ShoreTel updates Mobility platform with Android and BlackBerry support

ShoreTel has updated its Mobility product with Android and BlackBerry support to help businesses take advantage of the growing consumerisation of IT by reducing call costs for overseas staff.

By downloading the ShoreTel application to their device, staff are able to integrate their own smartphone with the business PBX, which means IT doesn't need to provide them with a dedicated business handset.

New devices supported include major Android devices running on version 2.2 or above such as the Samsung Galaxy S and Motorola Atrix, and the BlackBerry OS 6 platform, including the Blackberry Torch 9800, Bold 9700, and Bold 9780.

Android tablet devices will also be supported in due course and the application will enable calls to run over Wi-Fi so that the cost of calls from overseas locations can be drastically reduced.

Director of product line management for ShoreTel, Pejman Roshan, told V3 that the rise in personal devices being used by employees gave firms the chance to make significant savings and improve their staff's working patterns.

"There is such a rise in the use of non-BlackBerry devices in businesses now, particularly Android devices, that businesses are opening their minds to letting staff use these devices with corporate applications," he said.

"By supporting Android from 2.2 and beyond we can help businesses cover the issues of fragmentation as well as integrating with PBXs from a raft of firms such as Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and of course ShoreTel."

The applications will be launched at the start of November and cost $150 per user as a one-off payment, which Roshan claimed would be quickly recouped by those frequently making calls from overseas.