ShoreTel Releases New Salesforce.com Integrations

ShoreTel, a provider of phone systems and unified communications solutions, has launched ShoreTel for Salesforce and ShoreTel Sky for Salesforce, integrating Salesforce.com applications and the ShoreTel on-premises IP-PBX system, the ShoreTel Sky cloud-based phone system, ShoreTel Workgroups, and ShoreTel Sky Contact Center. Now users can handle all of their business communications within a single application.

By integrating the communications platform and a company's critical enterprise application, businesses now have reporting on the effectiveness of all communications and customer interactions.

Unique to ShoreTel Sky for Salesforce, customers can automatically log all calls, voicemail messages, and SMS activities for enhanced transparency across all channels of communication.

The application integrations provide customer service employees a comprehensive history of previous customer interactions from across the company. As customers are transferred to the department that can best help them, records of their interactions go with them. Similarly, the integrations allow users to measure the ROI effectiveness of marketing campaigns by tracking all customer touchpoints during the buyer's journey.

Key features of the application integrations include the following:

• Support for next-generation browser-based CTI on any device or OS; no desktop client software required;
• Click to-Dial to start a call from within Salesforce anytime a phone number is available;
• Presence monitoring and collaboration features, including transfer of workspace across devices;
• Enhanced reporting, including off-line activities, and ShoreTel Mobility call tracking;
• Single sign-on for call center agents;
• Packaged dashboards and metrics; and
• Workspace transfer, so service agents can transfer the entire user workspace along with the phone call.

Additional features unique to ShoreTel Sky for Salesforce customers include the following:

• Complete record of all calls and voicemails, including SMS activity, for analytics and reporting on all communication interactions;
• Voicemail transcription into text that is then added to the matching contact record; and
• Point-to-point SMS messaging from the CTI and Salesforce.

Additional features unique to ShoreTel for Salesforce customers include the following:

• Fully customizable softphone layout;
• With ShoreTel Call Recorder, all call recordings are appended to call activity records, allowing users to analyze and report on all their communication interactions;
• Full support of multi-party voice conferences within the CRM softphone; and
• Built-in workflow integration, allowing for popping of entities based on attached call data (e.g. screen pop of cases based on account number entered in front-end IVR).

"Finally, phone data is aligned with business data in the CRM system. By integrating the ShoreTel communications platform with Salesforce, one of the most valuable business applications, customers gain new insights, more effective collaboration, higher productivity and better business results," said David Petts, senior vice president of worldwide sales at ShoreTel, in a statement. "Automatic logging of all sales activity, regardless of a sales person's location or device, together with prompts for agents to schedule follow-up actions can lead to closing deals faster and higher overall sales team productivity. For example, a road warrior using a mobile phone with ShoreTel Mobility software will still have the activity logged."

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