Shoretel, the ten year IPO!

[Palitto Consulting]

6 years later and we're still waiting for Text to Speech in ECC...

Or if suggestions.shoretel.com is too slow for you, we have something that can accomplish this as well. Obviously this isn't quite as good as if ShoreTel would add it, but I thought I'd mention it.

[bkuhn]

6 years later and we're still waiting for Text to Speech in ECC...

As Dave would say:

http://suggestions.shoretel.com/

[LDS]

6 years later and we're still waiting for Text to Speech in ECC...

[kwanseng]

LOL.... I thought someone is complimenting my weight :-)

Kwan,

I believe by thin he meant that Shoretel does not have a lot of employees.

[cburgy]

Mr Prefore,
I'm a Shoretel employee, I'm here. You're looking at a Shoretel employee here. What're you talking about?
Also, could you please qualify your statement "staff is beyond thin"? I weight 145 pounds, is that "thin" to you?

Kwan Low
QA Eng
Shoretel

Kwan,

I believe by thin he meant that Shoretel does not have a lot of employees.

[kwanseng]

Mr Prefore,
I'm a Shoretel employee, I'm here. You're looking at a Shoretel employee here. What're you talking about?
Also, could you please qualify your statement "staff is beyond thin"? I weight 145 pounds, is that "thin" to you?

Kwan Low
QA Eng
Shoretel

News, here is some:

bunch of crap deleted...
Customers never see Shoretel employees, staff is beyond thin

[cburgy]

Shoretel is not perfect for every customer just as Avaya, Nortel and Cisco are not perfect for every customer. Ultimately, most of us want our customers to find whatever solution best addresses their needs and align's with the goals of the organization going forward. That being said, we (at least at this forum) hope that Shoretel is able to address all of your needs in a cost effective manner while also opening new doors to productivity enhancements.

Now that being said, this is obviously (as Charles said) for another vendor's internal marketing. It looks more like Nortel or perhaps Avaya but who knows. I'd like to comment on some of the items for clarification though.


Voicemail support for timezones? Different server for each timezone
- You are right, they do not handle timezones nearly as well as they should.

Access DB – redundant through 3rd party software only! “Doubletake”
- I just view this as a vendor integrating third party capability versus recommending some other solution. It has never been an issue for every our larger customers (1000+ seats). Although I could understand if you want some type of clustering capability ala Cisco.

Lacks video conferencing integration, either native or third party
-- Shoretel formed a strategic alliance with an unbelivable video conferencing partner that knocks the socks of Polycom. Their new conference room phone is the first fruit of that relationship. Shoretel's VP of Sales came from Polycom and understands this market intimately.

Lacks Active Directory, Speech Reco, Vxml, Text-To-Speech
-- All of these are coming. You'll see Active Directory pretty soon and text-to-speech has defintely been on the roadmap.

No SIP Phone support, none planned?
-- Shoretel 8 will introduce SIP extensions support. Not much point in doing sip phones with just SIP Trunk support. As far as putting sip in their phones, why? Right now SIP phones across vendors just provide basic capability. The market is far from mature enough from an interoperability perspective.

Conference bridge is 3rd party Alcatel – 96 port max per server
-- This is true, it works pretty good too. I suppose if you needed to run a huge conference bridge, Shoretel's solution may not be the best fit.

Call Center is 3rd party “Easy Run” – no features or functions here
-- Not sure what you are comparing this to?

Scalability tops out per system south of 10,000 power users
-- Not true. Look at Robert Half International.

Lacks H.323 or standards based VoIP gateway interoperability
-- Do people still use H.323? We can connect with gateways via SIP trunking today (and do this for BRI connectivity and ATAs).

Layer 2 QOS Only! No Layer 3 Available!
-- Not true, You can set layer 2 qos on the shoretel phones (802.1p).

Lacks LLDP support, SSL or like open encryption for voice traffic
-- Shoretel supported encrypted voice conversations in 6.0 (maybe 6.1). LLDP-MED is on the roadmap for soon.

Database is not encrypted or secure! No Access Software Installed?
-- True not encrypted. Security is a matter of understanding Windows access control lists.

Lacks native IPV6 addressing for phones and devices
-- shoretel has promised IPV6 by next year I believe. Personally, it is still premature and I don't expect them to deliver until next year when more companies adopt V6.

One Gigabit phone model in 2007?
-- Yes. Haven't seen a need for more. Usually if they are running Gig to the desktop on the same port as the phone, they are inclined to buy more expensive end points.

Same as Allworx, Shoretel needs server for voicemail and all applications
-- Same as Cisco and same as Nortel. I don't see the problem with this. Although Shoretel will be making changes in how voicemail is handled.

Voice switches lack Gig interface in 2007?
-- This is irrelevant in Shoretel's architecture. Call processing is distributed across multiple switches with 120 clients max per switch. Gigabit would add absolutely nothing. With Cisco for example, you need this as you stack thousands of users on a single server (in a cluster most likely).

Voice switches lack scale, particular for analog phones, analog trunks, or devices
-- I defintely don't see a lack of scale on the ip side. They scale in a linear fashion, very very easy to add. Especially if you start small and grow very big. In terms of analog, our per port is a bit high. Shoretel may address this with a high density analog switch.

Wireless phone? SIP or analog trunk only!
-- True. Would be nice to have a native phone.
Lacks native 802.11 integration

-- 802.11? Which specification?
No SIP Trunk endorsements from carriers
-- Defintely not true They have certification in process with multiple carriers and work well with Masergy.

Lacks complimentary data network hardware
-- This isn't their business model, nor will it be. Shoretel is designed to work on all standards compliant platforms. That being said, most partners recommend hardware. We push Foundry, Extreme and Procurve depending on the customer's needs. Works flawlessly.

Partner base growing disenchanted with “add more partners for growth” – no organic growth
-- Not sure who you have been speaking with, but I have not witnessed this. You need to have fair representation within a market, one partner is not sufficient for an organization to successfully grow. Most partners understand this and know that there is plenty of room in the sandbox for all of us.


In regards to the rest of the section, Shoretel has managed their growth very well (this is important as opposed to the morons who poorly managed their growth during the last decade). I think they are an extremely responsive organization with an amazing level of talent at their disposal. They have continued to grow and gain recognition in the market place and will continue to do so.

I hope you are able to find a solution that allows your organization to address its needs during your evaluation process.

News, here is some:

Voicemail support for timezones? Different server for each timezone
Access DB – redundant through 3rd party software only! “Doubletake”
Lacks video conferencing integration, either native or third party
Lacks Active Directory, Speech Reco, Vxml, Text-To-Speech
No SIP Phone support, none planned?
Conference bridge is 3rd party Alcatel – 96 port max per server
Call Center is 3rd party “Easy Run” – no features or functions here
Scalability tops out per system south of 10,000 power users
Lacks H.323 or standards based VoIP gateway interoperability
Layer 2 QOS Only! No Layer 3 Available!
Lacks LLDP support, SSL or like open encryption for voice traffic
Database is not encrypted or secure! No Access Software Installed?
Lacks native IPV6 addressing for phones and devices

One Gigabit phone model in 2007?
Same as Allworx, Shoretel needs server for voicemail and all applications
Voice switches lack Gig interface in 2007?
Voice switches lack scale, particular for analog phones, analog trunks, or devices
Wireless phone? SIP or analog trunk only!
Lacks native 802.11 integration
No SIP Trunk endorsements from carriers
Lacks complimentary data network hardware
Partner base growing disenchanted with “add more partners for growth” – no organic growth



10 year old company – still in IPO process from .BOMB time frame
The world’s longest IPO at a decade plus
No name brand recognition
Small partner channel, no direct sales
No tier 1 partner ATT only sells, no svc or install
Poor architecture, clever marketing
Less than $100M in size, would be unprofitable if had to pay employees $$ instead of options
Customers never see Shoretel employees, staff is beyond thin

[Forum]

Wow...welcome to ShoretelForums and thanks for your first post.

Looks as though you cut and paste that from another vendors 'Competitive' campaign, about how there product is 'Superior' to Shoretel. Why not enlighten us on who's product that is, so we can properly respond with it's pitfalls as well.

I could care less that Shoretel lacks a few minor features. At least I get to sleep at night knowing that it works as promised, and my customer is HAPPY about there investment. The majority of the items you listed aren't even concerns for me.

Charles

[tnshurtm]

I can't argue with most of that, but as for "everything third party" I believe most systems are like that right now. We currently have Cisco and the only reason their call center, voicemail, paging, ... aren't considered "3rd party" is because the went out and bought the companies who created those things. It is still a complete mess of different products that makes you need 4 servers to run one phone system.


...my 2 cents

Marc

[prefore]

News, here is some:

Voicemail support for timezones? Different server for each timezone
Access DB – redundant through 3rd party software only! “Doubletake”
Lacks video conferencing integration, either native or third party
Lacks Active Directory, Speech Reco, Vxml, Text-To-Speech
No SIP Phone support, none planned?
Conference bridge is 3rd party Alcatel – 96 port max per server
Call Center is 3rd party “Easy Run” – no features or functions here
Scalability tops out per system south of 10,000 power users
Lacks H.323 or standards based VoIP gateway interoperability
Layer 2 QOS Only! No Layer 3 Available!
Lacks LLDP support, SSL or like open encryption for voice traffic
Database is not encrypted or secure! No Access Software Installed?
Lacks native IPV6 addressing for phones and devices

One Gigabit phone model in 2007?
Same as Allworx, Shoretel needs server for voicemail and all applications
Voice switches lack Gig interface in 2007?
Voice switches lack scale, particular for analog phones, analog trunks, or devices
Wireless phone? SIP or analog trunk only!
Lacks native 802.11 integration
No SIP Trunk endorsements from carriers
Lacks complimentary data network hardware
Partner base growing disenchanted with “add more partners for growth” – no organic growth



10 year old company – still in IPO process from .BOMB time frame
The world’s longest IPO at a decade plus
No name brand recognition
Small partner channel, no direct sales
No tier 1 partner ATT only sells, no svc or install
Poor architecture, clever marketing
Less than $100M in size, would be unprofitable if had to pay employees $$ instead of options
Customers never see Shoretel employees, staff is beyond thin