The VAR Guy

IP communications vendor ShoreTel believes unified communications has entered the realm of ‘must-have’ technology, and as such should be an integral part of the communications network.

That’s why the latest version of its namesake UC offering, ShoreTel 12, is actually designed to integrate into the communications network, making UC as ubiquitous and embedded as voice mail, said Kevin Gavin, vice president of marketing at ShoreTel.

“In the past PBXes were largely voice and one-on-one conversations,” he said. “We always supported unified communications, but now we’ve changed UC from a set of features bolted on to the PBX that integrates at certain points. In ShoreTel 12 we broke the paradigm and said unified communications is a fundamental and integral part of a PBX solution.”

ShoreTel’s UC solution is a purpose-built Linux machine that IT administrators simply plug in and is automatically discovered by ShoreTel Director, the company’s management interface. From there, the solution is integrated into the network. “All the  user names and passwords are the same – admins just check a box and users have instant messaging, audioconferencing, sharing, etc. – whatever they need as part of their communications network,” Gavin said.

“The attach rate with our previous UC offering was in the single digits,” Gavin said, which meant ShoreTel channel partners had a tough sell. However, “now it’s half the cost and really just an easy check box. I think our attach rate will move into the 50 percent range.”

ShoreTel 12 also has been tested and certified to support up to 20,000 users, giving channel partners a stronger argument for ShoreTel technology, he noted.

“The challenge had been if partners had customers with more than 10,000 users, the customer would need to deploy two instances of ShoreTel,” Gavin said. “But customers really just wanted one image to support. This release made that leap forward to doubling the number of users on a single image of ShoreTel.”

ShoreTel has increasingly been touted as an up-and-comer in the UC space, and its most recent earnings announcement bolster that argument: its revenue is up 39 percent year over year, the fourth quarter in a row the company’s revenues have seen at least a 30 percent increase. Gavin credits his company’s success to its channel partners.

“Our channel strategy has shifted and matured and evolved, and the fact our revenues have gone up 39 percent in the last quarter means something is going right in the channel,” he said.

ShoreTel 12 is slated for availability in June 2011.

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