Bottom line: sales are booming and so are expenses.
The telecom CPE sector as a whole is not experiencing this type of growth, so it begs the question – How is ShoreTel doing it? Here is my list of seven reasons why:
1) The ShoreTel solution is clear- it isn’t for everyone, but ShoreTel knows that. There is no confusion on who they are or what they do. ShoreTel knows the demographics of their customers, they know the features they can deliver, and they “simply” march to a single drum – and march well.
2) ShoreTel benefits from, as ShoreTel puts it, distracted competitors. The vast majority of its competitors are focused on numerous distractions including their shareholder value and UC product portfolio changes. ShoreTel is focused on sales. One could argue that ShoreTel’s product portfolio is woefully behind and I’m sure they cry about this all way to the bank.
3) It is hard to believe, but demos still sell. Think of telecom as a good steak. A good steak can be defined in many ways – the breed, the cut, the feed, the ranch location, how it is aged, etc. Left brain issues. Meanwhile the right brain succumbs to the ShoreTel sizzle. ShoreTel heavily relies on its presales demo to convey its architecture and user interface. In one sizzling part of the demo, they enter a new user in appliance one and show it propagated to appliance two (see item 2 above).
4) PBX vs. UC: The majority of the enterprise vendors have worked hard to embrace UC and consider the “PBX” label an insult. ShoreTel is happy with the PBX label and so are its customers. UC is clearly the future, and even ShoreTel agrees, but the VoIP PBX business isn’t dead yet. This is where ShoreTel’s strategy around simplicity hits the nail – sometimes you just want to make a call. ShoreTel can do more, but while competitors explain the benefits of UC – ShoreTel demos and quotes a solution that does what the customer initially requested.
5) ShoreTel loves to advertise. It is no secret that advertising sells and most vendors would increase advertising if they could afford it. ShoreTel can’t afford it either, but evidently decided that market share is more critical than near term profitability. This strategy has known risks and is indeed (eventually) self curtailing.
6) The factors above conspired to create an effective channel for ShoreTel, particularly large service providers. The channel will always gravitate toward companies with simple demos, strong advertising fueled demand, and simple products to learn, sell, and support.
What happens is, of course, speculative. For now, ShoreTel should be quite pleased (smug?) with a job well done.
Good article Dave. I will point one (heavily biased) omission. Part of ShoreTel's recent success has been their embrace of two-tier distribution. Leveraging the reach, marketing, financing, and recruitment engines of distribution is a great way to increase sales. With distribution's focus both on the Reseller and Service Provider communities, companies like ShoreTel can see immediate growth in new customers.
Also, I'd think we'd be remiss if ShoreTel's mobility solution didn't get a least a mention here. I agree (and enjoy the humor) of your 2nd point, but do find it interesting that with their acquisition of Agito Networks that ShoreTel now believes that they will be known more for their Mobility solution than their "PBX" over the next couple of years.
I've always found it odd that they do continue to compete in a SIP world with a MGCP based platform (are they last ones holding on to this signaling protocol?), but like you said they do have limited SIP support. As long as they can, and they do, provide SIP interfaces for Trunking, 3rd party applications, and add-on phones, I guess it doesn't matter what protocol is used between their devices. Continuing with MGCP endpoints also ensures that THEIR phones are what is sold with the PBX too, remember that. I can't imagine anything worse for a ShoreTel sales manager than walking into an existing company and finding the front desk attendant using a competitor's phone.