SHORETEL UPDATE: 4/24/09
Could it be - with ShoreTel continuing to provide PBX solutions - that the rumors I reported about them nearly a year ago were false? Is it now clear that Rich's sources that sparked this article were wrong?
Shoretel seems to be going strong. In fact, while this article was written a long time ago, but thanks to its high ranking on search engines, it still sparks the occasional new comment from avid Shoretel fans.
You can read the comments below for other people's thoughts. There are many avid fans of the Shoretel platform that have come to Shoretel's defense. Any time I see such rabid & loyal support behind a company it usually means the company is doing well. Look at Apple or even Asterisk, which is in the same industry as Shoretel. Both Asterisk and Shoretel appear to have a very loyal fan base. You could get into the whole open source vs. closed source debate, but thats a whole other article. Besides, both Apple & Microsoft are closed source and very successful. The key is to interoperate with industry standards, which pretty much all IP-PBXs do these days thanks to SIP. That enables buyers to simply look for the best features at the best price and with the best support, while weighing which elements are most important.
I'm leaving the article as-is below so you have the context:
I'm reticent to spread rumors about a VoIP company's demise - I certainly don't want to be be the Valleywag of VoIP blogs. However, Rich Tehrani, my boss, has been hearing rumors about ShoreTel and it doesn't sound good. It goes without saying that Rich Tehrani has his "ear to the ground" in the VoIP industry perhaps more than anyone - myself included. Rich heard things about TMC's main competitor long before the story broke out in the blogosphere, but both Rich and the TMC team took the "high road" and chose not to write damaging stories about our competitor.
With this in mind, Rich wrote in his blog, "I have never heard the kind of rumors about a vendor that I am hearing about Shoretel. Reports of unhappiness in the ranks of the workers and management problems persist in the industry."
Rich adds, "I normally hate to talk about rumors without doing more research than this but in my experience this level of negativity is unusual for any company and for it to come out of the blue and unsolicited from multiple sources means there could likely be fire causing the smoke."
Greg Galitzine also weighs in when he writes, "In my opinion these guys were once the truest darlings of the VoIP world. Maybe I was simply a sucker for a great desk set (and they had some nice hardware, I tell you) but in the wake of all the sour news in the VoIP world I have to wonder if the old adage "where there's smoke, there's fire" applies."
Greg adds, "Shoretel stock (SHOR) was down 10.10 percent on Wednesday, but appeared to be making a huge run in aftermarket trading, bouncing back about 8.5% at 6:50 pm ET."
ShoreTel is one of the early IP-PBX pioneers and they have some really great technology. I for one would be sad to hear if the rumors of their demise are indeed true. While it could be fun for me to speculate that pressure from low-cost IP-PBX solutions, especially Asterisk, the open source IP-PBX is affecting ShoreTel, I don't think this is the case. The last time I looked at ShoreTel, their technology was more scalable than any of the Asterisk-based solutions out there. Asterisk's sweet-spot is really under 80 seats (some exceptions excluded) where as ShoreTel's sweet spot is 80 seats and up. ShoreTel competes more with Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya.
So why is ShoreTel having problems? As Rich wrote in July 2007, "ShoreTel hit it big with an IPO which jumped 27.5% on it's opening day. The IPO was derailed last week as a result of a lawsuit filed by Mitel. The company closed the day at $12.15, after the company priced 7.9 million shares at $9.50 a share." So perhaps Mitel's lawsuit against ShoreTel took the steam out of ShoreTel?
Perhaps all the recent lawsuits against various VoIP companies, including Vonage, which has lawsuits filed against them by Verizon, Sprint Nextel, Nortel, and even me over my cold pizza has stymied ShoreTel?
Could it be - with ShoreTel continuing to provide PBX solutions - that the rumors I reported about them nearly a year ago were false? Is it now clear that Rich's sources that sparked this article were wrong?
Shoretel seems to be going strong. In fact, while this article was written a long time ago, but thanks to its high ranking on search engines, it still sparks the occasional new comment from avid Shoretel fans.
You can read the comments below for other people's thoughts. There are many avid fans of the Shoretel platform that have come to Shoretel's defense. Any time I see such rabid & loyal support behind a company it usually means the company is doing well. Look at Apple or even Asterisk, which is in the same industry as Shoretel. Both Asterisk and Shoretel appear to have a very loyal fan base. You could get into the whole open source vs. closed source debate, but thats a whole other article. Besides, both Apple & Microsoft are closed source and very successful. The key is to interoperate with industry standards, which pretty much all IP-PBXs do these days thanks to SIP. That enables buyers to simply look for the best features at the best price and with the best support, while weighing which elements are most important.
I'm leaving the article as-is below so you have the context:
I'm reticent to spread rumors about a VoIP company's demise - I certainly don't want to be be the Valleywag of VoIP blogs. However, Rich Tehrani, my boss, has been hearing rumors about ShoreTel and it doesn't sound good. It goes without saying that Rich Tehrani has his "ear to the ground" in the VoIP industry perhaps more than anyone - myself included. Rich heard things about TMC's main competitor long before the story broke out in the blogosphere, but both Rich and the TMC team took the "high road" and chose not to write damaging stories about our competitor. With this in mind, Rich wrote in his blog, "I have never heard the kind of rumors about a vendor that I am hearing about Shoretel. Reports of unhappiness in the ranks of the workers and management problems persist in the industry."
Rich adds, "I normally hate to talk about rumors without doing more research than this but in my experience this level of negativity is unusual for any company and for it to come out of the blue and unsolicited from multiple sources means there could likely be fire causing the smoke."
Greg Galitzine also weighs in when he writes, "In my opinion these guys were once the truest darlings of the VoIP world. Maybe I was simply a sucker for a great desk set (and they had some nice hardware, I tell you) but in the wake of all the sour news in the VoIP world I have to wonder if the old adage "where there's smoke, there's fire" applies."
Greg adds, "Shoretel stock (SHOR) was down 10.10 percent on Wednesday, but appeared to be making a huge run in aftermarket trading, bouncing back about 8.5% at 6:50 pm ET."
ShoreTel is one of the early IP-PBX pioneers and they have some really great technology. I for one would be sad to hear if the rumors of their demise are indeed true. While it could be fun for me to speculate that pressure from low-cost IP-PBX solutions, especially Asterisk, the open source IP-PBX is affecting ShoreTel, I don't think this is the case. The last time I looked at ShoreTel, their technology was more scalable than any of the Asterisk-based solutions out there. Asterisk's sweet-spot is really under 80 seats (some exceptions excluded) where as ShoreTel's sweet spot is 80 seats and up. ShoreTel competes more with Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya.
So why is ShoreTel having problems? As Rich wrote in July 2007, "ShoreTel hit it big with an IPO which jumped 27.5% on it's opening day. The IPO was derailed last week as a result of a lawsuit filed by Mitel. The company closed the day at $12.15, after the company priced 7.9 million shares at $9.50 a share." So perhaps Mitel's lawsuit against ShoreTel took the steam out of ShoreTel?
Perhaps all the recent lawsuits against various VoIP companies, including Vonage, which has lawsuits filed against them by Verizon, Sprint Nextel, Nortel, and even me over my cold pizza has stymied ShoreTel?
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Is there a reason why you are not posting the comments? Isn't that what a blog is? People are outraged at your irresponsible entries as they couldn't be farther from the truth. I assume by now you are well aware of this fact as many, many people are responding and neither you nor Rich has been brave enough to post the responses - which contain the "truth" and not just some weird "rumors" that likely started at a company that is threatened by ShoreTel's success.
>>neither you nor Rich has been brave enough to post the responses
I have no idea what you're talking about. I post all comments, including yours. I do moderate comments to prevent spam and inappropriate content.
I absolutely welcome comments to set the record straight.
Also, your comment was the first comment to this post. As for Rich, he was traveling and he moderates his comments as well, so it might be a day or so for a comment to appear.
As I wrote above, I like ShoreTel's technology. If you have information about them that points to them continuing to grow that you'd like to share, I'm all ears.
Shoretel is the
Most reliable
Easiest to manage
Easiest to install
Easiest to scale
Coolest features
Installs take hours instead of weeks.
Must have to say that I thought you may be right but in the last 2 days, despite the US stock market tumbling, Shoretel have gained 40 cents - I know that they have a fantastic product but they need to redress their training and documentation otherwise off to avaya i'm afraid!!!
Since Shoretel is on the short list for replacing our old Nortel Meridian PBX; this post is obviously of interest. It's now a month since you posted the article above. If you have some substance to back it then please offer it now. Otherwise I'd say it you were better off to have stayed on the "high road" and maintained credibility.
Rumor
Pronunciation: \ˈrü-mər\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English rumour, from Anglo-French, from Latin rumor clamor, gossip; akin to Old English rēon to lament, Sanskrit rauti he roars
Date: 14th century
1: talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source
2: a statement or report current without known authority for its truth
3archaic : talk or report of a notable person or event
4: a soft low indistinct sound : murmur
I recently bought and deployed ShoreTel systems for the company I administrate. We're about 120 people over four locations. After having spent a good deal of time shopping for phone systems, I'm sure there's not any other Vendor's system I could have done this with (on my own, I might add), at this price (less than $60K) with this feature set.
I have no indication whatsoever of any upset within the company's culture. I would call this article spurious gossip among competitors, which I'm not surprised to see. ShoreTel's stealing all their business, I'm sure.
Why does TMC hate Shoretel? we are still waiting to get an answer of where Rich and the rest of TMC picked up the gossip.
I can only echo Tim's comments. We deployed ShoreTel to over 100 seats, across 5 sites on an MPLS network. We're about one month post install and all I can say is 10/10. ShoreTel was NOT the most "cost effective" solution we evaluated, but we did evaluate Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel as well - ShoreTel beast them all in value.
The principals are thrilled, loves the solution, and we've had no hiccups. The deployment was completed well ahead of our deadline. I've had the opportunity to talk to John Combs during the process and his vision and commitment to the ShoreTel customer base is unmatched. I wish other vendors took a look at ShoreTel and learned from their methods.
Go ShoreTel and wou won't look back ...
>>Why does TMC hate Shoretel?
What gave you that impression? I was very careful to point out that this was strictly rumor at this point. Rich has a lot of contacts in the VoIP industry so he's usually right.
He could in fact be wrong. I hope he is. I'd hate to see Shoretel's demise. I think Shoretel has great products. So anyone reading this, let me be clear - "I like Shoretel's products."
Even if Shoretel were to go under, I'm sure someone would acquire their vast assets, customers, etc. So I doubt someone would be stuck with an unsupported IP-PBX. Heck TMC has a Comdial PBX for a long time even after Comdial went under. Worked just fine for us even though the company no longer existed. So those of you considering Shoretel should not consider "rumors" as a basis for not choosing Shoretel's products.
>>we are still waiting to get an answer of where Rich and the rest of TMC picked up the gossip.
I don't know. You'll have to ask Rich.
Funny Shoretel has the highest customer satisfaction rating out there. That is not opinion but a fact.
I have done some research on Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and Shoretel; and I could only find positive and happy customers for Shoretel. We are leaning towards Shoretel; any cons about the Shoretel product?
My 02. I recently joined ShoreTel's tech support team (and have worked in IT/Telecom operations for 11 years). I can tell you that without a doubt this is a company comprised of dedicated people who love their jobs and the products the company sells. They are *strong believers* in the best possible customer service experience and go out of their way on a daily basis to prove it. The products are top-notch and an excellent value in the target market.
ShoreTel is killing its dealer channel. It's taking any good accounts as direct customers and kicking back the crumbs. Their technology is great except for ECC which is a total piece of crap, but their management and tech support is the worst. I was a ShoreTel dealer and implemented several of their largest installs and am now switching to Cisco. ShoreTel is going to fail in '09.
I've been selling shoretel for over four years now, and have bean selling avaya cisco nortel comdial and many others for the past eleven years. shoretel hands down has produced the happiest customers i've ever seen. these comments of sboretel taking customers direct is completely false. Also every shoretel employee i know loves their job and the company and many have left higher paying jobs to work for shoretel. this blog is the type of unsubstantiated mud slinging that people do when they can't find actual facts to base negative opinions on. i wouldn't put much thought on if i was you.
I have been in the UC / traditional telecom industry for over 13 years and have engineered, sold, and/or maintained various traditional/IP PBXs such as NEC, Cisco, Toshiba, Nortel and, over the last 2+ years, ShoreTel. I have never worked w/ a better group of people from engineering - sales - mid/upper execs than ShoreTel. They simply "get it." And, after a, needless I say, simple installation process, the customers find it easy to use, admin., and, it is a tool that delivers value to their organization. Does it have a few weaknesses, mainly their CC, yes...but that should be resolved soon. However, the few weaknesses absolutely are overcome by the wide-ranging strengths. If you are looking at it - buy it. If compete against it - good luck.
Personally, I think Shoretel's softphone service stinks. No one in my company can get it to work dependably.
We are almost a year since this blog was initially posted. For those following ShoreTel, I think it is clear that the "rumors" are false. What is even more condemming is that Rich Tehrani has not posted a reply to the several people asking where this gossip started.
ShoreTel is a leader in the IP PBX market. They just took the No. 1 Market Share Position for UC Desktop Application Units Worldwide
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ShoreTel-Takes-No-1-Market-iw-14812067.html
Those that do their homework when making a decision purchase find out quickly....ShoreTel overall is the most cost effective system for the enterprise market, the easiest to implement, and the most friendly to administer.
Sorry to say but Rich has lost credibilty for starting rumors on this topic but not being man enough to post a response to this blog on where he received his information or posting to clarify that his rumor mill was incorrect.
I'm just another satisfied ShoreTel customer. We have two locations with 35 handsets and after evaluating Cisco, 3COM, Nortel, etc I couldn't be happier with my decision to deploy ShoreTel.