ShoreTel, Telstra seal partnership agreement

Global provider of unified communications systems, ShoreTel,  has entered into a partnership with Telstra to join the company's Business Systems program and to jointly market and support ShoreTel's IP telephony, unified communications, contact centre and mobility solutions in Australia.

The past two years through the TBS program

"During Telstra Business Partners have been installing ShoreTel solutions for the past two years through the TBS program, until now there was no direct partnership between Telstra and ShoreTel," said Jamie Romanin, ShoreTel regional director Australasia.

According to Romanin, ShoreTel is "simple to install, has a very low total cost of ownership for the customer, and offers pure IP capabilities that are scalable from small businesses to organisations with up to 20,000 users."

Boris Corluka, director of Unified Communications at Telstra, said the new partrnership with ShoreTel meant  that more clients would now be able to enjoy an end-to-end Unified Communications experience with Telstra and ShoreTel. "Our partnership with ShoreTel strengthens Telstra's ability to deliver integration in unified communications services whilst leveraging our NextG and NextIP networks to deliver a superior customer experience. This means that more clients will now be able to enjoy an end-to-end Unified Communications experience with Telstra and ShoreTel."

According to ShoreTel, from a customer perspective, the Telstra TBS program had a number of significant benefits. Through the TBS program, Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs implemented a ShoreTel unified communications solution in August 2011 with minimal capital expenditure costs and  a reduction of 50 percent in ongoing support costs for the new communications environment.

The project through the TBS program

"We were able to finance the project through the TBS program, with repayments each month on one Telstra bill. With little up-front capital expenditure and a low total cost of ownership for the ShoreTel solution, the business case to replace our existing PABX was straightforward. We as well negotiated discounts on our international call rates which we have passed on to our clients, with international call costs from our rooms cheaper than calls from mobiles and comparable to international calling cards," Daniel Davis, ICT manager, Lasseters Hotel Casino, said.

Under the program, logistics, dealer on-boarding and channel marketing services for the TBS program are being provided by ShoreTel's distribution partner, Express Data. Additionally, the flexible financial arrangements offered by Telstra through the program provide businesses, large or small, with the option to package carriage services with telephony equipment purchase, and installation and support, all managed through a single billing process.