We have been actively working with VoIP since 1999!   Since 2001 we have installed well over 10,000 ShoreTel desktops and one characteristic of these VoIP environments has surfaced into high relief on the radar screen here in technical support:  A VoIP solution is only as good as the computer Network it runs on! Network Monitoring – a Necessary Evil?  When someone mentions network monitoring, most network administrators immediately start thinking: overpriced, large server requirements, difficult to install, time-consuming to configure. [...]

Configuring SIP extensions has become one of the most requested support questions we receive. Asterisk, CISCO and ShoreTel all support SIP extensions. Candidly, SIP is an excellent protocol and one that most IT professionals are already familiar with. This is an application level protocol and looks an awful lot like HTTP etc. Ever go to a webpage and get a 404 error, “page not available”? Well SIP error messages are very similar. If you get a 404 SIP error message, [...]

When VoIP gateways first started hitting the market back in 98′, the vendors tried to packetize DTMF and quickly learned it did not work well.   For this reason they quickly learned to “regenerate” DTMF at the outbound gateway rather than packetize and truck it across the network.   Moving modem tones is even more challenging and most VoIP solutions discourage attempting to send modem tones over an IP connection.  If you can get it to work at all, the modems will [...]

Does your Microsoft Outlook Integrate with your phone system?   This functionality is getting to be the “minimum daily adult requirement” feature in the VoIP vendor space.   We all just expect that our phone system “knows” about our “contacts”.   We don’t dial phone numbers anymore!  We enter Names and the phones system gets the number out of our contact list and places the call.  Often, an incoming phone call to our desktop, will cause our contact information to be displayed.    Some [...]

SIP trunks can be used for a wide variety of call processing  solutions, some of which are very cost effective as in Free!   We have used  SIP tunks to interconnect ShoreTel systems over the Internet, complete with four digit dialing between systems!    Most recently,  we have been able to create a ShoreTel compatible audio conference server at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these servers.   The most costly part of  this conference solution  was the [...]

The ShoreTel Contact Center provides two strategies for call management at the desktop.   We have found that the basic ‘agent tool bar’ is an excellent solution for call center desktops in which different shifts sit at the same desk, use the same computer and phone.  It is easy enough to program the tool bar to prompt the agent for there log-in information.   In this way, you can set up your phones with extension numbers that multiple agents can [...]

It is very normal to start planning a call center around the concept of DNIS, Groups, Agents and Skills.  Experience has taught us, however, that call center design needs to start with a more important concept.  Call Centers are performance oriented.  We measure the number of calls presented, the number calls answered, the number of calls abandoned, average talk time, the average time a caller is waiting in queue for service and any number of other key parameters.  We want [...]

At first I had to think about why I would want LBS on my ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager?   After all, it already alows me to change my call handling modes, access my voice mail and see my call history.   I can assign my cell phone as my “external assignment” and go seat on the beach while managing all of my office phone calls as if I was sitting at my desk.  So what do I need Location Based [...]

Every business desktop seems to have some type of customer or ticket management software solution.  Outlook and Notes are very common personal contact managers, but other popular solutions include Salesforce, Goldmine, ACT, Microsoft CRM, Time Slips and the list goes on and on.    Having a “record” pop up on your desktop based on Caller ID is the most common integration request we see.    How about doing a reverse look up on an incoming phone call, to learn the [...]

Are all your customers equal?  Every business owner, large or small knows the answer to that question and the answer is no!    We have Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze customers,  each of which represents a different value to the business.  For this reason, we often want to structure our call flow to prioritize these customers.     You do not have to work in a “call center” to manage this priority scheme.   The ShoreTel Personal Call Manager, for example, [...]