ShoreTel: Faith Christian School Enriches State-of-the-Art Campus With ShoreTel Unified Communications System

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - March 23, 2009) - [ ShoreTel® ] (NASDAQ: [ SHOR ]), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications (UC) solutions, today announced that [ Faith Christian School ] in Grapevine, Texas, working with ShoreTel's Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas-based partner, [ Westron Communications ], has deployed a ShoreTel UC system in its existing campus and is also incorporating ShoreTel into its new high school facility under construction. Faith Christian School gained international attention recently, when details of the school's inspirational football game with students from Gainesville State Correctional School were made public.

With Faith's emphasis on providing a state-of-the-art educational environment, the innovative features and inherent ease of use of the ShoreTel UC system help enrich the communications experience for students, educators, parents and administrators alike. ShoreTel's UC solutions provide reliability, scalability and emergency notification features, as well as the kind of cost savings the school needs to be able to divert funds into valuable educational programs, as well as the arts, team sports, and athletic events.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

-- Productivity and educational advantages: The ShoreTel UC system is an important productivity tool that helps teachers and school officials become more efficient. With the ShoreTel UC system, educators each have their own phone, expanding their ability to communicate with parents and to connect students with advisors locally and around the world. In addition to productivity benefits for educators and administrators, the school also uses voice over IP (VoIP), UC and messaging to advance its leadership agenda and teach students about changing technical advantages and emerging technologies. -- E911 Notification Application: ShoreTel's E911 Notification Application immediately notifies appropriate school personnel of a 911 emergency at a specific location, improving the school's ability to quickly and effectively coordinate a response. In the case of a natural disaster, crisis or other school news event, school officials can access a master database of key contact information to easily and immediately reach all parents at once on their work, home or mobile phones, with the simple click of a mouse. -- Easy to configure, easy to use: The ShoreTel ShoreWare Director application enables Faith Christian to manage the system using existing resources in their own IT department. They can satisfy the specific needs of educators and administrators locally at a moment's notice. The system's flexible call handling and personalization capabilities make it easy for teachers to communicate with peers, students, administrators and the community. -- ShoreTel as the solution: The school selected ShoreTel for its IP phone system based on features, price and reliability. Key features and benefits include: -- A distributed architecture unifies communications across the school's campuses. -- Workgroup call routing capabilities means receptionists can be located anywhere in either campus, which helps ensure incoming calls are answered by a real person. -- Simple system administration allows moves, adds and changes to be easily handled internally, without requiring the services and scheduling of more costly outside-contractor labor. The school deployed ShorePhone® IP 230 and 565 telephones, which are preconfigured for the ShoreTel UC system, ensuring a quick installation. -- Lower Costs: The ShoreTel UC system enabled the school to lower its total cost of ownership in many areas, including ongoing maintenance, power consumption, upgrades, and simple moves, adds and changes. -- Old, Inflexible PBX: With an aging PBX system in its K-12 campus, the school lacked voicemail functionality, faced high monthly recurring charges for moves, adds and changes, and lacked integration capabilities for interoffice communications. -- Customized Applications: ShoreTel's use of open APIs means that the school can easily integrate custom applications to meet the needs of the specific education environment as they arise.

QUOTES

Ed Smith, president, Faith Christian School: "Faith Christian School is a strong proponent of implementing technologies that further our students' education and help them become strong leaders of tomorrow. At the same time, we are committed to being fiscally responsible, and we found that the ShoreTel solution helps us achieve both. The cost savings that we gain from implementing ShoreTel's UC system can be redirected into other important services and student programs."

Joe Vitalone, vice president, North American sales, ShoreTel: "In tough economic times, private schools are under pressure to do more with less, and face the same operational considerations as a traditional business. Faith Christian is an excellent example of an educational leader that is using technology to enhance its productivity and cut costs, while ensuring that its students have access to the latest educational opportunities in technology, and become familiar with it early in their development."

For detailed information on ShoreTel products and features, click [ here ].

EDUCATION CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

-- [ Amarillo Independent School District ]

-- [ Boston Ballet School ]

-- [ Elgin Community College ]

-- [ North Central Texas College ]

-- [ Palisades Charter High School ]

-- [ Southern Polytechnic State University ]

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ShoreTel: Faith Christian School Enriches State-of-the-Art Campus With ShoreTel Unified Communications System