I've been hearing good things, but...

[ronromano]

there is never any activity on this board. I would like to learn more about what users think about this system, but there doesn't seem to be any. Users that is.

Would anyone care to comment (good or bad)on Shoretel?

Is there another Shoretel forum that has more activity?

 

[GSmitherman]

I think the big issue with ShoreTel is it works. You don't see much activity on tech forums because the systems are that good. I only have Avaya to compare the systems with. In the Avaya world, the training is horrible. Typically I knew more than the instructors who only read lessons plans to us. Once you left Avaya training, you still were not fully prepared for installs. The Avaya product is not tested well and rushed to market. Avaya has lists that are huge called "Known Issues".
In the ShoreTel world it is different. The training instructors knew the product and could answer the questions. I left the training able to install the systems with little to no issues. The ShoreTel product is solid. It is rated as 99.999% reliable. Our ShoreTel customers love the product and ease of use.
When we install ShoreTel systems after the first day of service we rarely return unless the customer is purchasing more ShoreTel equipment. When we install Avaya systems we have to return to fix "Known Issues".

 

[MattWray]

I have 2 and a half systems up and running, I'm a customer. Our first system went in flawlessly, our second not so much. We had some issues with running call manager over Citrix and with incompatible headsets.

Locally installed had no problems and once the headsets were swapped out, they've been good to go.

Like GSmitherman said, the system really is solid.

You can also check out

http://shoretelforums.com

That is pretty slow too, but not as bad as this one and there are some TAC guys on that board.

Take care


Matt Wray

http://www.sss-steel.com

 

[aarenot]

i have not installed shoretel yet, but we do sell it. the guys that have installed shoretel tell me featurewise it is just a little leaner than the ip office which i do install, and service. it is however an install, and walk away system with little to no issues with it, leaning toward the no issues heavily. we have numerous customer endorsements of the shoretel, single, and multiple site systems. these are guys that are experienced with multiple manufacturers systems, and multiple systems from each manufacturers.
we are in the largest 1 percent of avaya houses, and probably the same with shoretel. i can not recomend it from experience, but the company mind trust is impressed to the point that we are presenting the shoretel to all customers as a highly trusted platform.

also, forums are the place to hear primarily the headeaches, and shortcomings of systems. the lack here, does tell you something, if you listen.

 

[VonZipper]

I am the Telecom Admin for a medical corp, and we have moved our standard phone systems from Nortel to ShoreTel. We have 7 sites and about 500 users on the system, and I would never go back. One of our sites is still on the old analog style phones and switches, and has been for 5 years now. We have never had a failure of any sort other than a fan going out twice.

Like the guy before said, once you put it in, you do not have to go back.

My only concern is when new software comes out, it is not always tested completely and we are having to call ShoreTel to let them know there is a issue.

 

[aarenot]

vonzipper,
how does shoretel respond. probels are going to happen, it is in how they are dealt with that really impresses me. although, from what you say, problems happen only rarely, and only with some features with upgrades. major issues, mission critical, and response to solution time, are additional qauestions.

 

[jneiberger]

We're beginning to consider ShoreTel at a couple of our sites and perhaps as an eventual replacement for our main phone systems, which are currently Avaya. My biggest worry is the lack of features when compared with Avaya, Nortel, or Cisco. I'm worried that at some point we're going to need a feature that the other PBXs support but ShoreTel does not have.

As an example, a few of the sites that we may eventually replace with ShoreTel require hotline (ringdown) lines, but it doesn't appear that ShoreTel supports auto ringdown for IP phones. I fear that if we go with ShoreTel we'll only run into other missing features that we didn't think about ahead of time.

 

[aarenot]

the shoretel has analog exts as well, if needed. also, many more ip enabled devices come on the market each week. it is not that difficult to enable any existing device to communicate ip. we have a box smaller than a pack of smokes that is a fax server. it is ip enabled, and works great, only time before all devices, peripherals are available to interface with a phone system via ip. after all, the ip phone is software, it is just a matter of making it talk to the proccessor. i am not a shoretel expert, but that is not a huge issue to address from a developement standpoint. ask when it is scheduled, if they do not have a solution for your application now.

cisco has many feature weaknesses, and the i am not very knowledgable of nortel. maybe some other guys can help you out there. i would ask for a full system migration bid to shoretel, including all sites, and plans to deal with all requirements including the ring downs. chances are they can look at your system configs from existing equipment to come up with a plan to complete the needed applications.

 

[jneiberger]

Cisco does have some feature weaknesses when compared with Avaya and Nortel, but ShoreTel has far fewer features than even Cisco. Granted, most companies don't need most of those features, but it's nice to have them available for the one time you need them.

 

[GSmitherman]

ShoreTel does a nice job of responding to dealers and customers when they said features are needed.

 

[VonZipper]

When we had the two fans go out, one a couple of years ago and one just last month, we had new units in our hands the next day. We currently have 28 switches located all over eastern Wa and Oregon. They do not have issues. Our only concerns come when a new software release comes out. We went to 6.1 October 8th. We were unaware that with that upgrade some changes were made. There is now a auto off hook feature that selects the handset or headset, if no caller ID is present, hunt groups display their own name, and a couple smaller things. BUT, we also did not know that the hold button no longer works on a IP100. We reported all of this to ShoreTel, and we now have a patch scheduled to be installed at the end of this month to fix it.

Overall, it has got to be the best system for what WE need. There may be things out there that cannot be done today, but it will come. ShoreTel has been awesome at putting in all of the features users need. Like I said before, I started out with ShoreTel 3.0 and am now at 6.1, and they are nothing alike.