ShoreTel Blog
London Calling: Join ShoreTel at IP Expo
Posted by ShoreTel on Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Authored by: Tom Perry, Director of Marketing EMEA
As the ShoreTel team prepares to demonstrate our latest brilliantly simple IP communication solutions at IP Expo '09 next week, interest in the IP infrastructure side of the popular UK trade show continues to grow.
This year, four theatres are covering important topics such as communications, collaboration, and network optimization, and more than 7,000 visitors have the opportunity to stop by the ShoreTel booth #527 and learn more about ShoreTel’s ease of use and low total cost of ownership.
As well as demonstrating how brilliantly simple can help you reduce costs and boost productivity, ShoreTel experts are presenting at a couple of key sessions during the show.
Join Andy Powell on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in the Communications and Collaboration theatre to learn more about fixed mobile convergence (FMC). Andy will be sharing his thoughts on the benefits of mobility, including ROI, and the importance of easy deployment.
On Thursday, Ed Wright will be discussing the business benefits of unified communications (UC) in the Communications and Collaboration theatre at 12:30 p.m. Ed debunks the hype around this latest evolution in IP technologies, and demonstrates how the right UC solution can make a big difference to your organization.
And if you’re interested in meeting our managing director for EMEA, John Howard, join us at the ShoreTel-sponsored press centre for our press and analyst event on Wednesday at noon. Kevin Gavin, Vice President of Marketing also will be providing a corporate update.
We hope you’ll have the opportunity to join us at the show and see for yourself just why ShoreTel is turning satisfied customers into raving fans. If London is not on your itinerary next week, tune in for updates, request a demonstration, or contact a ShoreTel partner for more information.
Tune in to KNBR for more on ShoreTel and SF Giants
Posted by ShoreTel on Friday, September 11, 2009
Authored by: John W. Combs, CEO
This Sunday, September 13th, at 9am PT, I am participating in a KNBR interview with host, Gary Allen, where we will chat with San Francisco Giants CIO, Bill Schlough, about his cost-saving decision to implement ShoreTel at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.
When ShoreTel announced that it was the chosen telecommunications equipment partner by the San Francisco Giants, we mentioned that we beat out several competitors to win the business and install its unified communications solution throughout the ballpark and its off-site facilities. Thanks to ShoreTel’s solution, the San Francisco Giants have already experienced significant daily savings in call costs and system management and support, compared to the previous system.
One of the many factors that made us a great fit is that, like the Giants, we understand the importance of creating a product and an overall experience, that results in award-winning customer satisfaction that leads to dedicated, raving fans. During the interview, Schlough will walk through his decision-making process and how ShoreTel ultimately benefits both the players and the fans. Please tune in to hear more from both Bill Schlough and myself about this exciting deployment.
Skype Me with ShoreTel!
Posted by ShoreTel on Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Authored by: Kevin Gavin, VP Marketing
The latest news that ShoreTel is the first UC solution to interoperate with the Skype for SIP offering represents yet another breakthrough in the advancement of UC technologies.
By announcing this interoperability, Skype is kicking off the next phase of its Skype for SIP beta program, and now the nearly 11,000 ShoreTel enterprise customers have the opportunity to register and give it a try.
That means that more than 480 million registered Skype users around the world will be able to call into a ShoreTel UC system at zero cost to them. ShoreTel customers can reach their customers in new ways, taking advantage of a Web site click-to-call button, low global call rates and still enabling their employees to manage calls with the intuitive ShoreTel Call Manager interface.
Just another brilliantly simple innovation that is helping to revolutionize IP-based communications worldwide, and transforming the way we do business.
Labels: Product Updates
The View from ShoreTel…post ITExpo West
Posted by ShoreTel on Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Authored by: Bernard Gutnick, Sr. Director Product Marketing
Amidst the dying smoke of the San Bernardino fires that had been burning earlier this week, TMCNet’s ITExpo West ended another successful show, experiencing a record attendance.
Starting out with a keynote from our very own CEO, John Combs, two standing-room only breakout sessions on SIP trunking solutions with ShoreTel’s Jerome Joanny and our valued partner InGate, and continuing with an Editor's Choice Award for Contact Center 5.1, ITExpo 2009 proved to also be an overwhelming success for ShoreTel.
The solid traffic and energy at ShoreTel’s booth was a testament to our solutions and the thriving market in general. From next-generation contact centers to mobile applications to compliance issues, this show revealed that the IP communications space is flourishing despite a rocky economy.
In fact, we at ShoreTel might argue that the downturn has only helped fuel a disruption where organizations are motivated to peel back the onion and look at the next layer. Value is high on the list of what ShoreTel’s raving fans expect from their business communications system today.
We look forward to ITExpo East in 2010 and are excited for the future of UC.
Labels: Customer Experiences, Event, Market Perspective
ShoreTel’s ITEXPO West Recap with VON Magazine
Posted by ShoreTel on Friday, September 04, 2009
Authored by: John W. Combs, CEO
After my ITEXPO West 2009 keynote earlier this week, I had a great conversation with Rick Martin of VON Magazine. Rick wrote a post before my speech in which he posed several questions about ShoreTel. He and I were able to discuss them in person, but I’ve addressed them in my own post since others may be interested in the answers as well.
What happened to those rumors of ShoreTel’s decline, promulgated last year by a certain rival publication that shall go nameless?
Those rumors have long since dissipated due to our strong performance, global partnerships and increasingly large base of “raving fans.” When the industry went down more than 24 percent last year, ShoreTel actually grew revenue by 5 percent.
How’s the ShoreTel UC platform faring against hosted solutions?
Because of our distributed architecture, we can deliver hosted communications services better than anyone else can. ShoreTel’s distributed architecture provides users with protection against multiple types of failures to keep critical voice services up and running. By deploying the incoming call termination points into the hosted cloud and highly reliable switching appliances on the customer’s premises, we provide the most reliable hosted configuration available on the market today.
How is the ShoreTel message of “brilliant simplicity” resonating with telecom directors and enterprise CIOs?
Since the inception of the company, we’ve had the mission of creating brilliantly simple solutions that allow companies to manage their communications, boost productivity, increase levels of customer satisfaction, and cut costs. The term ‘brilliantly simple’ came from our customers! We conducted a series of focus groups with current customers and repeatedly heard the term ‘brilliantly simple’ at the top of the list of attributes that they valued most about their ShoreTel system.
How do you see your distribution deals with major carriers, like Verizon and AT&T, evolving? What do these deals say about the carriers’ own UC offerings?
All three of the major wireline carriers in the U.S. – AT&T, Verizon and Qwest—as well as Telstra, the leading telecom and IT services provider in Australia, have selected ShoreTel. Last quarter, we were awarded AT&T’s highest level of supplier status, that of a Tier 1 vendor. Verizon, Qwest and Telstra are new and ramping very well. To secure every major Telco in the United States and Australia is a testimony to the brilliantly simple product we offer and ShoreTel’s dedication to world-class customer service.
Regarding ‘what do these deals say about the carriers own UC offerings’, I think it is clear. They have always offered multiple solutions to their customers and are continually in search of the ‘best in class’ systems to build their customer base.
Our brilliantly simple approach is a key driver in our world-class customer satisfaction. True story: An AT&T sales manager who sold the first ShoreTel system in his area received an e-mail from that customer on the first day of service. The e-mail was a thank-you note from the IT decision maker, who said that his clients were “dancing on their desks.”
Once the recovery gathers steam, how do you see ShoreTel competing with larger players like Cisco and Avaya?
These are not our biggest competitors. By far our biggest competitor is not getting to the table to compete for the business. As we continue to grow our brand awareness we have seen our ‘invitation rate’ grow. Because, when we are invited to compete, we win more than 50 percent of the time.
Labels: CEO, Event, Market Perspective
Let ShoreTel help you become a UC hero
Posted by ShoreTel on Friday, September 04, 2009
Authored by: John W. Combs, CEO
As I gave my keynote address at the TMC ITEXPO on Tuesday, I couldn’t help noticing a sea of heads nodding in agreement throughout the presentation – with the exception of a few competitors who sat in, too. Several key points seemed to resonate with all participants, regardless of their IT role, the size of their organization or the market segment that they came from.
The fact is that when it comes to choosing a new communications system, many shudder at what seems an ominous and overwhelming task. Many are either experienced with IP networks, but not telephony. They’re an expert in Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Sametime and other office applications, but not telephony.
Or, they are the telephony expert responsible for the current communications system and familiar with the TDM digital systems, but new to IP.
The goal of my keynote was to offer up some practical ideas and suggestions on how to be a hero in the organization by implementing a new communications system that delights IT staff, end users and other stakeholders and delivers visible cost savings and productivity gains.
This is what unified communications should be all about.
While the features and capability offerings of most high-end UC systems today are fairly comparable, no UC system is worth considering unless it offers an intuitive communications dashboard that provides each user access to a wide range of communications tools, and integrates you into your company communications system regardless of location.
The key driver of end user adoption is the ease with which they can grasp each of their new communications tools. End user adoption is directly associated with the UC communications client. This drives satisfaction and is the key driver of hero status for the IT team.
And since no UC system will be universally adopted unless it is easy to use and easy to manage, during the evaluation stage the most important thing you can do is to use it.
Ask each vendor on your evaluation list to bring in a system that your end users can try. From there, narrow the list down to two side-by-side trials and have your IT team take it for a test drive. Can they manage it without a PhD in an obscure computer code?
In addition to ease of end user adoption and IT manageability, there are other items you should consider including, reliability, scalability, architectural design, total cost of ownership and customer satisfaction.
ShoreTel has a rich history in each of those criteria, and if your head is not nodding in agreement by now, I invite you to take a ShoreTel Test Drive for yourself.
Labels: CEO, Event, Market Perspective
ShoreTel and ITEXPO: 10 years and counting …
Posted by ShoreTel on Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Authored by: John W. Combs, CEO
This year marks the 10th anniversary of ITEXPO and, from what I have seen, there are no signs of it slowing down. In an era when companies are cutting back on tradeshow expenditures, how is it that ITEXPO has managed to keep its attendance and exhibitor numbers intact?
It is my belief that the ever-growing demand for VoIP and UC solutions directly contributes to the need for buyers, sellers, resellers, manufacturers, enterprises, SMBs, and other agencies to further educate themselves on what solutions are out there and use this opportunity to forge relationships with key players in the market.
As a provider of brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on an IP business phone system, we recognize the value of the show in bringing these constantly evolving technologies to close public scrutiny.
A lot has changed since ShoreTel first entered the IP telephony market in 1996. Not only have we experienced a huge spike in the demand for ShoreTel’s IP-based communication solutions that has led to our rapid global expansion, but organizations are rethinking the role of communications throughout their business processes.
Not only are organizations replacing old phones, but they’re replacing old thinking and looking at ways to leverage the power of IP communications to improve business agility, boost productivity and innovation, reduce costs, and more.
That’s an impressive change for a business tool that not so long ago was referred to as the Plain Old Telephone System.
I hope you’ll have a chance to drop in at the ShoreTel Booth #519 at ITEXPO and see for yourself how ShoreTel’s brilliantly simple UC solutions offer a powerful yet unpretentious platform for the future.
Labels: Event