Better Mobility Solutions for the New Smartphone Workforce

Without doubt, 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the smartphone. As competition drives the prices of the most desirable models down, consumers are upgrading from voice-only phones in record numbers. And once they've had a taste of the location flexibility and productivity that smartphones provide, users are apt to put intense pressure on employers to help them integrate workforce data onto their personal devices.

For those companies looking to empower their workforce with modern communication tools that help boost productivity, reduce costs and support green initiatives, ShoreTel offers a range of handy mobile solutions that can supercharge the benefits of a wide range of smartphone devices.

Extreme Flexibility with Remote Call Management
ShoreTel can transform the effectiveness of corporate communication on the go with its ShoreTel Call Manager application suite that includes ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager with remote office connectivity, call routing, and access to voicemail.

For example, when employees need to make an outbound business call from their mobile phone, they don't want their private mobile number passed about and they don't want to be billed for the call. When the ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager client is installed on that phone, the user can route outbound calls through the corporate phone system. These calls appear to come directly from the user's office number, and billing is handled as with any other call originating from the user's office phone.

Using the Office Anywhere feature of ShoreTel Call Manager, users can assign their office number to their mobile device when they leave the office or work from home. Inbound callers gets seamless connectivity to company representatives and employees spend more time handling business and less time handling voicemail. In fact, Office Anywhere can reassign an office number to any telephone, not just a mobile device.

For calls that go to voicemail, ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager supports a mailbox visual display and an audio preview, directly from the user's email inbox. Users can screen full messages, listen to previews, and return calls with a single click.

Other productivity features of ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager include mobile access to the corporate directory and the user's address book.

Mobile Applications for Every Need
When it comes to mobile productivity, one size does not fit all. The right solution can vary depending on whether users are on the road, working from home, or roaming a campus.

ShoreTel offers two additional options for companies that need to support high voice call volume for home-based telecommuting:

• Softphone—fully integrated with ShoreTel Call Manager, this virtual phone dialer application runs entirely on the user's PC.
• VPN connectivity—ShoreTel IP Phones are available for remote use over VPN connections, offering rich feature and flexibility to remote workers.

A campus-based environment offers a very high level of reward for an efficient mobilization strategy. ShoreTel is helping many hospitals and other healthcare environments improve the quality of care they provide through widespread distribution of wireless DECT handsets from ASCOM. These devices offer centralized management, over-the-air updates, and access to key PBX features through a simple, intuitive user interface.

With a smartphone-enabled workforce, productivity is the name of the game. Thanks to mobile communication solutions from ShoreTel, access to email, calendars, contacts, and instant messaging is not just changing how people work, but changing where they can work.