SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - August 24, 2010) - ShoreTel® (
The findings from the survey of 475 participants clearly lay out many of the issues vendors must address if they are to satisfy customer communication needs, including simplicity, reliability, ease of use and management, reduced costs, and easier integration with business processes. The survey also reveals an interesting disparity: nearly 81 percent of respondents expressed a desire to simplify their communications system yet only 47 percent, less than half, have actual goals in place to help them achieve this.
In response to the question asking which system capabilities are most important to IT, 80 percent of respondents indicated ease of use for end users, 80 percent indicated reliability, and 76 percent indicated ease of management. The survey also revealed that the highest ranked causes of complexity are "Integrating communications system with business processes," "integrating new equipment with legacy systems," and "the number of remote/mobile workers."
Access the complete survey questions here.
SUMMARY OF SURVEY DETAILS AND ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
- Most Important Capabilities for CIOs and IT/Telecom Professionals: The top three system qualities that are most important to CIOs and IT/Telecom professionals include ease-of-use for end users, reliability, ease of management.
- Most Important Capabilities for End Users: The top three system qualities that are most important to end users include ease of use, reliability, and audio/sound quality.
- Biggest Management Challenges: When asked to indicate the biggest obstacle in managing their telephony/communications systems, the majority of respondents claimed that the following issues were the most challenging: management time/complexity; costs for moves, adds, and changes; end-user complaints and difficulties; and inconsistent/incompatible systems.
- Frustration With Technology Providers: When asked to rate their frustration level with technology providers, specifically market leaders in the VoIP or unified communications category, 65 percent were frustrated by "many invisible costs after purchase," 63 percent were frustrated by "systems that are hard and costly to manage," and 57 percent were frustrated by "systems that are complex and hard to use and learn" and "support issues such as with remote users."
- Size of Organization: Respondents represented organizations of all sizes, with 39 percent coming from companies with 0-49 employees, 39 percent coming from companies with 50-1000 employees, and 22 percent coming from companies with more than 1,000 employees.
SHORETEL QUOTE
Kevin Gavin, Vice President of Marketing, ShoreTel
"This survey of ShoreTel prospective customers is an industry bellwether for how vendors should approach solving their customers' most pressing communications needs and issues. All too often, companies are forced to struggle with unnecessary complexity in their communications systems. This complexity increases costs and decreases performance. From the very beginning, our mission was to eliminate complexity with brilliantly simple solutions that help our customers improve business efficiency, reduce costs and increase productivity. Our consistently high marks for customer satisfaction indicate we continue to deliver on these promises."
For detailed information on ShoreTel products and features, click here.
Follow ShoreTel on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to ShoreTel's blog.
RELATED LINKS & CONVERSATION
- ShoreTel Total Cost of Ownership Commitment
- ShoreTel Customer Success Stories (videos and case studies)
- ShoreTel Products
- ShoreTel Awards
About ShoreTel, Inc.
ShoreTel, Inc. (
Contact Information:
Press Contact:
Suzanne Chan
Eastwick Communications
Tel: + 1 (650) 480-4018
suzanne@eastwick.com
