ShoreTel Beefs Up VoIP Platform

ShoreTel will announce an upgrade to it’s VoIP platform later this week. The latest release of it’s Converged Conferencing appliance will see the introduction of document collaboration and enterprise-class instant messenging. ShoreTel believe that the introduction of the new features will entice new customers with the promise of cost savings.

“For anybody doing converged conferencing with outside service providers, the ability to show ROI on this platform makes it a no-brainer,” said Peter Proulx, CEO of Premcom, who is currently running the release as a beta.

The instant messenging client built into the new release of their Converged Conferencing appliance is designed to be used inside the company and does not interact at all with consumer oriented IM clients such as AIM and MSN Messenger. The client allows users to message each other and then move to a conversation when needed.

The new release of Converged Conferencing from ShoreTel will be priced at $700 per port for audio conferencing and instant messenging and up to $1,500 for a full-featured appliance.