ShoreTel and Polycom Expand Technology Partnership to Deliver Integrated Business Communications Systems
Standards-based Solutions Integrate Voice, Video and Unified Communications, Offering Customers Choice, Flexibility and Investment Protection
Enterprise Connect ORLANDO, SUNNYVALE, Calif., and PLEASANTON, Calif. – Feb. 28, 2011 – ShoreTel® (NASDAQ: SHOR), the leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated unified communications (UC), and Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications, today announced an expansion of their technology partnership to further their shared mission of delivering advanced business communications systems based on open standards. By leveraging common distribution capabilities, ShoreTel and Polycom help enable UC Everywhere and empower businesses to protect their existing investments in standards-based technologies as well as choose best-of-breed enterprise solutions that are a better alternative to vendor lock-in and proprietary technologies.
Meeting the Needs of Business of Any Size
Both ShoreTel and Polycom have UC offerings that are affordable and scalable for businesses of any size. From enterprise customers to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), the Polycom and ShoreTel solutions are flexible and cost-effective. Analyst firm Gartner rated ShoreTel “Strong Positive,” the highest possible rating in its “MarketScope for Unified Communications for the SMB Market, North America.”1
Enhancing ShoreTel and Polycom UC Offerings
This offering will provide customers the flexibility of an open and interoperable ShoreTel and Polycom solution that unifies and simplifies communication across voice and video and telepresence solutionsincluding the Polycom UC Intelligent Core, as well as messaging applications. ShoreTel’s IP telephony and UC solutions will combine with Polycom’s telepresence systems to deliver customers a seamlessly integrated system with proven reliability and quality, simplicity and lower total cost of ownership, by using technologies like H.264 High Profile, which reduces bandwidth requirements for high definition video by up to 50 percent.
”ShoreTel’s long-standing commitment to standards-based technologies and open-architected systems gives our customers maximum flexibility to deploy custom solutions that suit their specific business needs,” said Mark Arman, vice president of business development at ShoreTel. “We are pleased to partner with Polycom and ensure our customers achieve truly interoperable, scalable and brilliantly simple visual communication solutions.”
The expanded relationship is part of the ShoreTel Technology Partner Program (TPP), which provides market leaders the opportunity to increase their reach by connecting directly with ShoreTel’s growing community of channel reseller partners. ShoreTel is also a Polycom ARENA partner.
Benefits of Best-of-Breed UC
The ability for businesses to communicate in the most effective and efficient manner despite the infrastructure in place is a significant business advantage that helps customers maximize the investment in their communication systems. Polycom and ShoreTel are committed to a standards-based, open architecture that liberates organizations from managing complex legacy and proprietary systems that cost millions of dollars to maintain.
“ShoreTel is an important long-term partner to Polycom, and this strategic offering is a natural evolution of our successful partnership – one that reflects the evolving and dynamic UC market,” said Ron Myers, senior vice president of Global Channels. “Both companies have a commitment to offering best-in-class, standards-based communications, allowing our customers to choose the best UC solutions to meet their needs. By extending support of Polycom telepresence and Polycom UC Intelligent Core offerings to the ShoreTel platform, ShoreTel is helping Polycom to deliver on our UC Everywhere vision.”
“At ScanSource Communications, we are committed to delivering UC and telephony solutions that will help our reseller partners grow their business and remain ahead of the competition – and as a strategic partner to both Polycom and ShoreTel, we are thrilled about this combined solution,” said Buck Baker, president, ScanSource Communications. Not only does it enable resellers to deliver industry-leading solutions to their end-user customers, but it also affords them the opportunity to source their products from one location and wrap them with the value-added services our customers have come to expect.”
Availability
The ShoreTel and Polycom solutions will be distributed through joint value-added distributors, ScanSource and Westcon. Partners and resellers will be able to offer a broad range of UC and video solutions combining the ShoreTel and Polycom products that best fit their customers’ business needs.
About the MarketScope
The MarketScope is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is a global leader in unified communications solutions with industry-leading telepresence,video, voice and infrastructure solutions built on open standards. Polycom powers smarter conversations, transforming lives and businesses worldwide. Please visit www.polycom.com for more information or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About ShoreTel
ShoreTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOR) is the provider of brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on its award-winning IP business phone system. We offer organizations of all sizes integrated, voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions. The feature-rich ShoreTel UC system offers the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and the highest customer satisfaction in the industry, in part because it is easy to deploy, manage, scale and use. Increasingly, companies around the world are finding a competitive edge by replacing business-as-usual with new thinking, and choosing ShoreTel to handle their integrated business communication. ShoreTel is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices in Austin, Texas, United Kingdom, Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.shoretel.com.
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1Gartner, Inc., “MarketScope for Unified Communications for the SMB, North America,” April 9, 2010, ID Number G00174964
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