2. Table of Contents
1. Introduction . .3
2. Platform comparison . .3
3. Deployment comparison . .4
4. Management and administration comparison . .5
5. Redundancy and remote site comparison . 6
6. Scalability comparison . 7
7. Upgrade comparison . 7
8. Unified Communication comparison . .8
9. Total cost of ownership comparison . 9
10. Customer satisfaction comparison . 10
11. Summary . 11
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 2
3. 1. Introduction
Organizations of all sizes are implementing unified communications (UC) solutions
to increase worker productivity, facilitate increased mobility, and reduce the costs
of business communications. But selecting the right solution can determine whether
companies realize those benefits, or needlessly add cost and complexity.
The ShoreTel UC system provides a comprehensive, integrated solution that is easy
to deploy, easy to use, simple to manage and cost effective to operate. Compared
with Avaya products, ShoreTel’s UC solution offers numerous advantages, including
streamlined deployment and management, easier scalability, and a significantly lower
total cost of ownership (TCO). Conducting a thorough, side-by-side comparison of
ShoreTel and Avaya offerings can help organizations make informed decisions, whether
they need to build a business case for a UC system or are ready to select a new solution.
2. Platform comparison
A UC solution should be truly unified—not a loose collection of distinct products, but a
single platform with integrated capabilities. It should offer an integrated user interface
that allows workers to move seamlessly among multiple modes of communication and
provide a straightforward architecture with an easy-to-use management console to
streamline administration. A UC solution should also be easy to scale so organizations
can expand the solution as business grows without having to “rip and replace” existing
systems.
Avaya offers multiple UC platforms: Avaya IP Office for small to medium sized businesses
(up to 1,000 users), Avaya Aura for Midsize Enterprise, Avaya Aura Communication
Manager , and the Avaya Communication Server platform. Migrating from one platform
to the other can be difficult and costly so organizations need to gauge wisely both their
current and future needs when setting out to select a platform.
The Avaya platforms have been adapted from legacy technology and assembled
piecemeal. The flagship Avaya Aura solution for example is a series of multiple products
assembled in part with technology accumulated through corporate acquisitions, and
by adding IP technology on top of existing digital and analog systems. The results are
complex solutions that can require extensive time and resources to manage.
In contrast, beginning in 1996, the ShoreTel UC system was designed from the ground
up to provide a single, all-in-one solution that integrates a full range of communications
capabilities including voice, video, and instant messaging, as well as advanced tools
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 3
4. for mobility, presence detection, and collaboration. The ShoreTel UC system is a single
platform that can scale easily from 10 to 20,000 users to accommodate employee growth,
the addition of new sites and expansion to new geographic regions, all within the same
environment. It provides a seamless, integrated environment for users and a unified,
easy-to-manage solution for IT administrators.
3. Deployment comparison
A UC solution should be designed for rapid implementation so organizations can
reduce deployment costs and accelerate the time to value. Administrators should be
able to install and configure the solution without months of planning, in-depth technical
expertise, or excessive training.
Avaya products require more time and a higher skill level to deploy than the ShoreTel
UC system. Administrators must conduct more extensive hardware installation than with
the ShoreTel UC system, including installation of multiple servers and PC clients that are
unnecessary with ShoreTel. For example, a typical Avaya Aura deployment can require
the installation of up to 15 servers.
1. Avaya Aura Communication Manager Server
2. Avaya Aura Session Manager Server
3. Avaya one-X Mobile Server
4. Avaya one-X Portal Server
5. Avaya Presence Server
6. Avaya Aura Application Enablement Services (AES) Server
7. Avaya Web Portal Server
8. Avaya Client Registration Server (CRS) Server
9. Avaya Web Conferencing (AWC) Server
10. Avaya Meeting Exchange (MX) Server
11. Web Client Services Server
12. Avaya Messaging Application Servers (MAS)
13. Avaya Message Storage Server (MSS)
14. Avaya Agile Communication Environment (ACE) Server
15. Avaya ACE Integration Engine (AIE) Server
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 4
5. Furthermore, a multisite Avaya environment requires administrators to install and
independently configure gateways or survivable systems at each site.
The ShoreTel UC system can be deployed much more quickly. ShoreTel UC requires
only a single headquarters server and can be deployed through a simple, browser-based
console. Furthermore, drop-in switches at any site are easy to configure from the
headquarters location.
4. Management and administration comparison
Solution complexity can easily offset the cost benefits of UC. If an organization needs to
assign high-level IT staff to UC management, hire additional staff with in-depth technical
expertise, or provide extensive training to existing personnel, the added management
expenses will substantially offset savings.
Avaya solutions can be significantly more complex to manage and maintain than the
ShoreTel UC system. Once the Avaya solution is up and running, administrators must
navigate several interfaces to provision and manage all of the distinct applications. In
many cases, administrators will need to take multiple expensive training courses to fully
understand how to operate and manage the solution.
The ShoreTel UC solution uses a single-image architecture that encompasses all
functions. As a result, organizations have fewer servers to buy and maintain and
administrators can take advantage of seamlessly integrated management functions.
Administrators can use the browser-based ShoreTel Director to manage multiple
sites within a single interface. ShoreTel Director runs on the headquarters server—no
additional management systems are required. To help administrators make the most of
the ShoreTel UC system, ShoreTel offers simple, inexpensive training courses.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 5
6. 5. Redundancy and remote site survivability comparison
A UC solution should deliver high availability to support mission-critical business
communications. Downtime can significantly damage a company’s reputation and have a
direct impact on revenue. The loss of a dial tone can mean a missed opportunity or the
loss of a customer.
ShoreTel has eliminated many of the components notorious for causing system and
communications failures. Unlike Avaya servers, ShoreTel voice appliances have no disc
drives, data connectors, or multiple boards that can turn into points of failure. With its
single-image system, ShoreTel’s distributed architecture is less vulnerable to the kind of
glitches that sometimes occur in centralized architectures such as Avaya’s—the kind that
cause costly outages, such as lack of access to voicemail, or worse, lost messages. These
features add up to “five-nines” reliability for 99.999 percent uptime for ShoreTel — or less
than a few minutes of unplanned outage in a year.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 6
7. In addition, Avaya products can struggle to provide the availability many organizations
require. With Avaya IP Office, for example, the failure of a control unit can render
phones inoperable at a remote site. Meanwhile, Avaya Aura’s centralized architecture
relies heavily on the WAN, which typically delivers only three-nines (99.9 percent)
availability. As a result, a connectivity failure could easily result in outages. Additionally,
implementing Avaya redundancy and remote site survivability options are costly and add
to architectural complexity.
The ShoreTel UC solution offers cost-effective, n+1 redundancy with only one additional
switch needed to provide redundancy for the entire system. If a switch fails, its load is
automatically distributed to the other switches, protecting the system from an outage. In
the event of a network outage, the phone system can continue to place and receive calls
on the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The system’s distributed architecture
and applications, and its n+1 redundancy, help deliver mission-critical business
communications with five-nines availability.
6. Scalability comparison
A UC solution should provide the scalability to accommodate growth resulting from
the addition of new employees, opening of new office locations, expansion into new
geographic territories and acquisition of other businesses. Rapid and cost-effective
scaling can help an organization stay agile while controlling costs.
With Avaya products, organizations are often forced to upgrade to a new hardware
platform when they reach the capacity limit of their existing system. For example, if
a single Avaya IP Office deployment exceeds 1,000 users, administrators must either
upgrade to Avaya Aura Communication Manager or Avaya Communication Server
Platform, or deploy an additional completely separate instance of IP Office.
By comparison, the ShoreTel UC system provides scalability for up to 20,000 users and
500 sites, all within the same, single image. ShoreTel’s modular architecture enables
organizations to simply add switches where needed.
7. Upgrade comparison
A UC solution should help streamline component upgrades so organizations can take
advantage of new capabilities and lengthen the solution’s lifespan, without having to
invest excessive time and effort in administration. When UC solutions have multiple
upgrade cycles and processes for different solution elements, administrators must
manage upgrades almost continuously.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 7
8. With Avaya products, upgrading is time consuming and costly. Each server and gateway
must be upgraded, and there is a different process for each product. For some systems,
upgrades can require new hardware due to compatibility issues. Additionally, on site
technician support is needed to upgrade the platform, which can add significant costs in
a multi-site environment.
ShoreTel upgrades are faster, simpler, and less expensive. Because there is a single,
scalable ShoreTel UC system, there is only one process for upgrades. Administrators
upgrade the headquarters server and reboot gateways and phones. Upgrades are
distributed automatically throughout the entire system and are at no cost to the end user
through the ShoreTel support program.
8. Unified communications comparison
To maximize the benefits of unified communications, a solution must make it easy for
employees to adopt UC applications. Employees should be able to learn how to use
applications quickly and have access to capabilities without juggling numerous interfaces.
New applications should offer integration with existing communications solutions to
reduce the learning curve.
Avaya IP Office has multiple, distinct, end user clients, adding complexity and difficulty
for users and administrators alike. For example, IP Office clients include the one-X Portal
(which offers browser-based access although not all users can use this portal), the video
softphone client, and the receptionist client.
In contrast, the ShoreTel UC system has a single user interface—ShoreTel Communicator,
which provides simple access to voice, video, and instant messaging. Employees can
learn the interface quickly and avoid having to shuttle between interfaces for different
tasks. Additionally, with ShoreTel you can change the client type on the fly without
reloading the new client on the desktop.
Management of UC applications is also much easier with ShoreTel. The browser based
ShoreTel Director not only manages the phone system, but manages UC applications
as well. That means that IT personnel can fine-tune and adjust performance remotely,
whenever necessary. System dministrators who need immediate information or control
to troubleshoot Avaya systems must first obtain access to a PC already running Avaya
IP Office management applications, which could mean additional downtime and lost
productivity during an outage.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 8
9. 9. Total cost of ownership comparison
UC solutions have tremendous potential for reducing the cost of business
communications. But maximizing savings requires a solution designed to address all
aspects of total cost of ownership (TCO). Organizations must consider not only upfront
capital costs but also the costs of deployment, management, upgrades, support, and
energy consumption.
The complexity of the Avaya platforms adds to the TCO of these solutions. First, as
explained above, they are more difficult and more costly to deploy. Because these
platforms require the use of more hardware than the ShoreTel UC system, they also incur
significantly higher operating expenses, including the costs of powering, cooling, and
managing multiple servers and applications. Furthermore, all Avaya UC products require
extensive, costly training.
The ShoreTel UC system has the industry’s lowest TCO. In addition to significantly
reducing communication costs, ShoreTel UC keeps hardware acquisition, software
licensing, and management costs low. Compared with the multiple-server requirements
of Avaya Aura platforms, the ShoreTel UC system requires only one headquarters server
and one SA-100 unified communications appliance—so organizations have fewer servers
to buy and operate. Streamlined management also means that administrators can spend
less time and money deploying the solution and keeping it running.
Taking into account the full range of costs associated with unified communications
solutions—from capital costs and implementation to training costs and electricity— the
ShoreTel solution can deliver a TCO that is up to 60 percent lower than the Avaya Aura
solution.
ShoreTel provides businesses seeking a UC solution an easy-to-use online TCO tool
so organizations can gain a clear and accurate understanding of costs before making
an investment. ShoreTel guarantees that its solution will provide a lower TCO than
any other solution. If the ShoreTel TCO tool or independent data determines that the
ShoreTel TCO is higher than a competing solution, ShoreTel will lower its price to beat the
competition. Below are the results of an example 10-year TCO analysis for a 500 user, 3
site deployment.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 9
10. 3.93
Total cost of ownership (TCO) comparison
500 users, 2 sites (10-year pre-tax cash outlay)
3.48
Avaya ACM Avaya IPO
Vendor/Technology
Support services
Implementation and training
Capital costs for network upgrade
Capital costs for telephony system
Long distance charges
Network costs
Electricity consumption
System management, MACs, downtime
2.66
ShoreTel
$M
5
4
3
2
1
0
Source data: Ferris Research, Inc.,
Wainhouse Research, Nemertes Research,
Alinean Research, The Tolly Group
10. Customer satisfaction comparison
Given the ease of use, simple management, and low TCO of the comprehensive ShoreTel
solution, it is not surprising that customers have consistently rated ShoreTel highly.
ShoreTel uses the Net Promoter Score metric to measure customer satisfaction.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is determined by asking users a simple question: “Would
you recommend ShoreTel to a friend or colleague?” with respondents rating their
conviction on a scale of 1-10. These ratings are divided into three categories based
on the number. A rating of 9 or 10 is considered a “promoter,” 7 or 8 is considered
a “passive,” and any response six or lower is considered a “detractor.” After all the
ratings are tallied, the percentage of “detractors” is subtracted from the percentage
of “promoters” to come up with an NPS. So for example, if everyone gives a rating of
6 or lower, the NPS would be -100. If everyone gives a rating of 9 or 10, the NPS is 100.
A more common example is if 50% are “promoters,” 30% are “passives,” and 20% are
“detractors,” then the NPS would be 30 (i.e., 50-20)
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 10
11. Companies like Apple, Google, and Harley Davidson have received Net Promoter Scores
of 50 and higher and are considered “world class” according to the creator of the NPS
system, Fred Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question. ShoreTel has consistently
received scores in the 50’s and 60’s from its end customers. Avaya, on the other hand,
doesn’t publicly publish customer satisfaction metrics.
11. Summary
To realize the full benefits of UC, organizations must select complete, integrated
solutions that are simple to use, easy to manage, and deliver a low TCO. The ShoreTel UC
system meets those requirements, delivering a comprehensive solution with numerous
advantages over Avaya UC products. By selecting ShoreTel UC, businesses can capitalize
on the benefits of UC without adding costs or complexity.
Visit shoretel.com to learn more about ShoreTel UC, find a local sales contact or request a
product demo.
Unified Communications: Comparing Avaya and ShoreTel Solutions PAGE 11
