ShoreTel Awarded 2010 Everything Channel Partner Program Guide and Five-Star Partner Rating

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - March 29, 2010) -   ShoreTel^® (NASDAQ: SHOR), the leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated Unified Communications (UC), today announced it has been recognized by Everything Channel in its 2010 Partner Program Guide as one of North America's top information technology (IT) vendors for the ShoreTel Channel Partners Program. In addition, the ShoreTel Channel Partners Program received a five-star rating in recognition of its exceptional program. This award reflects ShoreTel's commitment to developing strong programs for its reseller partners, which include IT integrators, distributors, technology solution providers and consultants.

Research for the 2010 Everything Channel Partner Program Guide and the Five-Star Partner Program rating was conducted by Everything Channel. The research team analyzed 130 vendor programs, rating vendors' responses to in-depth questions about their partner programs in the five elements of sales support, partner profitability, partner ecosystem development and management, partner communication and marketing, and demand generation. The Five-Star Partner Program rating recognizes the elite subset of Partner Program Guide vendors who give solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.

ShoreTel's brilliantly simple IP-based communication solutions fully integrate voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions. ShoreTel is one of the only IP phone system manufacturers to deliver 100 percent of its business through the channel, focusing on partner success as a key contributing factor in its commitment to world-class customer satisfaction. ShoreTel innovation extends beyond technology to how the company bundles and packages its products and enables its resellers to derive additional business value through additional services.

"We are pleased to deliver to the channel an exclusive list of the leading vendor channel programs with details about key technologies, program opportunities, and information on the hottest new program offerings," said Kelley Damore, vice president, editorial director, Everything Channel. "The quality of a technology vendor's partner program determines how profitable its partners will be. For their commitment to their business partners and their efforts to build quality programs, we congratulate those recognized as this year's Five-Star Partner Program winners for helping to drive greater revenue in the channel."

"Our Five-Star Partner Program rating from Everything Channel reflects our commitment to developing an innovative channel partner program that is focused on our partners' success and responsive to their needs," said Don Girskis, senior vice president of worldwide sales at ShoreTel. "We're delighted to be recognized by Everything Channel for our superior programs. Since 100 percent of our business is delivered through the channel, our partner satisfaction, like customer satisfaction, is at the very core of our approach to business success, and this award clearly recognizes that we're an industry leader in how we support our resellers."

The PPG list and those companies recognized as five-star will appear in the March 29 issue of CRN magazine and online at www.Channelweb.com.

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About ShoreTel, Inc.
ShoreTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOR) is the provider of brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on its award-winning IP business phone system. We offer organizations of all sizes integrated, voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions. The feature-rich ShoreTel UC system offers the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and the highest customer satisfaction in the industry, in part because it is easy to deploy, manage, scale and use. Increasingly, companies around the world are finding a competitive edge by replacing business-as-usual with new thinking, and choosing ShoreTel to handle their integrated business communication. ShoreTel is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices in Austin, Texas, United Kingdom, Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.shoretel.com.

About Everything Channel
Everything Channel, headquartered in Framingham, MA, is a technology marketing and sales solutions company. Through its "Complete Technology Channel Solution," Everything Channel offers the right business tools to accelerate technology sales. From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels through an extensive database. Everything Channel provides innovative field sales and marketing solutions to the sellers of technology to achieve measurable and significant results. Visit www.everythingchannel.com.

About United Business Media Limited
UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities -- from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists -- with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to www.ubm.com.

Contact Information:

Press Contact for Everything Channel:
Maureen Park
Everything Channel
+1 516 562 5942
Maureen.park@ec.ubm.com

Press Contact for ShoreTel
Elizabeth Hilton
Eastwick Communications
+1 650 480-4018
ehilton@eastwick.com