The Salvation Army Selects ShoreTel Australia

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ShoreTel® (NASDAQ: SHOR), the leading provider of brilliantly simple phone systems and unified communications (UC) solutions, today announced that The Salvation Army (Australia Eastern Territory) will be rolling out a ShoreTel Unified Communications, Contact Center and Mobility solution across its entire operation.

The project, won by ShoreTel partner HP, will see more than 1700 ShoreTel IP telephony handsets deployed to over 60 Salvation Army sites in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.

With the expiry of its existing hosted IP telephony contract in 2014, The Salvation Army released a tender for a unified communications and contact center solution with the key criteria that it would integrate with IBM Notes, The Salvation Army's global standard collaboration platform.

After shortlisting four tender responses, The Salvation Army selected the ShoreTel solution proposed by HP.

"ShoreTel is one of the technology leaders in IP telephony and clearly demonstrated its capability to integrate with our systems. The ShoreTel environment is fresh, easy-to-use and intuitive, and will provide us with the best foundation for our future communications needs," says Wayne Bajema, IT manager, The Salvation Army (Australia Eastern Territory).

"Telephony integration with our messaging and applications environment will improve how we do business. For example, when we deploy UC in our Salvo Stores contact center, our agents will be better able to use the smarts in our IBM Notes customer management system to manage calls," says Bajema.

The first locations for the new ShoreTel UC environment were deployed recently. Soon The Salvation Army will relocate to a new territorial headquarters in Sydney, consolidating up to ten current offices and providing additional space for future expansion. ShoreTel Unified Communications will be ready for head office staff when they move into their new office space, which has also been designed to support more flexible working practices.

"We want to give our staff the ability to work anywhere, and not necessarily be fixed to a desk. ShoreTel Mobility will support this activity-based working approach which will make sure that our staff have the opportunity to stay connected in the office, travelling or out in the field," said Bajema.

HP has designed a hardware/software hybrid solution for The Salvation Army, based on ShoreTel Unified Communications, Enterprise Contact Center and Mobility products. The solution had to cater to specific functional requirements for the organization's headquarters and branch offices, contact center, retail stores and aged care facilities, all with mobility capabilities. The core of the UC system is virtualized and is in an active/active dual data center deployment, with one data center in Sydney and the other in Brisbane. All other sites that require resiliency (for example, aged care) have physical ShoreTel phone appliances. The Salvation Army's existing underlying network is an HP Networking Core with POE switching for all telephony connectivity.

"With ShoreTel, The Salvation Army (Australian Eastern Territory) is setting itself up for its long-term needs. The simplicity and modularity of the ShoreTel UC platform delivers what the organization needs today and enables The Salvation Army to easily take advantage of future technology developments, including the adoption of cloud applications and infrastructure," said Frederic Gillant, vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific, ShoreTel.

ShoreTel is continuing to build momentum in the Australian not-for-profit sector, with further growth expected in the sector for the next 12 months.

The Salvation Army was founded as the Christian Mission in the slums of London in 1865 by former Methodist minister, William Booth. It is celebrating 150 years as an organization this year and currently operates in 126 countries worldwide. The Salvation Army began operations in Australia in 1880. The Salvation Army Australia Eastern Territory, covering NSW, QLD and ACT, is headquartered in Sydney and its mission is to save souls, grow saints and serve suffering humanity.

About ShoreTel, Inc.

ShoreTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOR) is a leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems and unified communications solutions powering today's always-on workforce. Its flexible communications solutions for on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments eliminate complexity, reduce costs and improve productivity. Recognized for its industry-leading customer experience and support, ShoreTel's innovative business phones, application integration, collaboration tools, mobility, and contact center applications enable users to communicate and collaborate no matter the time, place or device, with minimal demand on IT resources. ShoreTel is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has regional offices and partners worldwide. For more information, visit www.shoretel.com.

ShoreTel and the ShoreTel logo and "brilliantly simple" are trademarks or registered trademarks of ShoreTel, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. All other trademarks, trade names and service marks herein are the property of their respective owners.

Media contact:
Katie Maller
408-962-2786
[email protected]

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

ShoreTel assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this release. This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding continuing to build momentum and future growth. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The risks and uncertainties include the intense competition in our industry, our reliance on third parties to sell and support our products, our ability to continue to grow our cloud-based solutions, our ability to grow or maintain our premise products, supply and manufacturing risks, the impact of service disruptions or security breaches, uncertainties related to global operations, our ability to control costs as we expand our business, our ability to attract, retain and ramp new personnel, potentially longer sales cycles, uncertainties inherent in the product development cycle, our ability to identify and execute on strategic opportunities; ability of third parties to successfully market and sell our products, uncertainty as to market acceptance of new products and services, the potential for litigation in our industry, the uncertain impact of global economic conditions and foreign exchange rates, including impact on customers' purchasing decisions, and other risk factors set forth in ShoreTel's Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2015.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131118/MM19469LOGO

SOURCE ShoreTel

Related Links

http://www.shoretel.com