With the release of its latest UC (unified communications) offering, ShoreTel has given the iPhone another arrow in its quiver of enterprise-ready features. The iPhone client, now available in the App Store, provides the same UC management capabilities ShoreTel has already extended to BlackBerry Windows Mobile and to Nokia users. No Android support is available yet, but it is in the works, says Kevin Gavin, vice president of marketing at ShoreTel.
With version 11 of ShoreTel Communicator for Mobile, users can access their corporate voicemail on their mobile device using visual voicemail, access the corporate directory for outbound calling (and show the individual's corporate phone number on caller ID rather than the mobile phone number from which the call is placed), and change the number that will ring when the individual's corporate phone number is dialed.
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On the back end, ShoreTel 11 allows for additional instances of its database to be installed at offsite locations, helping to eliminate bottlenecks and providing some redundancy in case of failure. And ShoreTel is providing extended support for legacy PBX systems, including expanded QSIG protocol support, with an eye toward simplifying system transition by letting customers leverage current systems while migrating at their own pace instead of having to do a full rip and replace.
The ShoreTel Communicator for Mobile iPhone app is a free download, but it requires a $90 license fee. Current ShoreTel customers can upgrade to version 11 for free.
This story, "ShoreTel brings unified communications to the iPhone," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Killer Apps and follow the latest developments in applications at InfoWorld.com.