Straddling the Divide between IPT and IT: Clarus Systems Harnesses the Power of ITIL to Optimize IP Telephony Investments

Business Wire, Feb 26, 2008

Company's Approach Helps Organizations Capitalize on Best Practices to Align Voice and IT Departments for Successful IP Communications Projects

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. -- Clarus Systems, Inc., a leading provider of integrated management and testing solutions for IP Communication deployments, upgrades and transformations, today launched a new initiative to transfer the success of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework into creating standards of excellence within the IP Telephony environments of their customers.

"In recent years, the market has witnessed a surge in Unified Communications (UC) and the disruptive enabling technology of IP Telephony has created a convergence between Voice Engineering and IT departments that is unprecedented - even since the advent of computer telephony integration," said Richard Whitehead, Chief Technology Officer of Clarus Systems. "Despite rapid and significant advances within these technologies, many enterprises, even the early adopters, have not fully embraced the alignment of these two worlds."

According to Whitehead, ITIL has emerged as a powerful initiative that is quickly making inroads as this set of best practices has the ability to create a high-level IT services workflow to accommodate both environments. "The ITIL mindshare is phenomenal within the IT world. However, in the universe of IP Telephony, ITIL has been virtually non-existent since most have incorporated the traditional Prepare/Plan Design Implement Operate Optimize (PDIOO) methodology," he added.

Whitehead further believes as organizations reap the benefits of a UC strategy, the paradigm shift now becomes apparent as these large, complex deployments are rivaling even the largest of IT project implementations within the enterprise. As IT departments increasingly adopt the internationally recognized ITIL best practices to ensure large IT projects are successful, the business-critical need to adapt that same mindset with UC deployments remains. There needs to be a transition and total transformation within the enterprise to "unify" IT implementations led by the chief IT architects and UC deployments driven by their counterparts in voice or network engineering.

"Once these adversarial forces embrace a collaborative IT and IPT model, then a UC infrastructure, built on the commonalities of ITIL, can nurture the alignment between Voice and IT to truly bridge the gap," said Whitehead.

Addressing the requirements around ITIL v3 cannot occur in an IPT environment, Whitehead notes, without tools and technology. Technologies that play a pivotal role are end-to-end Business Service Management solutions that include automated testing, diagnostics, business intelligence, and performance management to support mission critical IP-based voice and Unified Communications.

For more information, download the complete white paper Straddling the Divide between IPT and IT: Implementing ITIL to Optimize Your IP Telephony Investment, authored by Mr. Whitehead, at www.clarussystems.com/ITILwp.> About Clarus Systems, Inc.

Clarus Systems, Inc. (www.clarussystems.com) provides integrated management, testing and monitoring solutions for IP Communication and Contact Center deployments, upgrades and transformations. Privately held and based in Redwood City, Calif., Clarus Systems is widely recognized for its award-winning application, ClarusIPC[R], which maximizes system availability and performance through automated, end-to-end testing, monitoring, reporting, troubleshooting, and operations management. With over half-a-million devices tested, Clarus Systems' solutions ensure ongoing, validated telephony environments that can serve as the foundation for unified communications. The company attributes its success to its roster of elite Global 2000 enterprises, system integrators, and managed service providers within the financial services, aerospace & energy, and public sector & education market segments.

(c)2008 Clarus Systems, Inc. ClarusIPC[R] and the Clarus Systems logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Clarus Systems, Inc. Other product or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. ITIL[R] is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.