Government Agencies Enhance Technology to Better Serve Public

State, local and federal agencies turn to ShoreTel for innovative unified communications that are highly reliable and easy to manage. These organizations are proving it is possible in these challenging economic times to do more with less, by taking advantage of the inherent benefits of next generation technologies.

Government agencies face ever-increasing pressure to protect and serve their constituents. With transparency and accountability as today's watchwords, federal, state and local organizations are making every effort to be more accessible, to streamline communications and most importantly spend wisely.

For an increasing number of government agencies, the ShoreTel Unified Communication (UC) system is the reliable front-line communications platform that helps them respond to their public. ShoreTel has expanded its government customer base by 20 percent over the last year, and that number continues to grow. Local governments, including the City of Oakland in California, Hidalgo County in Texas, Butler County in Ohio, and others have become raving fans of ShoreTel and its cost-effective, next-generation UC technology. This enthusiasm is rapidly spreading into the state and federal level.

"These agencies are being asked to do more with less and the ShoreTel UC platform helps them do that," explained Troy Parish, Director of Government Programs at ShoreTel. "As word spreads of ShoreTel's brilliant simplicity and low total cost of ownership, we're seeing more agencies inviting us to bid. Our current customers are becoming our best sales people as they willingly share their positive ShoreTel experiences with other government agencies, and highlight the advantages of moving to a ShoreTel solution."

Ease of Use Supports Government Mandates

Government agencies of all sizes also are selecting the ShoreTel UC platform for its ease of use and scalability. The ShoreTel switch-based distributed architecture delivers the five nine's availability that helps government agencies and all businesses survive and recover from natural and man-made disasters with minimal disruption.

The ShoreTel UC system was designed from the ground up for IP networks, and is built on a highly reliable and unique platform. The processors in ShoreTel ShoreGear Voice Switches do not require or use mechanical disk drives, which helps eliminate a common point of system failure. Plus, the switches use an embedded, real-time operating system and call control architecture that distributes intelligence across the platform.

"While other IP telephony systems rely on distributed server farms with complex switches, our solution is appliance based, providing incredible reliability and redundancy under all types of conditions," Parish said.

In Hidalgo County, an area prone to hurricanes, the ultra-reliable ShoreTel UC system is integral to the county's communications plan during a disaster. Hidalgo County relies on the ShoreTel UC system to publish an emergency number for citizens to call for information, to quickly set up a command center if needed, and to create an auto-attendant with options in both English and Spanish to route callers to the correct department.

"It is easy to set up a phone bank and add say 20 extensions for one month, then remove them later," said Renán Ramirez, Chief Information Officer for Hidalgo County. "We were able to relocate about 60 users in one day, and have been able to respond quickly after a hurricane caused devastating flood damage. ShoreTel has given us the flexibility and reliability we need to be both responsive to the citizens of Hidalgo County, and fiscally responsible."

ShoreTel's reputation for ease of use is especially appealing among government agencies that have limited technical resources, as well as businesses that are not replacing staff. The ShoreTel platform requires less training than other IP telephony systems, and it simplifies the critical task of adding, moving and deleting users.

In the City of Lakewood in Colorado, the IT team found the system straightforward and easy to use while the users found the interface intuitive. The entire system was rolled out—with employee training—in two months.

"The ShoreTel system is so simple to use, we all found the user interface extremely intuitive," said Shawn Cullingford, Lakewood's telecommunications engineer. "Plus, ShoreTel is committed to one product, so we do not have to be backwards compatible with legacy technology, which impacts reliability and maintenance. Unlike some of the other vendors, ShoreTel is not three different operating systems on separate servers. We certainly did not want to add that level of complexity to our network."

When comparing the investment needed for initial training and ongoing training, along with the ease of use and management requirements, ShoreTel is the winner by far, Parish added.

Modular Scalability Improves Flexibility

Scalability is another feature that has helped ShoreTel win government customers. The ShoreTel platform allows agencies to scale up or down as needed. The system scales seamlessly across multiple sites simply by adding switches, and does not require any forklift upgrades.

In the City of Oakland, the IT team added departments and sites on the ShoreTel platform incrementally, and can add a single phone or an entire site in a single day. "The ShoreTel platform can support agencies and businesses with distributed environments, helping to ensure that they will never have to rip and replace the platform," Parish said.

The tight economy forces government agencies and businesses to watch every penny they spend. The ShoreTel UC platform's total cost of ownership and return on investment supports a CFO's goals in these budget-conscious times.

Based on a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis using independent research, the ShoreTel UC platform delivers a TCO that ranges from 12 percent to 44 percent when compared to other UC systems and an existing TDM. "Our costs for training and support are significantly lower than other UC systems, and most organizations can do moves, adds and changes in-house—that adds up to one of the lowest TCOs in the industry."

ShoreTel's TCO and ROI Strengthen Today's Budgets

For Hidalgo County, the savings added up to huge reductions in expenses—money that could be allocated to other services. "The costs to Hidalgo County for the phone system went down from about $900,000 a year in 2002, to about $400,000 a year since deployment in 2006. These massive savings are because now we can handle changes in-house, and make calls through the network using ShoreTel's least cost call routing feature, instead of having to go long distance across the county."

These many cost savings, as well as productivity-boosting features in the ShoreTel UC system are causing cash-strapped government agencies and businesses to rave about ShoreTel. Detailed call records, open application development interfaces, follow-me and presence capabilities, and video conferencing are among the many features that make the ShoreTel UC system the first choice for both businesses and government organizations that want a brilliantly simple IP phone system with fully integrated unified communications.

Learn more about how the industry-leading features and reliable architecture in the ShoreTel UC platform is helping government agencies.