ShoreTel Unveils New Products Designed for Global Markets and Expands Its Global Corporate Presence

Friday, 10 October 2008 06:40

New Features, Extended Distribution Channels Deliver Cost-Effective and Proven Unified Communications Solutions to Markets Beyond the U.S.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 9, 2008 – ShoreTel® (NASDAQ; SHOR), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications solutions, has expanded its global offerings with new products and solutions designed for worldwide markets. The move will extend ShoreTel’s cost-effective and proven unified communications (UC) solutions – which have won a large, loyal customer following and multiple industry awards – to an even stronger presence in the global marketplace. The company has established new offices and expanded its distribution channels to support this increased global presence.

ShoreTel is sponsoring and exhibiting at the IP'08 Expo in London, Oct. 1-2, Stand #649. Mark Swendsen, ShoreTel’s managing director of EMEA, will also be speaking at the event.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
* ShoreTel 8.1 is a global product release that adds support for 7 new countries. The countries supported are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK and U.S.
* ShoreTel 8.1 product enhancements include global support for ShoreTel’s Unified Communications desktop client; VPN-enabled phones to simplify remote end user deployments; the IP 230g, which is a low cost, gigabit-enabled phone; and new switches with BRI and E1 interfaces to round out the global product line.
* ShoreTel 8.1 includes language support for Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and U.S.), French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Castilian and CALA) and Swedish.
* ShoreTel has recently opened new offices in the London metropolitan area (Maidenhead) and has a local presence in Hong Kong, Madrid and Munich.
* ShoreTel currently has 17 distributors and 97 Value Added Reseller Partners in EMEA, and 7 distributors and 40 partners in Asia Pacific, including Aria Communications, which was recently named a national distributor in Australia. ShoreTel also has distribution partners in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, as well as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico in the CALA region. Additional distribution expansion is underway in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.
* The company has 400 customers with a European presence and more than 18,000 endpoints installed, and more than 100 customers in APAC.     

QUOTES
John W. Combs, chairman, president and CEO, ShoreTel: “ShoreTel continues to aggressively invest in moving forward on its promise of innovative unified communications solutions, both in terms of the markets we serve and the capabilities we offer. As the clear UC industry leader in technology advances, customer satisfaction, and enterprise communications cost reduction, we’re excited to expand our activities to deliver these benefits on a global scale. We anticipate significant and steadily growing momentum, just as we have seen in the U.S.”
 
Mark Swendsen, managing director, EMEA, ShoreTel: “Since we entered the EMEA market, we have worked diligently to customize our products to meet these countries’ unique needs, from the technical and programmatic to the logistical and cultural. These efforts are paying off, as the latest release of the ShoreTel fully distributed unified communications solution is already generating excitement among our EMEA partners, distributors and customers with its ability to streamline business processes and create a more productive and collaborative enterprise. As we continue to expand our sales and distribution infrastructure, this region is one of our fastest growing markets and we are committed to that success.”

FEATURE SUMMARY
For a detailed description of ShoreTel 8.1 features click here.
* High resolution video-enabled ShoreWare® Professional Call Manager with improved look and feel, and enhanced usability
* VPN-enabled phone
* Improved support for connecting SIP-based end-points to the system
* Mobile Call Manager supported on leading mobile phone models and delivered in Danish, Dutch (Netherlands), English (UK and US), French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish
* New ShoreGear switch appliances including the ShoreGear 30, 24A and T1k
* Increased security
* Improved management
* New telephony features
* Choice of IM server (ShoreTel Converged Conferencing 7.1, Microsoft LCS 2005 or Microsoft OCS 2007)

SHORETEL IN EMEA & APAC
* Success stories for EMEA and APAC customers:
o Centre for Digestive Diseases
o CNET
o Coleg Glan Hafren
o CPL
o CVUK
o Conservatree
o DayMen International
o Ferrier Hodgson
o 2iQ
o InterSystems Corporation
o OILEXCO