP Software to Present Global Requirements Management Case Study at HP Software Universe
• New webinar covers business analyst empowerment, hosted by voke, Blueprint, and HP
• Blueprint Attains Gold Business Partner Status and Product Certification from HP
• Blueprint Joins HP Software Marketplace Referral Program

Studies show that somewhere between 25-50% of software project budgets are consumed by re-work. That means work that needs to be done again because, for some reason, the results were not correct. Significantly, 70-85% of this rework is directly related to poor requirements. Of course, we all know that there are many reasons requirements fall short and that there are many things that can be done to remedy this. But if the wasted budget wasn't enough to think about, there's more!

TORONTO, ON— Blueprint Software Systems, the leader in  requirements definition and management software, congratulates Rick Toothill, Manager and Kathleen O'Brien, Lead Business Analyst, both from Merck, a global health care leader, for winning the 2011 Requirements Lifecycle Award. The annual award presented by Requirements.net, the industry's largest consortium for the advancement of Business Analysis, honors individuals who have made a positive impact on their organization’s software requirements lifecycle through education, process and automation initiatives.

Toothill and O’Brien were instrumental in creating the Analysis Skill Center, which acts as a resource for over 100 business analysts and works to develop and promote best practices and solutions for Merck's globally distributed IT groups. "Rick and Kathleen have done remarkable work with the Analysis Skills Center," said Tony Higgins, VP Product Marketing, Blueprint. "They've demonstrated how organizations can dramatically improve requirements development, and have better communication, understanding and efficiency in the software development process."

"I'd like to thank the Requirements.net consortium for the award," said Rick Toothill. "We appreciate this and consider it an honor." "It's great to be recognized for doing good BA work," said Kathleen O'Brien. "It's great to talk about what we're so passionate about."

A video interview of the winners discussing the goals and accomplishment of the Analysis Skills Center at Merck can be viewed at  http://www.requirements.net/requirements_lifecycle_award .

About the Requirements Lifecycle Award

The Requirements Lifecycle Award recognizes the achievements of individuals who have led transformations in their organization's software requirements lifecycle through education, process, and automation initiatives to reduce waste and inefficiencies. Requirements.net members include HP Software, Cap Gemini, Blueprint, BA Times, The Requirements Networking Group, Orasi Software, Cortechs, Zap Technologies, the Requirements Solutions Group, Centerline Partners, and SKY IT.

About Blueprint

Blueprint Software helps customers improve the  economics of software development by improving software requirements. Blueprint's award winning solution, Blueprint Requirements Center™, is the industry's first enterprise-class requirements definition and management software tool purpose built for globally distributed requirements authors and stakeholders. Blueprint's customers benefit from faster software project delivery, substantially lower costs,  reduced rework and project backlog, and a dramatically improved relationship between business and IT. Blueprint is a global provider, headquartered in Canada, and with presence, partners and customers in North America and Europe. For more information on Blueprint, visit http://www.blueprintsys.com.

Media Contact:
Zenobia Godschalk
ZAG Communications
zenobia@zagcommunications.com
650.269.8315

As a requirements solution vendor we talk with people every day about their requirements issues, assist them to understand the root causes, and help them articulate a business case for investing in a solution. For most companies, the biggest single inefficiency in their software development efforts is the amount of rework that's done due to inadequate requirements.