Topic “Unified Communications”
ShoreTel's entry into iPhone's App store
With the release of ShoreTel 11 come several changes to the ShoreTel system, including a name change of ShoreTel Call Manager to ShoreTel Communicator. The release simplifies integration with existing IT infrastructure and legacy PBX systems.
- View, listen and call back from ShoreTel voicemail box
- Access to and call back from call history
- Presence and preferred call handling settings
- Allows you to assign your ShoreTel extension to your iPhone
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Dialing to iPhone contacts
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Allows you to hide your iPhone number when calling out
- steve's blog
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ShoreTel selected as a Game Changer in 2010
A recent article from CRN listed the movers and shakers of 2010 and ShoreTel was one of companies recognized.
Review the points noted below and click on this link if you would like to see the other notables from 2010: CRN website
ShoreTel And Agito, October 2010
It was a big year for scrappy UC player ShoreTel, which, among several major events, gained a new CEO, and made a game-changing acquisition of Agito Networks, dramatically upping its stake in the mobility space.
Agito, founded in 2006, focuses on UC products that can integrate with an enterprise's existing PBX infrastructure to enable voice calls over VoIP connections, reduce calling costs and make international mobile communications less cumbersome. What's especially interesting -- and potentially huge for ShoreTel channel partners looking for flexible mobile UC solutions -- is that ShoreTel is going to keep the Agito technology vendor-agnostic, including PBX and UC support for both ShoreTel systems and those of its many competitors.
- steve's blog
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ShoreTel Receives "Strong Positive" Rating in Analyst Firm's Report. The Only Vendor To Do So This Year!
Report Focuses Heavily on Customer Experience and Product Offering
ShoreTel® the leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated unified communications (UC), announced it has received a "Strong Positive" rating in Gartner's April 2010 "MarketScope for Unified Communications for the SMB Market, North America." The report's weighted rating system focuses most heavily on the customer experience and the capabilities, quality, and feature set of the product.
Kevin Gavin, Vice President of Marketing, ShoreTel, said "We believe this report and our ‘Strong Positive' rating confirms our position in the market and our commitment to providing our customers with the industry's best features, reliability, and service. From small companies to large enterprises, it's clear that when customers share their experiences, ShoreTel's true leadership shines."
- steve's blog
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ShoreTel and Skype. What's the benefit?
ShoreTel earns world's first Skype for SIP interoperability
SMBs and enterprises can now make voice calls via Skype with ShoreTel's UC system; Skype users can contact ShoreTel-based businesses for free with global click-to-call button on corporate Web sites
LUXEMBOURG and SUNNYVALE, CA, September 9, 2009 - Skype and ShoreTel, Inc., (NASDAQ: SHOR), the leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated Unified Communications (UC), today announced interoperability between ShoreTel's UC system and the beta version of Skype for SIP. ShoreTel is the world's first UC vendor to achieve interoperability with Skype for SIP. The nearly 11,000 ShoreTel enterprise customers can now register to try Skype for SIP in beta, giving them the opportunity to save money, save time and stay ahead by integrating Skype into their communications portfolios.
"By certifying ShoreTel's UC system as interoperable with Skype for SIP, we have made it possible for ShoreTel's business customers to reduce their costs even further, while also enhancing their own business experience through communications," said Stefan Oberg, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business. "Skype for SIP is easy for businesses to configure and manage using Skype's Web-based Business Control Panel (BCP), making it complementary to ShoreTel's UC system, which is renowned for its simplicity."
Skype for SIP allows ShoreTel's business customers and their employees to receive inbound calls through their ShoreTel SIP-enabled UC system from more than 400 million registered Skype users around the world at no cost to the Skype user. In addition, organizations using ShoreTel can reduce their costs further by directing outbound calls from devices connected to the ShoreTel UC system via Skype for SIP to landlines and mobile devices worldwide at low Skype rates. Organizations that use ShoreTel with Skype for SIP may also purchase and associate online Skype numbers, currently available in more than 25 countries, with their ShoreTel UC system to receive inbound calls from landline and mobile phones.
"As part of our ongoing commitment to a standards-based open ecosystem that offers flexibility and choice, we are delivering a significant competitive advantage to ShoreTel customers with the ability to leverage Skype's low-cost calling rates and to create an online presence with a click-to-call button that enables Skype users to call them for free," said John W. Combs, president and CEO at ShoreTel. "The simple-to-configure capabilities of Skype for SIP will further improve the flexibility and efficiency of our customers' operations, while lowering the total cost of ownership even further, and providing the boost in productivity they are used to seeing from ShoreTel's UC systems."
For more information on Skype for SIP and to sign up for the Skype for SIP beta, please visit www.skypeforsip.com.
For detailed information on ShoreTel products and features, please visit www.shoretel.com.
About ShoreTel, Inc.
ShoreTel, Inc., (NASDAQ: SHOR) is the provider of brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on its award-winning IP business phone system. We offer organizations of all sizes integrated, voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions. The feature-rich ShoreTel UC system offers the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and the highest customer satisfaction in the industry, in part because it is easy to deploy, manage, scale and use. Increasingly, companies around the world are finding a competitive edge by replacing business-as-usual with new thinking, and choosing ShoreTel to handle their integrated business communication. ShoreTel is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices in Austin, Texas, United Kingdom, Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany.
About Skype
Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.
Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY).
Access to a broadband Internet connection is required. Skype is not a replacement for traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling. Skype for SIP is meant to complement existing traditional telephone services used with a corporate PBX, not as a stand-alone solution. Skype for SIP users need to ensure all calls to emergency services are terminated through traditional telephone services.
Skype, associated trademarks and logos and the "S" symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.
- steve's blog
- 711 reads
Mobility, not Unified Communications, top priority for businesses
A recent Forrester survey of 2,187 North American and European companies stated there is "confusion about the value" of unified communications for their company. It seems that UC is regarded as a "nice, but not critical" application for communication systems. In fact, UC is not even the number 1 priority for corporations, mobility is. 64% of the respondents in the Forrester survey indicate that "providing more mobility support to employees is a priority", with 23% citing it as a critical priority.
Unfortunately, mobility is a trickier topic than UC for many communication systems due to the complexities of multiple cellular carriers, mobile devices, and operating systems. Getting all 3 pieces of that puzzle to work together is a daunting task. However it does generate a call to action for future investment and upgrading of communication technology. Extending the desktop to the mobile space adds many levels of value and an enhanced ROI to a communication system.
Unified Communication could find a niche spot in the marketplace riding the coat tails of mobility. As UC becomes more common, many manufacturers will begin to offer it as a standard feature and not an enhanced (think more money) add-on with true enterprise mobility becoming the featured enhancement. UC can provide a nice complement to mobility extending enterprise chat, presence, and even GPS personnel location to a mobile device.
Soon, users will have access to UC apps as easily as traditional e-mail and unified messaging (voice mail merged with e-mail). Remember, these features were once heralded as high-end cutting edge applications as well.
Somebody let me know when they merge mobility with video conferencing, that will be interesting.
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Where Does Video Fit In A Unified Communications Strategy
Credit: NetworkWorld.com Michael Osterman, 05/15/2008
The average American watches television more than 4.5 hours each day. A Nielsen study found that 81 million people, or 63% of broadband users, watched broadband video at home or at work as of March 2007. But how often do we use video in the context of workplace communications? More to the point, when was the last time you participated in a videoconference as part of your work?Obviously, e-mail and telephony are widely used for workplace communication. Instant messaging and audio conferencing are used somewhat less, but are still very popular. But videoconferencing really doesn’t get all that much use. Here are my theories as to why:
* Videoconferencing is not as easy as other forms of communication. For example, a 2005 HP study found that the most common drawbacks to videoconferencing were technical: it requires too much planning, it’s too complicated and there are too few videoconferencing rooms in which to hold a meeting. Plus, aside from most Macs, client systems require the addition and setup of a third-party camera.
* Corporate culture works against videoconferencing. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, I worked for one of the smartest analysts in the telecom industry who said that the first person to turn off the camera on their PC will set the tone for everyone else in the company – if you can’t see them, you won’t let them see you. The corporate culture of an organization, including active encouragement of videoconferencing by management, will largely determine the success of videoconferencing in an organization.
* We multitask. This is perhaps the most important reason that videoconferencing, particularly desktop-based videoconferencing, is not more popular. When people are in a meeting or attending a Webinar, for example, they often check their e-mail, send instant messages, or perform other tasks that would otherwise divert their eyes from a camera. In short, people want to multitask during meetings and they don’t want others to see them do it.
Should videoconferencing be more widely used? I think so. It can replace some business travel and provides a very good method for continuous communication between remote development teams, for example. Will it be more widely used? I’d like to get your opinion – please send me your thoughts. (Compare Unified Communications products)
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ShoreTel Showcases Enhanced Unified Communications Capabilities at VoiceCon Orlando 2008
This is an excerpt taken from the Sun Herald Times website, you can find the rest of the article here.
