ShoreTel, a provider of IP unified communications solutions, announced that it’s now positioned first in worldwide market-share for small and mid-size businesses’ UC desktop applications.

 

The result is based on the findings in a report, “Q4 2008 Collaborative Applications Market Shares,” published by Synergy Research Group.

 

According to the report, ShoreTel (News - Alert) also is ranked sixth in market share for UC desktop units in large enterprises worldwide.

 

ShoreTel attributes this success to its easy-to-use UC system. The company has witnessed significant growth in customer adoption of its UC technology. In the SMB segment, ShoreTel beats its closest competitor Cisco (News - Alert) by almost 35 percent in sales of its popular ShoreWare Call Manager application suite, according to the report.

 

The company’s UC system consists of IP phones, switches, and software solutions.

 

The IP phone system is a completely integrated system that scales seamlessly from 1 to 10,000 users including PBX (News - Alert), voice mail, and automated attendant functions.

 

ShoreGear voice switches deliver unified communications across multiple enterprise locations, providing n+1 form of redundancy for very high system availability. They manage ShorePhone IP phones and analog lines, as well as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and intelligent signal transfer point (ISTP) trunks.

 

ShoreWare Call Manger end-user application suite makes it easier for users to easily manage their communications from their PC and seamlessly move between video, voice (wired or wireless) or instant messenger (IM).

 

ShoreTel recently introduced ShoreGear “V” switches, a new family of voice switches that integrate voice messaging and auto attendant functionality onto the switch, TMCnet reported. The new switches not only reduce the cost and complexity of deploying voice messaging services, but also provide local access to voicemail during a network outage.

 

“We have always believed that an easy-to-use yet powerful desktop application is the cornerstone of unified communications leadership, and ensuring that every ShoreTel user has access to this compelling tool is a key element of our commitment to delivering world-class customer satisfaction,” said John W. Combs, chairman and CEO of ShoreTel.

 

Synergy (News - Alert) Research Group found that ShoreTel built its PBX from the ground up as a unified communications platform, providing collaborative applications as a standard feature set.

 

“We believe this forward-thinking design has positioned ShoreTel as a market leader and has been fundamental to their market share gains in the face of much larger, capitalized competitors,” said Jeremy Duke, CEO, Synergy Research Group.

 

“While ShoreTel’s initial success has been rooted in SMB, we believe ShoreTel has the product and the management team to aggressively target the enterprise UC market, which will lead to further market share gains,” Duke said.