Integrated Research launches Clarion SaaS tool

Integrated Research has launched Clarion, its first standalone software-as-a-service product for workplace communications monitoring.

Aimed at organisations with remote, hybrid and contact centre workforces, Clarion is designed to show employees and IT teams in real time what is affecting call and meeting readiness. It runs on IR's AI-based platform, Iris.

Using a desktop widget, Clarion gives workers a pre-call health check and flags issues such as weak Wi-Fi or headset connectivity in plain language. It also provides dashboards for IT teams, allowing them to view telemetry across a workforce and determine whether a problem is limited to one user or reflects a broader issue.

The software is intended to address a common workplace communications problem: employees experience poor call quality or failed meetings, but IT teams often lack enough context to identify the cause quickly. Existing monitoring tools, IR said, often focus on a network, device or communications platform in isolation and may only reveal a problem after it has been reported.

With Clarion, employees can see whether a local issue may be affecting a call before contacting support. If support is needed, the software captures technical context around the issue, giving IT teams a better starting point than a basic service ticket, according to IR.

Privacy focus

IR said the product was designed to monitor the technology that supports work rather than workers themselves. According to the company, Clarion does not record screens, log keystrokes, track activity or idle time, or access what is said on calls.

That distinction is likely to matter for employers rolling out monitoring software to distributed workforces, as concerns about employee surveillance have grown alongside wider use of digital management tools. IR is positioning Clarion around system visibility and troubleshooting rather than workforce supervision.

Ian Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of IR, said modern workplace communications depend on a complex mix of devices, networks and software platforms, each of which can contribute to poor performance.

"Workplace communications rely on a technology recipe that includes multiple devices, home and corporate networks, and communications platforms. When any one of these ingredients is deficient the entire communication experience suffers, often critically. Fixing problems such as these can be complicated and time-consuming, overwhelming the IT team," Lowe said.

The launch also marks a shift in how IR is taking products to market. The company has long focused on observability tools for monitoring communications, payments and infrastructure environments. Clarion adds a cloud-native SaaS product that can be adopted as a standalone offering.

Clarion extends a portfolio that includes Prognosis, Prognosis Elevate and AI Chat powered by Iris, IR said. Headquartered in Australia, the company has operated in the observability software market for more than 30 years.

Lowe said the new product broadens IR's reach while staying within its existing focus on operational visibility.

"Everything we have built has been about giving organizations visibility into the technology behind their most critical operations," Lowe said.

"Clarion takes that in a new direction. As a standalone, cloud-native SaaS product, it gives us a simpler way to reach more organizations and more users."