ShoreTel Mobility Extends Unified Communications to Mobile Workers
ShoreTel Mobility Extends Unified Communications to Mobile Workers by Robbie Pleasant
ShoreTel has recently announced an update for ShoreTel Mobility, a smartphone integration solution for unified communications. This update will allow IT professionals to provide their smartphones with enterprise UC and leverage their IP PBX platforms, while reducing costs at the same time.
The ShoreTel Mobility solution stresses simplicity over complexity, using a heterogeneous platform to provide capabilities for a wide range of smartphones and tablets.
Among the new capabilities in the update are: native telephony integration on Android OS 2.2+, a full-feature suite for the latest devices on the BlackBerry OS 6 platform, ongoing support for Apple iOS devices, and the enabling of corporate communication applications on employee-owned smartphones and tablets.
"Agito, which Shoretel acquired, continues to advance the dual mode, Wi-Fi/cellular version of mobile UC, and importantly is doing so on the full range of mobile platforms including Android, iOS (Apple), and BlackBerry," says Michael Finneran, UC Expert at UCStrategies. "What’s more, they also support some leading-edge capabilities like location-based presence that we don’t see from the bigger IP PBX/UC vendors." Michael adds: "BYOD is growing, but we’ll have to see how well the dual mode idea sells in the individual-liable versus the corporate-liable environment."
According to UCStrategies co-founder Blair Pleasant, “All of the recent studies I’ve seen show the rapid growth of BYOD and the willingness of IT departments to support workers’ various devices. Shoretel clearly recognizes the importance of this, and is helping IT departments ensure security and centralized support in these environments. Shoretel’s new release has some interesting capabilities that IT departments will like, including multi-vendor PBX and UC system support, and the ability to do call routing based on location awareness. While there is no video support available today, I expect that to be available in the near future as video becomes an important part of mobile communications.”
For more information, visit www.shoretel.com.