What is new in ShoreTel Version 11/12?

Software development is a process, not an event. Having said that, from time to time, we have an event. The release of a new version of software is such an event. The software development process, however, continues. The decision as to where to draw the line to separate one release from another is a complex interaction of competing goals. The Marketing folks are trying to keep up with the competitive feature package from another vendor. The support team desperately needs a patch for a nasty unforeseen system configuration that introduces an undesirable result and the software team has an aggressive agenda of its own making. The list of new feature demands is unending. Driven in part by user requests, marketing objectives and the pressures of other vendor releases. If your product is built on Microsoft, clearly you are under pressure to stay compatible with any new releases they might make available to the market. In fact, as it relates to ShoreTel, many people were seeking Windows 7 support when what they really want is Microsoft Office 2010 support! Was it 64 bit desktop computers or 64 bit server software that the market demanded? Do we do the Apple IPhone? Is that web based Communicator really needed in this release or can it wait? Fixing the release of new features is one of the most challenging business decisions that companies have to make. Generally companies try for two DOT releases per year and one major new release every year. For ShoreTel, we generally expect a DOT one and a DOT two release. For example we might have a Version 10.1 in general availability (GA) while we are beta testing a major release like 11.0. We move to a GA release with the DOT and 11.0 becomes 11.1 available to all. Currently, as of this post, ShoreTel is in GA on Version 11.1 while beta testing Version 12.0. The GA Version of ShoreTel 11.1 has a host of exciting new features, but architecturally we are most interest in 64 bit server support; virtualization, Windows 7 Support, browser based Communicator and distributed Databases. Version 12 completes the Microsoft compatibility by supporting Outlook 2010. Distributed Workgroups was made available in Version 10, which enables the continued operation of Workgroups on a distributed voice mail server (DVM) even if the HQ server failed. This has some attractive options, but having an operating workgroup might be limited by an inability to have users log in or out of the workgroup. Version 11 enables distributed database capability. This means that in the absence of a HQ (e.g. read/write database) server, a user on a DVM could change their call handling mode; or a change in schedule from Off-Hours to On-Hours could be effected. You have to chose one over the other and I would encourage you to choose the distributed database. Best practice dictates that a Workgroup should be backed up by a Hunt Group that contains all the agents who make up the Workgroup. In this way a failure of the Workgroup, still provides a call flow that reaches all Agents. A distributed database, in my humble opinion, has higher impact. IN a multi-site deployment, you will want to change call handling modes even if the HQ server is down. This combined with a backup hunt group, gets the job done more effectively. The browser based Call Manger is yet another power new feature capability. Now all those MAC users have an option! I suspect that more and more call control will be built into browsers limiting our dependency on the various O/S issues. Who cares if we support Windows 9 as long as we have a browser option!

ShoreTel System Administration Version 12

We have not had an update to our System Administration video series since Version 8. System Administration had not significantly changed over the various new releases, so we did not feel the need to do an update. Our Version 8 stuff is still relevant and useful no matter what Version of ShoreTel you are on. We actually installed our first ShoreTel system on Version 3 Build 3.1.11100 back in the day when Shoreline only had Analog phones! You might be interested to know that first system is still installed and we have continue to upgrade it over the last nine years! We had to make a hardware change for the first time recently, but come on! 9 years on the same system! That is amazing. Talk about ROI! We have watched with old blue Shoreline become the new Orange ShoreTel while steadily improving the functionality, scale and architecture over the years! Somewhere around Version 4 we grew IP phones, but System Administration was relatively the same. When we moved from the old Microsoft Access Database in Version 7 to the MySQL database in Version 8, System administration was still basically the same, but we finally cranked out a tutorial revision. Now, as the solution matures development that was taking shape in Version 10 and 11, we figure it is about time to do a new System Administration Series, so we are starting to crank out Version 12! A note to DrVoIP fans and critics: occasionally I log in here and see comments that you have left. Unfortunately, I turned auto comments off because it just became another place for Viagra advertisements and other Spam. I do enjoy the interaction with those of you who find the blog useful, however, so please keep the comments coming. Just Don’t try to post them here as the spam filter now kills all blog comments. Pleasejust send them on to Peter@DrVoIP.com! Thank you all for your support and encouragement!

Fixed Wireless Convergence and Mobility Options for VoIP

We have been steadily moving through a range of mobility options on our way to achieving true fixed mobile convergence. We want to take our Office Extension away on our Cell phones and have the same functionality away from the office as we do in the office! Originally, people forwarded their office extensions to their Cell phones. Not the best solution, but clearly the easiest to set up. The problem however, is that the caller to your office extension might end up anywhere including your cell phone voice mail. So much for a maintaining a business presence! ShoreTel addressed that issue, but adding a couple of useful features. For example, you can use External Assignment. Someone calls your desk phone and you can have it re-assigned to your home phone or cell phone. The benefit over call forwarding alone, is that the call profiles you set up for each of your call handling modes are followed as if the caller were going to your desk phone. Find Me Follow Me with the auto option was also very useful for that reason. When your desk phone was called, it could be routed to your cell phone. You had to explicitly accept the call or the system would take the call back and put it in your personal Voice Mail box. This is clearly superior to just forwarding the call off to your cell phone, risking the possibility of having the caller end up in a personal cell phone voice mailbox. Twining (see other blog video) is also a favorite strategy for extending your office phone to your cell. Why not ring both devices when your desk phone is called? In this way you could answer on either device and you could also seamlessly move the call between the devices. For example if I am on my desk phone and need to jump into my car and race off to the next appointment, but do not want to terminate my current call, I can simply hit the move button and the call now appears on my cell. Likewise, if I took the call on my cell phone, I can now *23 and send it to my desk phone enabling me to move seamlessly from my car to my desk. The Mobile Call Manager is another exciting option for extending your desk phone to your cell. Using the ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager, we get a GUI on our phone that allows us to setup our call handling, review voice messages and otherwise experience most of what we see in the desktop Communicator. I can externally assign my desk phone to my Mobile Call Manager and setup phone calls that originate at the office. All of these are useful tools, but none come close to true fixed mobile convergence. I want my cell phone to be smart enough to enable me to take and make office phone calls regardless of where I am on the planet. I also want the phone to work on any available WiFi connection and to seamlessly move between G3 and WiFi without dumping the call in progress. You walk into Starbucks and your cell phone is smart enough to jump on the WiFi and establish a secure connection back to the office and register with the office mobility server. Any call coming into your office desk phone will now ring your cell phone as a SIP extension! With a true mobility router, a call to my desk phone will ring both my office extension and my mobile extension. I can answer the call on either extension and have full feature access. While out on the WiFi I can still access my office directory, history, voice mail and manipulate active calls to allow conference and transfer functionality. If my WiFi drops my G3 connection can pick up and continue as my office SIP extension. Calls to my Cell phone are personal business and calls to my office desk are for business. I want each of these callers to receive appropriate call handling. If I make a call to a personal contact, I want my CID to be different then my CID to a business contact. The phone should be smart enough to route business calls to the company VM and personal calls to my personal VM. All of this is possible with a true Mobility router. All that is required is a PBX that supports both SIP trunks and SIP extensions. Most if not all of the IP based PBX solutions in the market support this capability and the ShoreTel Mobility Router and ShoreTel Roam Anywhere Client make true fixed mobile convergence a reality!