A Review of ShoreTel’s Communicator

This is ShoreTel’s client interface and ships as standard with the extension licence. It allows the users to control their handset via a simple GUI based desktop application, and works in various environments such as Windows, Mac OS, iPhone, BlackBerry, Web browsers etc. The version used for this write up is ShoreTel software release 11.1 and the Windows client.

Overall the application is very intuitive once you realise you need to click on the ShoreTel logo in the top left corner to access many services.  It’s great for call history, especially if the caller has not withheld their CLI, and you can click to dial back off the history. You can put the phone into various call handling modes which include: in a meeting, out of office, extended absence and a custom mode option, although in reality the main ones we use in our office are either standard or custom. You can also assign your extension to your mobile via this interface, change the settings to allow easy headset working etc. The Outlook integration is also very easy to install and use and allows click to dial to your contacts, with other advanced options such as Instant Messaging, video and various CRM integrations.

For me personally, the greatest benefit of the communicator is home working. You can control your handset (we use a remote desktop session and the standard Windows client) and have options such as the extension assignment to your mobile (this puts all calls through to your mobile), or if your extension is part of a ringing group and you do not want to automatically have all the ringing group calls sent through to your mobile, you can set up a custom mode so only calls that come in via internal to your extension actually hit your mobile phone.

ShoreTel is a provider of closed source Business VoIP Solutions and to remain in competition, they keep on launching new VoIP products. The above description is an overview of such an application. For the results that VoIP Telephone Systems are generating for the businesses, more and more business companies are switching to them. These solutions are not only affordable, affective and compatible with the current times but are also termed as the ‘future of telecommunications’. So, if your business is still working with PBX solution, you need to switch today to catch clients that your competitors are just to get because of these solutions.  

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