FrontRange Solutions, Izazi join forces on IT governance

FrontRange Solutions (SA) and Izazi Solutions, a leading empowerment technology solutions provider, have signed a business partnership agreement focused on helping organisations improve their information technology (IT) governance.

FrontRange Solutions (SA) will provide product expertise - with particular emphasis on FrontRange IT Service Management, which is built according to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework.

ITIL is a set of best practice principles that provides a clear cut method for establishing service management processes and a streamlined way of managing IT service support and service delivery.

Izazi Solutions will bring to the partnership its domain, IT and implementation expertise.

Says Izazi Solutions CEO, Jay Pather: "As one of the very few consulting companies in the country providing a holistic solution to customers, we realised that there is more to helping them be more effective and efficient than designing, implementing and integrating systems and, thereby, improving business processes for them.

"For systems to deliver real benefits in terms of enhancing business processes, they have to be managed with an organisation`s strategic intent in mind. In other words, system management shouldn`t be seen purely as a cost centre, usually expensive and troublesome. It should proactively contribute to the overall operational health and transparency of the organisation. And that means implementing IT governance.

"In order to help our customers with IT governance, we based our consulting processes on CobiT, the standard for good IT and security control practices. But, while everyone can usually agree on the need for a standard, applying it is not easy. So we looked for a toolset that would automate IT governance processes for our customers, once we had defined the necessary framework.

"FrontRange IT Service Management was the obvious choice, not least because it is based on ITIL - which supports Cobit."

IT Service Management ensures IT services are aligned with and satisfy business needs, creating a common language between technical areas and their customers, and giving technical areas and staff a commercial orientation.

It also improves system reliability and availability and provides a basis to agree levels of service and the ability to measure IT service quality. And, it enables an organisation to cater easily for a constantly changing business and technical environment.

"We also liked the fact that FrontRange Solutions SA is, as we are, a highly focused organisation with a strong delivery ethic," Pather says. "Both of us understand that we`re working to each other`s strengths. Working together we can both evolve our current markets and organically grow our businesses into other markets. The synergies are powerful - not just for us, but also for our joint customers, who are going to benefit more comprehensively than if they worked with either FrontRange or ourselves individually."

FrontRange Solutions (SA) managing director, Tracey Newman, says the partnership with Izazi reflects a new go-to-market strategy for FrontRange globally.

"Instead of relying solely on our channel or direct sales, we`re now combining our strength as a software company with our partners` domain expertise in joint approaches to customers. In this way, we can show customers that we fully understand their needs and are able to provide the most appropriate solution - providing a high level of comfort. At all levels, therefore, Izazi a superb fit for us."