A Little bit of info about ShortelForums

[Forum]

Every once and awhile, I get an email asking me about this glorious, bustling site. With it's 150 or so users, we are averaging a whopping 2 posts per day!

So anyways, this site is NOT owned by any company. It is not officially affliated with Shoretel, although I consulted with Shoretel to seek there approval prior to going live last June.

This site is 100% owned by me. I built it, I host it, I pay the bills to keep this site going. You may notice, there is no sidebar advertising on this site....I like it like that, and I hope you do too.

A little about my background. I am a Senior Systems Engineer for a Shoretel Dealer in Florida. PCM Networking covers Tampa, St Pete, Bradenton, Sarasota, Ft Myers, and Naples Area. I am also our Lead Shoretel 'Guru'. I have my MCSE, CCNA, CSSA, and a few other really cool and confusing intials. I am certified as both a Shoretel Installer, as well as a Shoretel Systems Engineer. Like our new Administrator Chris, I am also a Shortetel Beta Site.

I built this site to help each other. Early on in my Shoretel Career, I relized that you could do anything you wanted with Shoretel, but you sometimes had to think outside of the box, or lean on others that had tried it before. This was my way of communicating with others.

I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any suggestions on how to improve it, or things you'd like to see, feel free to let us know.

Charles

[mattwray]

I like it, just wish there was more traffic.. Guess ShoreTel just built the product too good and easy.

[tnshurtm]

I like it too. I am on almost every day. I hope for more traffic here too, but I assume that will happen as Shoretel grows.

We are still trying to implement Shoretel here to replace our current Cisco system. As we get it up a running, I am going to post like crazy in the Enhancment forum.

How big is Shoretel? It seems like they are almost a mom-n-pop shop judging by the programming...i/e Access backend.

[kwanseng]

Charles,
I'm a big fan of ShoretelForums.com and I'm glad I found this bb and occassionally get to participate.
Here at Shoretel, your forums are hugely popular. Many of us are paying attention to what the partners and customers are saying and we value your opinions. The reason you don't see many posts from us is we're so busy working on delivering features and meeting deadlines we had so little time to "socialize" :-(
Charles, believe me, we appreciate what you're doing and so happy to see someone outside of Shoretel create a internet forums about our products.

Cheers,
Kwan Low
QA Eng
Shoretel

disclaimer: the above just my own opinion, if indoubt check with official channel for answer.

[cburgy]

I like it too. I am on almost every day. I hope for more traffic here too, but I assume that will happen as Shoretel grows.

We are still trying to implement Shoretel here to replace our current Cisco system. As we get it up a running, I am going to post like crazy in the Enhancment forum.

How big is Shoretel? It seems like they are almost a mom-n-pop shop judging by the programming...i/e Access backend.

Shoretel isn't small by any means (around 175-200 employees now I believe) and they are continuing to grow like wild fire. The backend is actually a jet database (the same thing MS Exchange uses) and can defintely scale. I would imagine as they continue to grow they'll evaluate technologies that are appropriate for the system (call reporting is now done via MySQL for example). Why did you replace your Cisco?

[tnshurtm]

Shoretel isn't small by any means (around 175-200 employees now I believe) and they are continuing to grow like wild fire. The backend is actually a jet database (the same thing MS Exchange uses) and can defintely scale. I would imagine as they continue to grow they'll evaluate technologies that are appropriate for the system (call reporting is now done via MySQL for example). Why did you replace your Cisco?

I would consider that small compared to the other major VOIP system providers. I work at a law firm that has over 200 employees and consider my company small.

We are replacing the Cisco (which was here when I got here about 2 years ago) because the people who installed it never got it working correctly and we finally got tired of them trying work arounds. It is very administrator unfriendly.

As for Shoretel, as far as I can see, it seems really easy to maintain (but there is still a lot of room for improvement, i.e. Active Directory integration)

If you do a search for my posts, you will see that we have had some troubles getting shoretel to work as well (VLAN/TAGGING), Shoretel and Cisco still can't figure it out and keep pointing fingers at each other.

Is there any other way to get Shoretel support other than here and through the local vendor? Can I open a TAC case myself? Don't get me wrong, this forum has given me more than my local vendor has.

I can't wait to get it installed (correctly) and start flooding this forum with new ideas, like expanding the batch change utility to be able to change more than 10 things about a user.......what if I want to change all of my users to get their voicemail in Outlook as an attachment?(that is just a start) The rest will be in the enhancement forum as soon as we are up and running.

[Forum]

Did you purchase PArtner support or Enterprise support? Enterprise support allows you to call Shortel TAC directly. If you have Partner support, you have to go through your partner.

At the same time, your parntner has the ability to work with TAC on your behalf....so any issues you have should get resolved.

Charles

[mattwray]

If your partner is not handing things, call the TAC yourself. They'll give you a hard time, ask for the main supervisor in charge - I can't for the life of me remember his name but he will help if you explain that they are not taking care of you. EDIT - I think his name is Ron something...

If you still don't get what you need, what I've done that works, go on the ShoreTel website and call the VP of whatever region you are in. He'll make sure you are taken care of.

ShoreTel is VERY concerned with keeping the customers happy. Which is very nice change of pace from most of the telco's out there who don't care.

[cburgy]

I would consider that small compared to the other major VOIP system providers. I work at a law firm that has over 200 employees and consider my company small.

We are replacing the Cisco (which was here when I got here about 2 years ago) because the people who installed it never got it working correctly and we finally got tired of them trying work arounds. It is very administrator unfriendly.

As for Shoretel, as far as I can see, it seems really easy to maintain (but there is still a lot of room for improvement, i.e. Active Directory integration)

If you do a search for my posts, you will see that we have had some troubles getting shoretel to work as well (VLAN/TAGGING), Shoretel and Cisco still can't figure it out and keep pointing fingers at each other.

Is there any other way to get Shoretel support other than here and through the local vendor? Can I open a TAC case myself? Don't get me wrong, this forum has given me more than my local vendor has.

I can't wait to get it installed (correctly) and start flooding this forum with new ideas, like expanding the batch change utility to be able to change more than 10 things about a user.......what if I want to change all of my users to get their voicemail in Outlook as an attachment?(that is just a start) The rest will be in the enhancement forum as soon as we are up and running.

I take it your local Shoretel vendor doesn't understand Cisco? You should push for a resolution. Your Shoretel Area Rep could bring the Area Sales Engineer onsite to help troubleshoot the issues. A lot of partners in California take advantage of that resource.

[kwanseng]

I can't promise you anything... but if you running into a wall when try to get support/TAC. Please post away, see if I can look up the relevant group that could get some answer for you. My testing specialty is in SIP/SIP trunking/VoIP.

Sincerely,
Kwan Low
QA Eng
Shoretel

I would consider that small compared to the other major VOIP system providers. I work at a law firm that has over 200 employees and consider my company small.

We are replacing the Cisco (which was here when I got here about 2 years ago) because the people who installed it never got it working correctly and we finally got tired of them trying work arounds. It is very administrator unfriendly.

As for Shoretel, as far as I can see, it seems really easy to maintain (but there is still a lot of room for improvement, i.e. Active Directory integration)

If you do a search for my posts, you will see that we have had some troubles getting shoretel to work as well (VLAN/TAGGING), Shoretel and Cisco still can't figure it out and keep pointing fingers at each other.

Is there any other way to get Shoretel support other than here and through the local vendor? Can I open a TAC case myself? Don't get me wrong, this forum has given me more than my local vendor has.

I can't wait to get it installed (correctly) and start flooding this forum with new ideas, like expanding the batch change utility to be able to change more than 10 things about a user.......what if I want to change all of my users to get their voicemail in Outlook as an attachment?(that is just a start) The rest will be in the enhancement forum as soon as we are up and running.

[tnshurtm]

My local vendor is not bad, just doesn't seem to have the resources for special problems. They did open a TAC case with Cisco and for the last couple weeks, the project lead has been putting out 110%.

This week, I ended up calling in a local Cisco guy through another company and he came onsite and spent a half a day sniffing, snooping, and everything else. It seems he found the problem. I will post in more detail in the DHCP Scoop thread since it is more relevent there.

All-in-all, this forum has been incredibly helpful. Like VonZipper posted in the "I just have to say" forum, I have found that a few people here will go out of their way to help someone out. I hope that keeps going and I plan on sharing everything I learn as well.

Special thanks to Mattwray. He helped me out a lot on the side.