Adding Users in ShoreTel is among the most common tasks a system administrator will be expected to perform.  We suspect once the ShoreTel solution is fully deployed, you will generally not have to tweak Trunks, Switches and Application Servers, but you will always be handling requests from USERS to make changes.  These changes will run from adding New Users to changing the feature access of existing Users.    Most User options can actually be changed by the Users themselves but often [...]

We have been experimenting with mobility options for some time now, setting up SIP phones on mobile devices like the iPhone.    ShoreTel has a range of mobility options, most of which we have discussed here in previous blogs, so setting up a softphone is nothing  new for ShoreTel.    Recently, I discovered a new SIP softphone by CouterPath Corporation the company that brought you X-Lite, one of the most popular free phones on the net.    The new offering is named Bria [...]

The blog on the ShoreTel Mobility Router as one of the options offered by ShoreTel for remote worker connectivity, generated a lot of email requests. I have an opportunity to install, configure and test the solution including the Roam Anywhere Client on an iPhone. It is really a great product and should be well received in the market for campus wireless as well as for the growing Mobile workforce. The attached video provides a quick overview of the SMR System [...]

We have been steadily moving through a range of mobility options on our way to achieving true fixed mobile convergence.  We want to take our Office Extension away on our Cell phones and have the same functionality away from the office as we do in the office!  Originally, people forwarded their office extensions to their Cell phones.   Not the best solution, but clearly the easiest to set up.  The problem however, is that the caller to your office extension might [...]

We have not had an update to our System Administration video series since Version 8.    System Administration had not significantly changed over the various new releases, so we did not feel the need to do an update.  Our Version 8 stuff is still relevant and useful no matter what Version of ShoreTel you are on.   We actually installed our first ShoreTel system on Version 3 Build 3.1.11100  back in the day when Shoreline only had Analog phones!  You [...]

Software development is a process, not an event.  Having said that, from time to time, we have an event.  The release of a new version of software is such an event.  The software development process, however, continues.   The decision as to where to draw the line to separate one release from another is a complex interaction of competing goals.  The Marketing folks are trying to keep up with the competitive feature package from another vendor.   The support team desperately needs [...]

Yeah, I am sure you were just dying to know how to call your iPhone and have your ShoreTel phone ring?  Better yet, pick up your ShoreTel handset and make a call out your iPhone?    Actually, it is a useful integration and one that I recently had the opportunity to implement.   Many carriers have plans in which you can  call any of your “family members” without racking up minutes.   This is useful when calling from cell phone to cell phone, [...]

Running the ECC on a virtual server is “not a supported configuration”, but will it work?  Often we encounter installed base solutions that are pushing the support envelop with market driven customer requirements.  Windows 7 may not be a supported desktop OS for a ShoreTel Communicator, but try telling an end user client that is it “not a supported configuration” after they just did an enterprise wide PC refresh.   We quickly learn the difference between “not supported” and “does not [...]

If you have ever installed a ShoreTel solution in an environment with other than Windows desktops, you know you lose some of the Sizzle! The Personal Call Manager could not be installed on Mac computers for example! Well known to those who know it well, however, was the fact that there was a functional web interface to the ShoreTel system. This web interface made it possible for Users who did not have a Windows desktop, to make use of many [...]

I would like to kill  call center challenges with one blog!   In many call center environments, it is possible that an agent has a Direct in Dial (e.g. DID) number that a client might call and by pass the entire call center process!   For a call center manager, this is very frustrating!  Your create a Contact Center to organize the flow of calls to your Technical Assistance Center, and clients by pass the process by calling your Agents/technicians [...]