Shoretel announced version 9 of its enterprise unified communications solution Monday. The new release offers increased SIP support, location-based call routing, and enhanced distributed architecture with streamlined failover protection.

Kevin Gavin, vice president of marketing for Shoretel, said the company used to have a reputation as only catering to the SMB market, but now has more than 50 installations with more than 1,000 end users.

"The recession is allowing us to break out of Tier 2 status, and we're gaining market share as Nortel has trouble," Gavin said. "The Version 9 release is significant in continuing to do so, as its top level support for IT staff in the release is one of the highlights."

Gavin said version 9's failover capabilities eliminate prior redundancies companies had to have in their phone system to assure reliability. With ShoreTel's latest product, a company need only have one central switch to handle failovers, rather than a dedicated redundant phone at each branch location.

Gavin also noted the release's advanced mobility features, as the Mobile Call Manager supports a wide range of Nokia, Blackberry, and HTC devices as part of its FMC play. The call screening, location-based forwarding, and extended routing rules give mobile workers and telecommuters more flexibility in doing their jobs remotely. 

For more:
- see the press release here 

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