Clarity, the market leader in Unified Operational Support Systems (OSS), today announced it will be providing its Unified OSS to Western Power, Australia's only dedicated transmission and distribution business. The deal, representing Clarity's entry into the utilities industry, will see the provision of inventory and alarm functions through its Unified OSS. Future phases will roll out the full Unified model from Clarity.

Like most utilities, Western Power has its own private telecoms network that is used to control the transmission and distribution networks that ultimately deliver the power to the customer's meter. The company requires a reliable and fast communications backbone that will carry control signals across the network within milliseconds.

Previously, Western Power operated the multi vendor communications network in a very manual, isolated manner without streamlining the operation to make the day to day fulfilment and assurance more effective. As the utility buys more IP-based infrastructure managing the network is becoming more difficult.

"We wanted one solution that was as reliable as possible. Clarity's Unified OSS made more sense to us than integrating numerous systems that performed the same function and Clarity will allow the design and operation of the multi vendor network on a single platform. As a Government owned corporation, it is essential that we implemented a complete, scalable solution supported by excellent processes and implementation that would mitigate risk. The people at Clarity proved themselves and their solution worthy of the contract", commented David Ireland Communications Design and Implementation Manager at Western Power.

"Utilities tend to have a large telecoms infrastructure that requires a reliable solution that can be moulded to fit. These complex systems require an experienced OSS vendor capable of supporting automation across convergent fulfilment and assurance processes. Clarity has a solid track record of creating business value amongst large operators and this deal is a great opportunity to build on this success in a new industry", said Dr. Ian Campbell, Chairman of Clarity. "We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Western Power."

Wed May 28 09:16:00 CDT 2008