ShoreTel Connect HYBRID
Take Advantage of the Best Features of Both CLOUD and ONSITE Deployments
Overview:
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID solutions provision new communications features on demand, integrate diverse deployments, maximize up-time, and leverage the strengths of onsite and cloud deployments
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID solutions provision new communications features on demand, maximize up-time, and leverage the strengths of onsite and cloud deployments.
As a VoIP pioneer, ShoreTel has always led the way with innovative communications solutions that help our customers drive business insights, productivity and growth. We bring a fundamentally different approach to phone system technology and the user communications experience, and with the ShoreTel Connect platform we’ve created a seamless delivery of services and applications that work for you today and adapt strategically as your business needs change in the future.
ShoreTel is laser focused on eliminating business communications complexity. Our reputation is built on helping customers close the gap between technical innovation and ease of deployment, use, and administration. The ShoreTel Connect business communications platform extends that reputation with ground-breaking technologies that offer more efficient, cost-effective ways to deliver business communications.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID combines the immediacy and convenience of managed service subscriptions delivered via the cloud with the solid performance and control of an on-premises system deployment. The result is a flexible, adaptable and strategic approach to unified communications system deployment.
By adapting hosted technologies and integrating key features with onsite deployments, ShoreTel delivers a worry-free, strategic migration path to cloud business communications. You now have the flexibility to place communications applications and services where you need them in your technical infrastructure and pay for them as an operating or capital expense.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps
ONSITE call control with application delivery from the CLOUD
As a visionary provider of IP PBX phone systems and unified communications applications, ShoreTel sees the future of communications architecture as combining the best of two delivery methods: a hybrid communications platform that delivers the resiliency, control and availability of an on-premises “hardware-based” phone system with the immediacy, ease and flexibility of virtual PBX applications delivered from the cloud.
Benefits:
Add productivity on demand
Quickly and easily provision new communications applications to your ShoreTel Connect ONSITE system with ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps. Because they’re delivered from the cloud, there’s no hardware to install, or software to manage and maintain. And you can manage the services as a monthly subscription, scaling usage up and down as needed as you add offices, employees and mobility. Simply provision the services from ShoreTel Connect Portal, the administrative gateway to ShoreTel Connect’s cloud services.
Maintain local control while exploring cloud services
Not ready for a full cloud deployment for your business communications needs? ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps gives system operators the opportunity to experience the convenience and ease of provisioning cloud services incrementally.
Add new features with no impact to your IT infrastructure
The biggest advantage of a cloud phone system is the reduction of time required for upgrades and maintenance. With an on-premises system, adding new features adds to IT’s workload, but with ShoreTel Connect HYBRID, all that’s needed is granting permissions to the users via the ShoreTel Connect Portal. Accounts are kept synchronized with ShoreTel Connect Director automatically.
Maintain financial flexibility
ShoreTel Connect gives company financial planners the flexibility to choose whether they want to add business communications services as a capital or operational expense. While maintaining the benefits of a capital investment in the company’s onsite phone system, buyers can expand services for their employees without additional long-term investment. Adding services from the cloud is an operational expense, a predictable subscription service that bills monthly for just the services you use.
ShoreTel HYBRID Apps Available Today
ShoreTel believes unified communications is more than just direct conversations. It’s also about creating easy and intuitive access to tools that speed information business processes.
The ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps do just that; they take familiar communications features, and make them better. ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps offers your ShoreTel onsite deployment additional productivity applications:
ShoreTel Connect Scribe for voice-to-text transcriptions, and ShoreTel Connect Fax that enables fax sending and receiving from your desktop. ShoreTel Connect Scribe is a multi-tasker’s dream. A voicemail transcription service, ShoreTel Connect Scribe converts voicemail messages into written text and automatically emails them to users’ accounts, along with a .wav file of the recorded message.
No more dialing in, entering passcodes, and listening to long, rambling messages. With ShoreTel Connect Scribe, it’s easy to quickly check your emails (or easier still, scan your smartphone notifications) to determine how and when to respond to your messages.
ShoreTel Connect Fax makes it easy for users to send and receive traditional fax messages from their computer. There’s no need for a separate analog fax machine.
Users simply upload documents to their computer and use the ShoreTel Connect Fax email interface to deliver documents to the intended fax phone line. Receiving a fax is just as easy; senders address the fax to a phone number, and the documents arrive as an email attachment.
How It Works
ShoreTel HYBRID Apps are completely maintenance-free for IT departments – there’s nothing to install, no truck rolls for service implementation, and no upgrades to manage. Simply enable employee services via ShoreTel Connect Director and Connect Portal, the browser-based administration programs for Connect HYBRID systems. After provisioning, all questions and trouble calls are resolved by ShoreTel customer service professionals.
ShoreTel understands the concerns many enterprises with on-premises business phone solutions may have about opening data up to the cloud. Communication between Connect ONSITE and Connect HYBRID Apps provisioning occurs over an https connection and email.
The security relationship between your ShoreTel Connect ONSITE administration and your Connect HYBRID Apps provisioning is based on Account ID and unique customer specifi c token. After a HYBRID Apps account is created in the ShoreTel Connect CLOUD Portal, a token is provided to enter into Connect Director self-certified through an https connection to the ShoreTel cloud.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps employs a secure protocol. It sends only the information required to enable Connect HYBRID services via secure http (https) from the premises system to Connect CLOUD. Connect HYBRID Apps establishes the connection with the Connect CLOUD portal and uploads the user data from Connect Director; this data is used to assign Connect HYBRID Apps services to users. Once activated, changes to data within Connect Director are automatically provided to the ShoreTel Connect CLOUD Portal.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Scribe: How It Works
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Scribe retrieves voicemail .wav fi les from the customer’s ONSITE Application Server via https. Information is only sent to the Connect HYBRID Scribe service; nothing is written to the customer’s Application Server.
When a voicemail is received on the ONSITE Application Server, the voicemail .wav fi les are uploaded to the Connect CLOUD data center via a secure https channel such that privacy is maintained. From here the message will be passed to an asynchronous transcription service.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps employs secure http (https) to protect ShoreTel Connect ONSITE data when receiving productivity services from ShoreTel Connect CLOUD. Once the ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps account is created in the Connect CLOUD Portal, a token is provided that authorizes synchronization between your ShoreTel Connect ONSITE account data and Connect HYBRID Apps provisioning via ShoreTel Connect CLOUD.
Note: If voicemails are marked private, ShoreTel Connect Scribe will not upload them for transcription.
An automated process, with a secondary semi-automated process leveraged if needed, transcribes audio files. At no point does a single individual transcribe an entire voicemail, rather a selection of people transcribe various parts of the message in order to retain privacy and anonymity.
A uniquely assigned transaction ID manages the voicemail throughout the transcription process in order to protect the privacy of users identification, name, email address and phone number. No password information is stored. ShoreTel Connect Scribe does not store or retain .wav files or transcribed files in the cloud. However, content left in the original voicemail will remain on the ShoreTel Connect ONSITE on-premises servers.
ShoreTel Connect Fax: How It Works
ShoreTel Connect Fax is an email-to-fax and fax-to email service used as a fax solution for the ShoreTel ONSITE IP PBX phone system. With ShoreTel Connect Fax, users receive incoming faxes in their email inbox and send outbound faxes as email attachments – thereby eliminating the aspects of additional hardware or software susceptible to breach. Faxes are stored on the ShoreTel server for up to three months before deletion. While standard email security concerns apply, ShoreTel Connect Fax eliminates the possibility of sensitive documents left out in the open on a communal analog machine. As with ShoreTel Connect Scribe, it is important to note that content is still susceptible to packet sniffing when traveling across a public network, so standard email encryption precautions should always be in place – such as strong password policies and avoiding unsecured public wireless access points.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites
Unifies mixed ShoreTel Connect deployments; available late 2015
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites enables companies to unify locations that have deployed both Connect CLOUD and Connect ONSITE phone systems. Connect HYBRID Sites synchronizes ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, ONSITE and HYBRID Apps locations with automated directory integration that delivers common extension dialing, Caller ID, point-to-point video and 100% feature parity (although not transparency).
Benefits:
- Add new cloud remote office locations to your company network without capital expense
- Add new accounts, including seasonal teleworkers, without IT operational impact
- Deploy a single communication platform forglobal business, deploying onsite where cloud services are not available
- Give all your employees the same great ShoreTel Connect user experience at alllocations, no matter whether their call control is in the cloud or onsite
- Control your own financial strategy of transitioning from capital to operational expense models
- Provides a clear migration path from an onsite deployment to an all-cloud deployment
- Grow your communications system as your business needs change with greatest deployment flexibility
HYBRID Apps:
Productivity Tools from the Cloud for ShoreTel Connect Onsite Systems
ShoreTel Connect Scribe and ShoreTel Connect Fax untether your workflow—familiar tasks get done faster, from anywhere.
The growing popularity of software as a service (SaaS) reflects the convenience, scalability, and security of cloud-based applications like email, business process apps and storage. Virtual phone systems delivered completely via the cloud, like ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, are growing rapidly year-over-year as businesses recognize the time and money saved when application upgrades, maintenance, and end-user support are handled by the service provider, not by internal IT staff.
As a visionary provider of IP PBX phone systems and unified communications applications, ShoreTel sees the future of communications architecture as combining the best of two delivery methods: a hybrid communications platform that delivers the resiliency, control and availability of an on-premises “hardware-based” phone system with the immediacy, ease and flexibility of productivity-enhancing applications delivered from the cloud.
Add new services quickly and easily
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps integrates ShoreTel Connect ONSITE phone systems with applications-as-a-service delivery from the cloud. Now, you can boost worker productivity by giving them immediate access to ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Scribe and ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Fax, leveraging your current investment by adding new phone system functionality with no additional phone system capital expense.
Improve team performance
At the end of the day, no matter what communications platform your company chooses, the proof of success is in increased employee productivity. ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps integrates time-saving tools that truly unify your business communications:
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Scribe reduces message retrieval time and creates highly useful caller records. It’s an integrated voicemail transcription service that converts voice messages into text files and emails them automatically. The convenience of being able to check voice messages silently and quickly is indispensable to multi-taskers and those who value efficiency.
You'll be amazed at the time you save
- ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Scribe is for anyone who would like the option of reading voicemail rather than listening to it
- Check your voice messages as easily as reading an email
- Voice messages are delivered as text with .wav file attached
- Messages are securely transcribed in segmented fragments by people, not machines—for highest message accuracy
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Fax recognizes that companies still need access to fax services for delivery of contractual and specialized documents. ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Fax eliminates the cost and inconvenience of fax machines and analog fax lines. It lets users receive faxes in their email inbox and send them as email attachments.
Add this traditional communications method to your UC toolkit
- No need for an analog phone line when faxing via ShoreTel Connect
- Send and receive faxes directly from your computer
- Faxes arrive in your email inbox, and send as attachments
- Send and receive from your desktop computer, laptop or mobile device
A hybrid phone solution that empowers ultimate scalability, flexibility and choice
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps empowers CIOs and IT professionals to deploy the type of VoIP platform that best suits their individual network strategies. It gives cost-conscious COOs and business managers the scalability to deploy advanced applications a la carte to only those strategic employees who require it, without any increase in IT budgets for service maintenance or user support. And it lets CFOs and financial managers future-proof their investment in ShoreTel, creating the flexibility to spend opex dollars on new service subscriptions rather than spend capex on new products.
How It Works
To enable ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps, ShoreTel Connect ONSITE system administrators using ShoreTel Connect Director can create a Connect HYBRID Apps account via a direct connection to the ShoreTel Connect Portal and its ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps landing page. There, administrators import phone system users and designate the personnel authorized to provision these monthly subscription services.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps delivers UCaaS services that are completely maintenance-free for your IT department. Simply enable employee services via ShoreTel Connect Portal, the browser-based administrative program. After provisioning, all questions and trouble calls are resolved by ShoreTel customer service professionals. There’s no hardware to install, no truck rolls for service implementation, and no upgrades to manage—across your entire enterprise, no matter how many locations you serve.
HYBRID Sites:
Unify Separate Systems
Have an ONSITE VoIP system and need to add new locations quickly? Like the TCO value of an ONSITE system, but want the flexibility to add new accounts and locations from the cloud?
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites lets companies deploy a mixed-site business phone system. It's easy to deploy a ShoreTel Connect ONSITE system at headquarters, while provisioning ShoreTel Connect CLOUD accounts at remote locations.
Operate one system with both ONSITE and CLOUD sites
Add new locations and accounts with little impact on IT
While maintaining your ONSITE system purchase, begin a migration to the CLOUD
- Deploy a single communication platform for global business, deploying onsite where cloud services are not available
- Give all your employees the same great ShoreTel Connect user experience at all locations, no matter whether their call control is in the cloud or onsite
- Add new cloud remote locations to your company onsite phone system network without additional capital expense
- Provide a clear migration path from onsite deployments to an eventual all-cloud deployment
One company, many locations
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites pulls it all together
- HYBRID Sites synchronizes ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, ONSITE and HYBRID Apps locations
- Automated directory integration unifies your various locations and deployments
- Four digit extension dialing, caller ID and point-to-point video
- All employees benefit from the same ShoreTel Connect experience—everywhere
Communications Platform Deployments:
The Future Is Here—Hybrid Communications Platforms
The growing popularity of software as a service (SaaS) reflects the convenience, scalability, and security of cloud-based applications like email, business process apps, and storage. Virtual phone systems delivered completely via the cloud, like ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, are growing rapidly year-over-year as businesses recognize the time and money saved when application upgrades, maintenance, and end-user support are handled by the service provider, not by internal IT staff.
Why Choose a Hybrid Phone System?
Reduce Capital Expenses While Leveraging Current Investments
As a visionary provider of IP PBX phone systems and unified communications applications, ShoreTel sees the future of communications architecture as combining the best of two delivery methods: a hybrid cloud communications platform that delivers the resiliency, control and availability of an on-site “hardware-based” phone system with the immediacy, ease and flexibility of virtual PBX applications delivered from the cloud.
One hybrid deployment model currently available from ShoreTel boosts worker productivity by giving them immediate access to new applications-as-a-service delivered via the cloud. New applications streamline voice messaging by transcribing audio messages into text, and integrate faxing services into the digital communications workflow. By deploying these applications via the cloud, you can leverage your investment in a ShoreTel Connect ONSITE system by adding new phone system functionality with no additional phone system capital expense. There’s no hardware to install, no truck rolls for service implementation, and no upgrades to manage. And Hybrid solutions are available across your entire enterprise, no matter how many locations you serve.
One hybrid deployment model currently available from ShoreTel boosts worker productivity by giving them immediate access to new applications-as-a-service delivered via the cloud.
Staying Secure in the cloud
Hybrid communications solutions that serve applications from the cloud are new to many IT managers. ShoreTel understands the concerns many enterprises with in-house solutions may have about opening data up to the cloud. With ShoreTel Connect, potential security and privacy concerns can be addressed through superior system design and network operations. A key example: communications between premises and the ShoreTel cloud occur over an HTTPS connection and email.
Documentation:
Download the ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Overview Datasheet (.PDF)
Download the ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Apps Datasheet (.PDF)