Aztecsoft buy to strengthen MindTree's testing capabilities

 IT and R&D services provider MindTree, which derives close to 12 per cent of its total revenues from testing practices, is ramping up capabilities in this space following its acquisition of Aztecsoft, a major player in this arena.

 Together with software testing tools provider HP, the Bangalore-headquartered company has announced setting up a centre of excellence (CoE) which will help the company in developing Testing frameworks for various verticals and address the joint customers of both the companies.

 The centre will have a team of 300-350 Test engineers by the end of the current fiscal, which will be gradually ramped up to about 1,000 people by the end of 2009, according to Ananda Rao Ladi, Vice President and Head of Testing Practice, MindTree. HP will provides its software tools including HP Quality Centres, QTP and Load Runner, and will also provide training to the resources deployed in the CoE.

 "The CoE will benefit both MindTree and HP. While this will help MindTree in developing the testing frameworks for different industry verticals and train its resources on HP tools, HP will also benefit by selling more software licenses to both the companies' joint customers worldwide," said Kamal Datta, Country Manager, HP Software. HP is a leader in the automated software quality tools market globally with about 60 per cent market share, according to research firm IDC.

 Internally, MindTree uses HP's Testing tools for more than 50 per cent of its testing projects. Following the acquisition of Aztecsoft, MindTree's Independent Testing Practice is the largest group within the company with over 2,000 members. The company's Testing practices is growing by more than 60 per cent on year-on-year basis for the last two years. Besides, the acquisition of Aztecsoft has also provided us with a strong foothold in Microsoft technologies, which will provide us with the capabilities to work with the independent software vendors, a high growth area," said Ladi of MindTree.

 MindTree also has a Testing Academy which works as an R&D centre within the company for Testing practice. The lab helps the company in developing testing frameworks and methodologies targeting various sectors.

The market for software testing, according to different research firms, stands at $13 billion of which abut $6 billion is being outsourced to offshore locations including India. The market is expected to reach $20 billion by 2011, of which the addressable market for Indian Testing services providers would be close to $10 million.