Aqueduct Software Raises $2.5 Million in Initial Funding; Startup's Product Solves 'Beta Test' Feedback Problem.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 1997--Aqueduct Software, formed in May 1995 to develop a product that automatically measures, collects and analyzes information from users testing new software applications, has raised $2.5 million in its initial round of venture funding. The financing, from U.S. Venture Partners of Menlo Park, will support final development and market introduction of the Aqueduct aqueduct (ăk`wədŭkt) [Lat.,=conveyor of water], channel or trough built to convey water, chiefly for providing a densely populated region with a supply of freshwater. Application Profiler software, which is scheduled for launch this spring. The Application Profiler is designed to help software vendors better define and position their products by automatically providing detailed feedback via the Internet during the critical "beta test A test of new or revised hardware or software that is performed by users at their facilities under normal operating conditions. Beta testing follows alpha testing. Vendors of packaged software often offer their customers the opportunity of beta testing new releases or versions, and the " phase -- in which preproduction pre·pro·duc·tion adj. 1. Taking place or existing before production: preproduction planning. 2. versions of new software are tested by selected end users -- as well as after production shipment. Beta testing (programming) beta testing - Testing a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the , considered an essential step in product development, often yields limited and chiefly anecdotal anecdotal /an·ec·do·tal/ (an?ek-do´t'l) based on case histories rather than on controlled clinical trials. anecdotal adjective Unsubstantiated; occurring as single or isolated event. results. Until now it has been prohibitively pro·hib·i·tive also pro·hib·i·to·ry adj. 1. Prohibiting; forbidding: took prohibitive measures. 2. expensive, even impossible, for software developers to obtain an accurate picture of how end-users make use of their products -- information critical to product and business decisions. Lucio Lanza, general partner at U.S. Venture Partners, said, "Developing software and bringing it to market is one of the most complex and risky of all commercial ventures. The initial design phase is supported by proven and useful tools. But there are no tools for the feedback and testing cycle, which remains time-consuming and inaccurate. The Aqueduct Application Profiler creates an important communication channel between software suppliers and their customers. This tool will accelerate the software product cycle and ensure that products better meet end-user needs." Founding officers of Aqueduct are James McGregor, president; YY Lee, vice president of marketing; and Thomas H. Smith, director of engineering. McGregor had previously co-founded Analog Design Tools, a computer-aided engineering See CAE. Computer-aided engineering Any use of computer software to solve engineering problems. With the improvement of graphics displays, engineering workstations, and graphics standards, computer-aided engineering (CAE) has come to mean the computer company that is now part of Cadence Design Systems (company) Cadence Design Systems - A company that sells electronic design automation software and services. http://cadence.com/. See also Verilog. . Before launching Aqueduct, McGregor was engineering director at Synopsys. Lee has more than seven years' experience in marketing and product management for high-technology companies, including launching new products for several startup firms. Most recently she was group marketing manager at Synopsys. Smith, with more that 13 years of software engineering and design experience, was engineering manager at Analog Design Tools, and most recently spent five years consulting on software architectures and user interface design. Aqueduct Software is located at 800 Menlo Ave., Suite 215, Menlo Park, Calif. 94025, telephone 415-463-8700, fax 415-463-8706, http://www.aqueduct.com . CONTACT: Aqueduct Software, Inc. YY Lee, 415/463-8700 yylee@aqueduct.com or Ulevich & Orrange, Inc. William Orrange or Janis Ulevich, 415/329-1590 info@u-o.com |
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