The document compares unified communications solutions from Mitel and ShoreTel. It finds that ShoreTel offers advantages like streamlined deployment and management, easier scalability from 10 to 20,000 users, and significantly lower total cost of ownership compared to Mitel's offerings. Customer quotes provide examples of how ShoreTel met their needs for modern communications capabilities, ease of use, and scalability better than alternatives like Mitel.

1. WHITE PAPER
Comparison of Mitel
and ShoreTel Unified
Communications Solutions

2. 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.
Many legacy Mitel systems do not meet modern day communications requirements
and upgrading to a new Mitel system can prove costly or cumbersome. Conducting
a thorough, side-by-side comparison of ShoreTel and Mitel 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.
ShoreTel invests 100% of its research and development into a single platform The
distributed single-image architecture at the heart of our platform software delivers voice
calling, features, and applications, and makes your ShoreTel system easy to deploy,
manage, and scale.
Mitel has several platforms and must use its limited resources to support each of them:
Mitel Product User Support
Mitel Communications Director (MCD) 65,000 users
Mitel SX-200 IP Communications Platform 600 users
Mitel 5000 Communications Platform 250 users
Mitel 3000 Communications System 52 users
For example, Mitel 5000 scales up to 250 users. If a business grows to more than 250
users, the business must replace the old system with an MCD system. ShoreTel scales
seamlessly from 10 to 20,000 users. Additional switches can be added at any site, keeping
a single image system.
ShoreTel seamlessly scales from 10 to 20,000 users
10 Users 2000 Users 20,000 Users
Voice Switches (x1) Voice Switches (x12) Voice Switches (x110)
Comparison of Mitel and ShoreTel Unified Communications Solutions PAGE 2

3. PACIFIC
BUSINESS
CENTERS
ShoreTel offers cost-effective N+1 redundancy where only one additional switch located
anywhere within the network can serve as a backup for any of the other switches. In
contrast, there is no system redundancy offered for the Mitel 5000. Additionally, Mitel’s
call control is server based, requiring multiple cards, connectors, and spinning media,
whereas ShoreTel call processing leverages solid state flash media which is more reliable.
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 Mitel products, ShoreTel’s UC solution offers numerous advantages, including
streamlined deployment and management, easier scalability, and a significantly lower
total cost of ownership (TCO).
“The old phone system was a combination end-of-support Comdial phones and an
old Mitel voicemail application running on Centrex PBX services lines. The feature set
was limited, no longer able to adapt to the modern communications requirements
of a growing school system. In addition, replacement parts were no longer available,
service was limited and reliability was a growing concern.”
“Pacific Business Centers had PBX systems from Mitel and Nortel across the
organization. Two important selection criteria for our new telecomm solution were
ease-of-use and scalability. To be blunt, the thickness of their user manual and the
complexity and length of their initial training process helped us rule out some of the
vendors on our initial list very quickly.”
About ShoreTel
ShoreTel is a provider of business communication solutions whose brilliantly simple unified
communications platforms, applications and mobile UC solutions promise a new rhythm of
workforce engagement and collaboration. With costly complexity eliminated by design from
its award winning, all-in-one IP phone system, UC and contact center solution, and its industry
leading hosted business phone system, workers enjoy a freedom and self-reliance that other
providers can’t match. Users have full control to engage and collaborate, no matter the time,
place or device, for the lowest cost and demand on IT resources in the industry. ShoreTel is
headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices and partners worldwide.
For more information, visit shoretel.com or shoretelsky.com
WORLD HEADQUARTERS 960 Stewart Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94085 USA. shoretel.com and shoretelsky.com
+1 (800) 425-9385 Toll Free +1 (408) 331-3300 Tel. +1 (408) 331-3333 Fax for ShoreTel
+1 (646) 230-5000 Tel. +1 (646) 230-5001 Fax for ShoreTel Sky
EMEA +800 408 33133 Freephone +44 (1628) 826300 Tel.
ASIA PACIFIC +61 (0)2 9959 8000 Tel.
Copyright © 2013 ShoreTel. All rights reserved. The ShoreTel logo and ShoreTel are registered trademarks of ShoreTel, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other copyrights and trademarks herein
are the property of their respective owners. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Part #850-1363-01/09.13