Diagnose | Troubleshoot | Certify

Enterprise networks are going through massive change, and the convergence of voice and data including IP Communication deployments, upgrades, transformations and ongoing management remain a top priority. According to industry analysts at Aberdeen Group, 61% are planning for IP Communications in the next two years. In order to get the most from their Unified Communications investment at the time of deployment and beyond, enterprises must leverage both active testing and configuration analysis techniques to certify and validate that environments are configured as designed.

Clarus Systems premier application, ClarusIPC®, is leveraged by enterprises, systems integrators and managed service providers to support the lifecycle of Cisco Unified Communications, from deployment through ongoing operations. ClarusIPC® is scaleable and offers remote certification, configuration analysis, and troubleshooting - further validating operational integrity while building the foundation for a Unified Communications network.

Operational Integrity

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is typically one of the most business critical applications and ongoing operational reliability a necessity. As with any application, it is crucial to ensure that the application is fully functional and completely documented prior to transferring support responsibilities from the deployment organization or System Integrator to the end user IT Operations staff. The features within ClarusIPC® allow the performance of complex validation and testing scenarios, ensuring the IP Communications application is fully functional, tested, and documented prior to passing support responsibility.

By providing unprecedented visibility into the status of their IP communications solutions, ClarusIPC® enables operations management teams to deliver world class business communications systems, including:

• Predictive tests (Nightly Health Checks).
• Branch office availability tests to both validate proper functioning of IP Communications and also to identify changes that could create potential issues.
• Optimized functions to quickly isolate and resolve.

Deployment & Operation Validation

ClarusIPC® empowers successful, rapid deployment of IP Communications as well as ongoing health management. By incorporating automated testing, enterprises save operations and management costs by gaining confidence and visibility in the network through:

• True end-to-end IP Communications functionality testing.
• Automated, scheduled and customized testing Standardized reporting.
• Open APIs for integration with network management and reporting solutions.
• Remote troubleshooting.
• Trouble identification and isolation tools for the enterprise help desk.

Figure 1: Sample Report - Device Distribution

System Upgrades

Large clusters are a complex combination of servers and applications, and require careful design before a system upgrade is performed. Leveraging ClarusIPC® before, during, and after a system upgrade provides:

• Change tracking reports to verify expected changes as well as track unexpected changes that may ultimately affect service availability.
• Baseline active testing to ensure service availability prior to performing an upgrade.
• Monitoring the state of device registration throughout the system restart to ensure all phones have been configured as designed.
• Regression active testing to quickly certify that the same results are obtained after the system has been upgraded, therefore determining whether a rollback is necessary.

Value Added Features

• Automated, Proactive Testing
Active testing is the only way to truly determine availability to end users. By exercising functionality using actual IP phones, ClarusIPC® determines service availability during deployment, upgrades, transformations, and during daily operations.

• Robust Reporting
Over 30 unique reports are available to assist with inventory management, change tracking, compliance enforcement; producing As-Built documentation, and visually helping you to better understand and optimize a Unified Communications environment.

• Configuration & Change Tracking
One of the key benefits to flexible IP Communications is the ability to provide easy (typically end user initiated) adds, moves, and changes. With this flexibility, however, come inherent risks that can emerge as trouble calls to the help desk.

• Help Desk Portal
The Help Desk Portal empowers first Tier 1 responders to be more effective, including: Eliminated or reduced end user involvement during troubleshooting Reduction or elimination of voice issue ticket escalation Standardization of support process, capture information, troubleshooting steps

• Remote Hands
Often, it is not possible for support personnel to completely diagnose and assess a user's problem without accessing the phone itself. Remote Hands allows for first hand observation of user issues including troubleshooting and verifying fixes remotely, all without the need to involve the end user.

Figure 2: Remote Hands

• LDAP Integration (Multi-User | Multi-Role)
User accounts and privileges may be remotely interfaced to an existing LDAP server thereby simplifying management and centralizing access control.

Key Benefits

• Monitor Service Availability
By utilizing active testing on a scheduled, reoccurring basis, clients can assess the health of the system and service availability during non-business hours when end user activity is at a minimum. A simple set of tests provide confidence that the system will be available for users during the most important hours of the day.

• Standardized Best Practices
ClarusIPC® active testing, reporting, and Help Desk workflow enforce standardized practices within deployment and operational teams. By relying on newly trained technicians to perform consistent, standardized work will enable skilled and seasoned telephony engineers to concentrate on the difficult issues that may arise.

• Enforce Compliance & Security Policies
Enhanced security and compliance features include phone vulnerability reporting and configuration change tracking. For example, the application can verify that all lobby phones have their access port disabled, confirms that users cannot change their phone settings themselves, and monitors phone relocations on a daily basis.

• Reduced Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) Reducing MTTR is critical to both operations as well as the end user since time spent troubleshooting issues can equate to lost productivity and revenue.
  • Eliminate on-site travel with remote troubleshooting for problem understanding, reproduction and verification.
  • Standardized data collection, including escalated trouble tickets.
  • Enhance productivity by verifying and resolving issues after hours.