ShoreTel Offers Lowest TCO Guarantee for UC

ShoreTel introduced Tuesday a program that guarantees the lowest total cost of ownership for new customers of its unified communications solution.

For the ShoreTel Lowest TCO Guarantee Program, ShoreTel uses independent third-party data to compare the actual costs a business incurs for its UC system over time. TCO calculations are based on a like-for-like configuration and feature set, over a five year or more time period. If the TCO analysis shows that ShoreTel’s TCO is higher than a competitor’s, ShoreTel will lower its prices to beat the competition.

To achieve a fair comparison, the ShoreTel reseller and customer are fully involved in the TCO analysis, and have the opportunity to use their own data.

In a press statement announcing the guarantee, ShoreTel claimed upfront costs for a UC system typically represent only 25 percent of its TCO based on data compiled from independent third parties as well as ShoreTel customers. Operating costs such as hardware replacement and software upgrades; training and support; moves, adds and changes; system management; power consumption; and other ongoing charges comprise approximately 75 percent of a system’s five-year TCO, ShoreTel stated.

In a survey of IT executives by Nemertes Research, ShoreTel was rated tops in value, primarily due to its low annual operating cost, according to Irwin Lazar, vice president of communications and collaboration research, Nemertes Research.

ShoreTel customer, idX Corp., claimed an 80 percent reduction in operating costs. The St. Louis-based retail display fixture manufacturer uses ShoreTel to support more than 1,000 employees across its eight offices and manufacturing plants in North America, London and Shanghai.

“With our initial deployment of 450 ShoreTel phones and software licenses, we observed an 80 percent reduction in management costs compared to alternative IP-based solutions,” said Ryan Dibisch, director of information systems at idX. “We evaluated ShoreTel and other leading providers, and selected ShoreTel for its demonstrated lowest total cost of ownership over a five-plus-year period. ShoreTel’s overall simplicity has enabled us to reduce costs, while empowering our internal staff with communication solutions that result in superior service to our clients.”