ShoreTel Blog
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Posted by ShoreTel on Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Authored by: Vasili Triant, Managing Director, Southeast Asia
Working in a variety of countries and now in my new post in Australia, I can safely say that there are some definite trends to be seen across markets. Businesses worldwide warm to solutions that provide the kind of value they can touch and feel. So a solution that demonstrates increased workforce productivity by integrating IP voice and collaboration resources into a UC system at low OPEX makes sense.
Since our first installation in 1998, ShoreTel has maintained a deeply held conviction that our IP-based voice solutions can provide businesses with a tangible way to improve productivity at the lowest overall total cost of ownership in the industry.
The global marketplace continues to warm to this view. UC adoption rates in Australia will grow this year at a rate of 13 percent, according to a recent study by analyst firm IDC. Even stronger growth is expected in certain sectors, including education, health and government, as well as retail/wholesale sectors, where UC adoption in 2009 is forecast to grow by 22 percent. For most businesses in Australia it is a case of when UC will be adopted, not if.
It is a similar growth story in New Zealand where we recently signed an agreement with Communications Exchange to serve as our second national distributor alongside longtime partner, Connector Systems. This development expands our footprint in New Zealand and opens up opportunities for our market-leading technology.
ShoreTel continues to gain incredible support from its partners. We believe the expertise and experience of value-add distributors and resellers is critical in delivering telephony solutions that best meet the needs of customers. As a result, ShoreTel only selects partners that share our commitment to delivering the best customer experience with UC, and who demonstrate an ability to support our aggressive growth targets. We recognise that these partners provide their customers with a surety on service and value. ShoreTel believes these relationships are paramount.
Labels: Market Perspective
ShoreTel Helps Flexible Working Work for You
Posted by ShoreTel on Monday, April 27, 2009
Authored by: Tom Perry, Director of Marketing, EMEA
The recent introduction of flexible working legislation in the UK is challenging businesses of all sizes to take a fresh look at the processes and systems they have in place as they implement plans to meet potential employee demands. Flexible working is a catch-all term to describe any working pattern that is adapted to suit the needs of the employee. Common types of flexible working include part-time or flexi-time working through annualised, compressed or staggered hours, job sharing, or homeworking.
The need to support the efficient operations of a flexible workforce represents real challenges to IT departments. When earlier flexible working legislation came into effect in 2003, a survey commissioned by workplace flexibility specialists John Blackwell Associates Ltd (JBA) found that one third of companies experienced unsustainable costs from making requisite changes to working procedures, and an overwhelming amount of respondents (78 percent) anticipated significant forthcoming expenditures, particularly in the area of information and communications technology, to support flexible workplace practices.
At the same time, industry experts are also pointing to the advantages of a flexible workforce in today’s mobile society. Not only can businesses take advantage of workers with particular skills and expertise in different regions, but the ability to work flexible hours can help improve employee morale, resulting in a reduction of staff turnover, absenteeism and overtime. Many businesses are also embracing flexible working hours as part of a broader green initiative, since homeworking can reduce office space requirement, and commuter congestion. Clearly then, it is imperative that businesses realize these benefits and meet the legislative requirements without compromising productivity.
As UK businesses react to the implications of this legislation, there are lessons they can learn from companies in Europe who are already embracing flexible working practices. ShoreTel’s customers such as the Belgian document outsourcing company Speos have already benefited from reduced costs, improved efficiency and flexibility offered by pure VoIP telephony. Speos has deployed ShoreTel’s UC system to facilitate flexible working spaces as calls are efficiently routed to employees regardless of location. Speos also eliminated a significant proportion of communications costs as calls are now made via a data link.
Based on the real world experiences of organisations that have already deployed unified communications (UC), it is clear that UC is ideal for bridging geographic divides effectively with a single image IP-based communications system. The simple deployment and centralised Web browser-based management, combined with the user productivity gains from being able to manage your own communications profile, takes flexible working to a new level.
From flexibility in work/life balance to flexibility in how businesses and employees communicate, ‘flexible working’ must be a core value of every competitive and successful business.
Labels: Market Perspective
ShoreTel Answers the Question of Success
Posted by ShoreTel on Friday, April 24, 2009
Authored by: Kevin Gavin, VP of Marketing
When San Francisco Chronicle reporter David R Baker sat down and interviewed ShoreTel CEO John Combs recently, there were a lot of pressing questions he could have asked. He could have asked about the ongoing evolution of ShoreTel’s unified communications technology as it pushes the envelop in business process integration to transform the way people work.
He could have asked about ShoreTel’s unique switched-based architecture and its industry-leading reliability and ease of use. He could have asked about ShoreTel’s low total cost of ownership and what that means to companies looking to replace or augment their phone systems.
He might even have asked how John’s passion for running helps him maintain focus and keep in shape for managing an innovative, and agile young business in an industry dominated by monolithic giants.
But in the current economic climate, the main question on everyone’s mind is how. How in a down economy does a company make the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Chron 200” list, right on the heels of garnering a spot on San Jose Mercury News’ “Silicon Valley 150” list? How does a company not only convince potential customers to buy, but turn satisfied customers into raving fans? And how does a company successfully position itself for growth once the economic storm passes?
From where I sit, the answer is clear. Leadership. ShoreTel’s success is a testament to John’s leadership and his focus on driving the company to create great products and maintain our intense focus on customer satisfaction.
Labels: Awards, Market Perspective
ShoreTel puts the Ease in Green for Environmentally Conscious Organizations
Posted by ShoreTel on Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Authored by: Gina Jacobs, Sr. Director of Marketing Communications
First and foremost, I’d like to wish all our customers and fans a Happy Earth Day. ShoreTel has a longstanding commitment to help organizations achieve a greener footprint while saving more “green” in their budgets. Day by day, we’re seeing energy-conscious organizations choosing ShoreTel UC systems not only for their ease of use and excellent performance, but also because of the power savings they provide.
One example is Pavement Recycling Systems, a Southern California based company that uniquely offers a full range of state-of-the-art recycling solutions to reclaim, preserve and rehabilitate pavement at any stage of the life-curve, resulting in improved performance, lower costs, and reduced environmental impact. The ShoreTel UC system offers the company unprecedented reliability across all of its five sites, with uninterrupted failover in the event of a T1 line outage.
We recently spoke with PRS Systems Administrator Kim Barbano in preparation for Earth Day, and she had these kind comments regarding their ShoreTel deployment:
“One of our founding principles is to improve performance and reduce costs, while conserving resources and reducing carbon footprint. ShoreTel has helped us achieve these goals in our own business practices by delivering a communications system that is both energy efficient, and easy to manage across multiple locations. We no longer have to send contractors out to our remote offices to make moves, adds or changes—ShoreWare Director lets me manage the system from any Web-based browser, and with the ability to forward calls to any phone, no one knows whether I’m working from home, or in the office.”
The mobility Kim is referencing in conjunction with the reduced power usage of the ShoreTel UC system, also lowers cooling expenses, and the system’s unique distributed architecture, which is based on a compact switch design, helps reduce server sprawl—both important green benefits that also contribute to the ShoreTel system’s lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to competitive systems.
For instance, a study by The Tolly Group found that the ShoreTel UC system consumed up to 62 percent less energy than the Cisco Unified Communications Manager across three typical enterprise-class deployments. In addition to lowering expenses, the decrease in energy consumption has a net positive impact on CO2 emissions.
Additional energy savings can be attributed to the ease of use and manageability of the ShoreTel UC system. Simple centralized management from an intuitive, Web browser-based application, eliminates the need to send personnel and trucks to remote locations. Further savings can also be achieved through using eco-friendly features, such as ShoreTel Converged Conferencing, which supports effective collaboration while reducing the need for business travel, and ShoreWare Contact Center, which enables organizations to create distributed virtual contact centers and support telecommuting.
As our R&D teams develop the next generation IP communications systems, ShoreTel continues to assist companies in sustaining their commitment to eco-friendly practices, while allowing them to improve both TCO and ROI with a highly efficient, modular system that grows as they grow.
Labels: Customer Experiences
ShoreTel Featured in Silicon Valley 150
Posted by ShoreTel on Monday, April 20, 2009
Authored by: John W. Combs, CEO
For decades, Silicon Valley has been the nation’s hotbed of innovation, advanced engineering, and ground-breaking entrepreneurship. In recent years, Silicon Valley startups have become household names throughout the world, and Silicon Valley geeks have become media legends.
Therefore, it’s no small measure of ShoreTel’s success that we are now part of the Silicon Valley 150, a special report filed by the San Jose Mercury that ranks public companies headquartered in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, southern San Mateo and southern Alameda counties on the basis of worldwide revenues.
The report compiles information from Bloomberg Financial SEC filings, and based upon our 2008 performance, our positive sales rallied against the economic recession to vault ShoreTel into the top 150. Placement in the top SV 150 reaffirms my belief that delivering excellent products and outstanding customer service nets positive results.
Our competitors are hard pressed to surpass ShoreTel’s proven world-class customer satisfaction levels and ease of use, and consistently fall short of ShoreTel’s initial and total cost of ownership. ShoreTel’s success in turning satisfied customers into raving fans underscores the concept that big names simply mean bigger prices, greater complexity, and a weaker focus on quality.
To see the entire list of companies ranked by the San Jose Mercury News report, please visit the Silicon Valley 150 online article.
ShoreTel’s View of VoiceCon Orlando 2009
Posted by ShoreTel on Thursday, April 09, 2009
Authored by: Bernard Gutnick, Sr. Director Product Marketing
With a successful VoiceCon still fresh in everyone’s minds, now is a good time to share some of the key trends we noticed at the show, as well as how they apply to ShoreTel.
The migration from legacy PBX solutions to IP-based unified communications solutions continued to be a trend that clearly resonated with attendees. This category shift became clear several months ago when Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection, signifying the “changing of the guard” underway, in which old TDM digital equipment is being replaced by pure IP. ShoreTel’s momentum was highlighted in a keynote presentation by organizer and NoJitter publisher, Fred Knight, underscoring the relevance of our offerings within the changing landscape.
Another major trend we observed was the increased integration of desktop applications with communications systems. For ShoreTel, that meant a demonstration of Microsoft OCS Release 2 integrated with ShoreTel Release 9, which enables organizations to support both Microsoft Communicator and ShoreWare Professional Call Manager clients across the enterprise at the same time. The demo was a rousing success among press, analysts and attendees, making our booth one of the busiest at the show, and garnering the Best in VoiceCon Award for the third year in a row, a title voted on by attendees.
One of the most popular sessions was the PBX Shootout presentation hosted by Allan Sulkin, VoIP Guru, in which ShoreTel was recognized for having a lower total of ownership compared to other vendors.
Overall, attendees were looking for solutions to help reduce costs, aid migration from their legacy Nortel BCM and CS1000 and other vendor platforms, and retain their most valued customers by delivering excellent service during challenging economic periods.
Labels: Market Perspective
ShoreTel’s Three-peat Leadership: Best in VoiceCon Again
Posted by ShoreTel on Friday, April 03, 2009
Authored by: Kevin Gavin, VP of Marketing
As ShoreTel continues to attract a huge fan base and produce innovative unified communications solutions, our popularity on the tradeshow floor at VoiceCon Orlando 2009 proves that ShoreTel is a force to be reckoned with. On Wednesday, ShoreTel received the Best in VoiceCon Award for the third year in a row, after attendees voted ShoreTel’s latest product release the Best in Show solution.
The annual Best in VoiceCon Award recognizes new and exceptional enterprise communications solutions, and is an opportunity for the VoiceCon audience to express their opinion on the latest products and solutions that offer true business value. This was particularly gratifying for the ShoreTel team as we strive to understand our customers’ needs and align our offerings accordingly—and as many of our major competitors looked on with envy.
More importantly, we’re very pleased that VoiceCon attendees recognize our commitment to developing industry-leading products and services, and to delivering world-class customer satisfaction. We thank everyone who voted for us, and look forward to earning the title again next year!
Labels: Awards, Market Perspective
ShoreWare now a Sure Choice Worldwide
Posted by ShoreTel on Thursday, April 02, 2009
Authored by: Kevin Gavin, VP of Marketing
As the unified communications industry continues to evolve, there are two things you can count on. First, more and more organizations are realizing the cost and time-saving benefits of being able to easily integrate and manage all forms of voice and digital communications. And second, the ease of management, rich feature set, and user-friendliness inherent in the ShoreTel UC system continues to drive these cost and time-saving benefits further, as organizations across all market sectors become raving ShoreTel fans.
Both of these points were clearly illustrated recently in the Synergy Research Group report, Q4 2008 Collaborative Applications Market Shares, one of the first independent research studies to effectively measure and quantify adoption of unified communications.
Not only has ShoreTel achieved the No.1 market-share position worldwide for small and midsize businesses using its UC desktop application, ShoreWare® Call Manager, according to the report, but ShoreTel ranked sixth in market share for UC desktop units in large enterprises worldwide. This is proof yet again that because of ShoreTel’s brilliant simplicity and leadership in the UC space, ShoreWare Call Manager is rapidly becoming the collaborative application of choice world wide.
To experience for yourself why ShoreWare Call Manager is attracting a growing number of raving fans around the world, see a first-hand demonstration and in less than 10 minutes, you’ll notice the ShoreTel difference.
Labels: Market Perspective