ShoreTel Blog
ShoreTel proves customer satisfaction and exceptional UC with the 2008 Internet Telephony Excellence Award
Posted by ShoreTel on Tuesday, October 28, 2008
There's been a lot of excitement and positive feedback from customers lately about our new ShoreTel 8.1 solution, so it's good to look back and recognize that version 8.0 was an important stepping stone toward the advances and improved functionality in 8.1.
As a result of the rich feature set and productivity enhancing improvements in ShoreTel 8.0, we recently won the 2008 Internet Telephony Excellence Award for our exceptional Unified Communications solution. Internet Telephony magazine recognizes companies that have created excellent IP telephony products and services and, most importantly, whose customers (in our case ShoreTel's growing base of "raving fans") are willing to offer testaments of support.
Here at ShoreTel, we are always striving to develop the best solutions that provide the highest quality and the lowest total cost of ownership for our customers. When our customers are happy, we’re happy, and once again, it's great to see further validation of our exceptional commitment to customer satisfaction in the form of this award.
Labels: CEO
The Great ShoreTel Channel
Posted by ShoreTel on Monday, October 06, 2008
Today's post is about a great channel.
No, I'm not talking about the English Channel or even the Discovery Channel. It's the ShoreTel Channel.
We're proud of what we do for our customers, and we couldn't do it without our great channel partners. That's why we're so excited that PHONE+ magazine readers - more than 1,000 indirect sales partners - have voted ShoreTel's program one of the Top 50 Channel Programs for 2008. Click here to see the full list of winners and more information about the awards.
More details on our program are going to be published in the special Phone+ 2008 Channel Program Guide, which comes out on Oct. 15. And, of course, you can always get information on our channel partners from us directly.
Thanks, partners!
Labels: CEO
ShoreTel Takes UC Even Further Beyond U.S.
Posted by ShoreTel on Wednesday, October 01, 2008
In case you haven't heard, I wanted to share some news we announced today at the IP'08 Expo in London.
The news is related to our mission to stamp out all of the outdated phone systems around the world and replace them with the highest functioning and lowest total cost of ownership system on the market today ... with the highest customer satisfaction in our industry today. ShoreTel is becoming an even bigger player in the global marketplace with new UC products and solutions - like ShoreTel 8.1 - designed for worldwide markets, as well as additional offices and expanded distribution channels.
The move will grow our global presence and, it’s hoped, our great group of "raving fans" and their ShoreTel success stories. Check out the full list of features and enhancements for ShoreTel 8.1, read some new case studies from our EMEA and APAC customers, and learn more about all of the different languages and countries we support.
Labels: CEO
What's New in ShoreTel 8.1
Posted by ShoreTel on Wednesday, October 01, 2008
ShoreTel is moving forward on its promise of advancing innovative functionality and low total cost of ownership with the new ShoreTel® VPN Phone and expanded range of devices supported by ShoreWare® Mobile Call Manager, advance unified communications with improved flexibility and security for remote connectivity. ShoreWare Call Manager also opens the door to advanced collaborative applications with industry-leading high resolution video-ideal for bringing together geographically dispersed experts for mission critical activities, such as state-of-the-art telemedicine and design manufacturing.
Voice Switch Solutions
ShoreTel ShoreGear® Voice Switches deliver unified communications to organizations of every size - from large enterprises to small and medium businesses. Highly reliable and intelligent, these ShoreGear devices unify communications across multiple enterprise locations supporting both IP phones and analog devices.
New Switch Models
ShoreTel 8.1 introduces two new voice switches for use in markets outside of the United States:
- ShoreGear E1k
The ShoreGear E1k is a replacement for the ShoreGear E1 switch in the new 1U half-width form factor. It supports a single E1 interface, as well as all other features and capabilities of the ShoreGear E1, yet uses only half the rack space. In addition, the ShoreGear E1k provides an audio input port for music-on-hold, plus an audio output port for overhead paging.
- ShoreGear 30BRI
The ShoreGear 30BRI provides a very low-cost switch for small offices. It is functionally similar to the ShoreGear 90BRI, with telephone and trunk capacity to match the smaller office. Specifically, ShoreGear 30BRI supports up to 30 IP phones, up to two analog phones, and up to two BRI communication channels (trunks) to the central office.
The ShoreTel VPN Phone
Select models of the ShorePhone™ IP phone family can now be deployed in remote and home offices, providing a full remote IP phone experience. The solution requires a ShoreTel VPN Concentrator which is installed at the headquarter location and terminates the secure VPN tunnel that is established with the remote phones. This provides a seamless network connection to the ShoreGear switches and servers on the LAN.
ShoreTel VPN Phones require a broadband Internet connection and are extremely easy to configure. Most remote users simply connect the phone to their local broadband router to establish service.
Mid-range Gigabit IP Phone
The new ShorePhone IP 230g provides full Gig-E network connectivity for users who need high speeds at the desktop. The IP 230g is a cost-effective phone in a compact form factor—otherwise functionally equivalent to the very popular IP 230 telephone.
Mobile Call Manager Enhancements
This release of ShoreWare Mobile Call Manager provides organizations with seamless remote access to all the productivity features linked to their extensions. These enhancements offer increased versatility by supporting one of the most common Nokia business phones - a highly popular consumer-centric model - as well as expanded support to many of the most popular BlackBerry business phones. New mobile phones include:
- BlackBerry 81xx series (Pearl)
- BlackBerry 83xx series (Curve)
- BlackBerry 88xx series
- Nokia E65
- Motorola Razr V3
- Motorola Razr V3xx
Many non-English speaking organizations can also now deploy this great productivity tool in their specific language. The new mobile phone and language options are:
- English (UK)
- Danish
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Dutch
- Norwegian
- Swedish
ShoreWare Call Manager: High Resolution Video Option
The new video option in ShoreWare Call manager enables point-to-point high resolution video (up to 1024x768) with minimal latency and high resiliency to congested networks. By combining a high resolution camera with the recommended hardware, ShoreTel partners can offer customers a software-based video solution that opens up additional opportunities to develop advanced applications, such as telemedicine or telesales.
SIP Trunk Enhancements
With the introductions of ShoreTel 8.1, the Office Anywhere feature is now fully supported over SIP Trunks. Internet telephony service providers must use the SIP-INFO method to enable dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) digit support.