Productizing a New Design Verification Methodology -- Certess, Inc.

Marketing Challenge:

Until early 2007, engineering teams lacked an objective way to evaluate the quality of verification environments so that they could improve productivity in the face of increasing system-on-chip (SoC) complexity and IP block integration. Certess developed a methodology and product to objectively measure and improve the completeness of the verification environment, essentially verifying the integrated circuit (IC) verification process itself. The results were a shorter and more predictable process to integrate SoC design and achieve high quality results. Realizing the difficulty of introducing a new methodology and product into established design flows, Certess hired Cayenne in 2006 to develop a marketing and communications plan that would launch the company and product and establish the company’s value and credibility.

The Cayenne Method:

Educating design teams on a change to traditional methods requires an understanding of their pain and a comprehensive plan to communicate that understanding, to disseminate information about a reliable, working solution, and to let engineers know that other teams have successfully improved their verification environments by using your solution. Cayenne worked with Certess management to develop and execute a marketing and communication plan. Education and credibility were achieved through:

• Devising the term “functional qualification” to describe the process of providing verification engineers with the ability to tell if design errors could go undetected and enabling the objective evaluation of the quality of the functional verification, and therefore of design functionality.
• Identifying Certess as the first and only company in the functional qualification category for electronic design automation (EDA).
• Developing a tagline to summarize the advantage to engineering teams of using Certess’ tool.
• Developing website structure and content.
• Developing a company style guide for all marketing materials.
• Launching the company in March 2007, after briefing key editors, analysts and opinion leaders worldwide.
• Creating corporate and technical marketing collateral.
• Launching the product just prior to the Design Automation Conference (DAC), after interest had been built.
• Developing and executing on a timeline to publish press releases, success stories, articles, technical articles, interviews and viewpoints to build and maintain credibility.
• Exhibiting and presenting at conferences – DAC, DATE, DVCon.

Results:

At the Design Automation Conference, Certess was on the three key “must see” lists at DAC. In December 2007, the Certitude product was named as one of the EDN Hot 100 Products of 2007. Within 12 months, executing the marketing strategy resulted in:

• Articles – 28
• Mentions in the media – 47
• “Must See” at DAC 2007 – 3 
• Nominee for EDN 2007 Innovation Award
• Opinion piece publication – 6
• Press releases – 10
• Media advisories -- 4
• Interview with editors – 15, including Europe and Japan
• Video interviews –  4
• Whitepaper publication –  1

As of July 2008, Certess’ functional verification product, Certitude, is deployed at more than 25 active customer sites on four continents. Three of the top five semiconductor companies and two of the top three networking companies are using Certitude to optimize their verification resources and budgets. Customers include integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies, and system manufacturers throughout the world.

Testimonial:

“Cayenne was instrumental in our success at building awareness and educating the market about functional qualification.”   

-- Michel Courtoy, president and CEO, Certess, Inc.