Source: CRN Online - 14 June 2011 ShoreTel says it takes market share from Cisco, Avaya. National reseller ASI Solutions will sell unified communications and internet-protocol telephony solutions from ShoreTel under the terms of a deal announced today. ASI general manager Nathan Lowe said US communications specialist ShoreTel distinguished itself by offering an IP telephony solution built from the ground up to be easy to install, use and manage. "ShoreTel creates tangible value for customers by eliminating high cost involved in expensive and complex bolted-together solutions offered by competitors," Lowe said. ASI said it had serviced the technology needs of Australian government, education and commercial organisations for 26 years. While doing well in the mid-market, ShoreTel reported progress in the enterprise because its products were more flexible than competitors, it said. ShoreTel said it could now handle 20,000 users on an image. ShoreTel Australia managing director Vasili Triant said there was "tremendous growth" in the Australian market over the past 18 months and ShoreTel was growing its market share. He told CRN it was taking business from Cisco and Avaya, whose customers he said complained about technology being too complex and hard to integrate with existing infrastructure. Triant was a formerly a Cisco reseller. ShoreTel also claimed its solutions were much cheaper than its rivals. National systems integrator NSC Group last week launched its Breeze managed unified communications service, developed in collaboration with ShoreTel, which it said had a starting cost of around the price of a coffee a week a user.
Source: ARN Online - 14 June 2011 Unified communications (UC) and IP telephony vendor, ShoreTel, is collaborating with ICT integrator, ASI Solutions, to jointly pursue stronger national growth in the enterprise sector. The deal came about as ShoreTel was seeking partners in Australia, especially one that has a strong presence in corporate and government while ASI was concurrently looking for a UC solution to offer its customers. Under the partnership agreement, ASI gains access to the full suite of ShoreTel IP resources. ASI general manager, Nathan Lowe, said the reseller partnership between both businesses is a communications milestone for the UC market in A/NZ. "Our company wants to focus heavily on the corporate side and we do see a strong growth in the UC market. The partnership means we now have a product in the UC range so we can compete well and grow our corporate base," he added. ASI has ongoing relations with the government, education and corporate sectors for the past 26 years and has deployed solutions for mid- and large-sized organisations. According to ShoreTel managing director for Asia-Pacific, Vasili Triant, ASI's business strategy complements its growth approach. "There has been tremendous growth in the UC sector across Australia during the past 18 months. The partnership with ASI will leverage ShoreTel and ASI among enterprise customers whose focus remains on gaining high business value for the lowest total cost," Triant added. The collaboration is part of ShoreTel's ongoing expansion into the enterprise arena, where it can accommodate up to 20,000 users on a single image.