Don Joos and Frederic Gillant (ShoreTel)
ShoreTel has rolled out its Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution, ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, in Australia, giving local partners the chance to go to market with the solution.
Connect CLOUD services were previously only available to customers in the US, Canada and the UK.
“Connect CLOUD gives our Australian customers and partners greater choice and flexibility in how they procure, design and deploy unified communications and contact centre solutions,” ShoreTel president and CEO, Don Joos, said.
“The richness of the Connect CLOUD solution combined with the enthusiasm we’ve seen from the Australian channel perfectly positions ShoreTel to drive cloud growth in the Asia-Pacific region.”
ShoreTel vice-president and managing director of Asia-Pacific, Frederic Gillant, said Connect CLOUD services will be available through its Australian cloud partners, who can also offer customers a range of professional services.
“The solution will not only be available to new customers but also for current ShoreTel customers as an opportunity to upgrade their existing cloud solution or migrate from an onsite system," Gillant said.
“Many of our customers have been adopting cloud in other areas of their IT infrastructure and business; now they also have a low-risk cloud migration path for their ShoreTel telephony and UC environments,” he said.
The move to make this available in Australia follows the rollout of company’s first cloud-based voice service in Australia last year.
According to ShoreTel, national training provider, MRWED, is the first customer in Australia that will be deploying this new UCaaS solution.
MRWED chief information officer, Jason Ash, said the single solution will replace three other systems it was considering and an important feature for its selection is the multi-point video collaboration.
“The ShoreTel UCaaS solution will mean better visibility and increased collaboration across our organisation. This is a huge advantage as we strive to create a diverse force of remote workers, adding to the MRWED core value of flexibility,” he said.
Gillant attributed findings from a recent study by the company, that found that video collaboration plays a huge role in keeping staff engaged and connected with each other.
“In our survey, when we asked what they really do in meetings, 73 per cent of remote workers say they fully participate and take notes, which was a higher figure than the response we received overall,” he said.
“For a business with a significant proportion of its team working remotely, providing your staff with video collaboration tools like those in ShoreTel Connect CLOUD goes a long way to making those remote workers feel more connected, as well as increasing their sense of presence and engagement in meetings.”
