ShoreTel launches Affordable Communications System for Irish SMEs

ShoreTel today announces the Irish launch of its new platform built specifically for the needs of the small business market. The ShoreTel Small Business Edition 100 (SBE100) has been designed to make it cost efficient for the 200,000 Irish small businesses to access enterprise-class unified communications and collaborations tools.

ShoreTel has extended the capabilities of its platform to its new SME system which will enable this market to benefit from productivity tools such as web conferencing, presence, instant messaging and advanced call routing. It also reduces communications costs, by bundling the cost of the server, switches, licenses and phones, by up to 40%.

Most standard functions, such as adding or changing phones, and moving users, can be done by anyone with basic IT knowledge.  As the business grows, the ShoreTel platform can scale by means of a software upgrade.

Barry Dillon, regional sales director, ShoreTel commented, “All organisations need to cut costs while ensuring they can remain competitive. This is particularly true for the SME market.  With the right set of tools, these businesses can compete more effectively in the global marketplace. Our SBE 100 platform is a complete, out-of-the-box unified communications solution that gives SMEs access to enterprise-class functionality.

“The administrative simplicity of our platform, which reduces maintenance and management spend, allows us to drive down the total cost of ownership for small businesses, enabling them to realise significant savings.”

The SBE100 also provides a variety of capabilities, including desktop call control and unified messaging that delivers voice, fax and email messages to a single application, such as an Outlook inbox. Mobile and remote workers can benefit from features such as message notification and Follow Me Find Me, which provides users with one number across all devices.

Michael O’Hara, managing director of Data Solutions, the Irish distributor for ShoreTel added, “This is a great opportunity for our channel partners to provide a cost effective and scalable communications solution to their SME customers, who account for a large segment of the Irish market. SMEs want the same levels of functionalities as large organisations and ShoreTel has delivered a solution that enables them to gain all the productivity and collaboration benefits at an SME price point.”