Dialpad Connect vs. MiCloud Connect / ShoreTel (discontinued)

I like that it allows for a seamless transition of calls between our 2 offices. I don't have to forward or un-forward phones at the beginning and end of my day. Our offices are on a specific schedule which opens the phone lines at a certain time, transfers them to another office at another time, and then sends them to an after hours number when we close. I also like how easy it is to change settings within our different departments and contact centers. It's a very well-rounded program that is easy to use on your computer or phone.

Mitel is excellent at allowing me as a user to setup up custom call routing in response to rapidly changing work flows. If I need to work from home for a period due to medical or other reasons, logging into Mitel and setting my office phone to ring through to my home or cell is quick and simple. Changing back is just as quick.

Incentivized

• Ease of signing on and calling in
• Clear audio/sound, no static or poor connections
• Can choose to be on video or not
• The organizer and participants can see all who are on the call
• Meetings can be auto-recorded and sent to organizer at end of call
• Hold music can be played for initial caller
• Meeting is auto-transcribed
• Action items are automatically listed for the organizer
• Summary list shows all who were in attendance
• Summary shows duration of callers on the meeting
• Can load images of attendees when setting of the meeting

• The system up-time has been 100% over 3 years.
• With separate systems and two locations we used to have to fake the system into 4 digit dialing by forwarding all remote extensions to DIDs. Now with Shortel extended to the remote location we have true 4 digit dialing.
• The Shortel desktop application makes managing calls and call routing a breeze for even our most novice users.

Incentivized

• The only example I can list for improvement is that occasionally the message has some mistranslation(s). But I can usually figure out the missing words. The 'southern USA' dialect may be partly to blame....
• The functionality is really great. It is the best app I have used for messages in all of my customer service jobs.

Incentivized

• There are persistent problems with the app's functionality on mobile devices.
• At times, the web conferencing service may have delays. It appears to be less stable than competing approaches.
• Using a headset instead of the microphone and speakers integrated into a desktop computer slows down the softphone's performance.

Incentivized

Dialpad Talk is easy to use and no one has had a problem using it. Even when we have had questions/problems we have been able to fix it ourselves without having to go to Dialpad to ask for help, which saves everyone time. We don't have any reason to cancel our use of this product and we are very happy with how it performs for our team.

Incentivized

Although the price is higher than some of the other Hosted systems out there, the value is definitely worth a renewal. Everything is relative: there are some companies out there who need phones, but don't necessarily care how they work, the functionality/features available/durability etc., they just care that they have phones that make and receive calls. There are other companies that are completely reliant on phones and certain functionality that is provided by the system. There are even some companies who are straight up dependent on the phone system and are losing tons of money anytime they are down, ShoreTel is the perfect fit for theSMB client who sees value in a solid,robust, reliable and high functioning phone system

Incentivized

Overall, it is quite user-friendly and quick to set up, even for beginner levels. It is also easy to onboard new hires and get them to take calls quickly. The main complaint is that the analytics are difficult to find, gather, and interpret.

Incentivized

I have not used a wide array of communication software, but this far ShoreTel/MiCloud has been the simplest and easiest to get into. My work employs several temps at certain points throughout the year, and they use this piece of software frequently, and new hires seem to have little to no issue using this software. Additionally, this is our primary telephone communication infrastructure, and I have yet to encounter any issues when signed in and regularly using it handling external calls to our department.

Incentivized

There have not been any outages that I am aware of and we have had consistently good coverage since the start. There can be a slight lag from the office to the mobile app, but it is not terribly noticeable and it has not resulted in any calls being prematurely hung up

The system has gone down on us MULTIPLE times. We asked them to move us to a different cluster. Shoretel declined. Basically we had problems or outages every month of the year from June 2012 to date. Our old phone system was just that: OLD, no bells or whistles. But it was up every day and I never had to think about it much until it was time for an upgrade. That's how I want Shoretel to be. I want it so reliable that I never have to think about it.

The emails of voice transcription come very quickly after a call has been completed and except for a few fairly difficult names are pretty accurate. The ability to quickly listen to the voicemail from email without having to open the app is also a bonus. I have not noticed or heard of any slowdowns

Even though the system uses a lower bandwidth connection we have experienced a higher call quality than our previous system which required a T1 line and back up broadband connection.

The original date for roll-out, was unable to happen because there was an issue finding our existing phone lines to port them... The only reason I gave a 9 is [that] the original person we have been working with, Rolled out phones. Pro without telling anyone and then went on vacation, I only say this to explain that there is a gentleman that took over to help us named Brett and he was FANTASTIC! He allowed a ton of calls and answered all of them, walked us [through] settings, profile set up, and even emailed screen shares so we could help other members of our team! Thanks so much, Brett you ROCK~

Incentivized

ShoreTel Sky's support is amazing. The only reason why I didn't give it a 10 is that we still need to contact them for stuff that we should be able to do, for ourselves, within the management portal. I know their portal is being worked on, so hopefully they will get the "little things" included for self-management.

Welcoming and easy to follow the instruction

I attended the first ShoreTel installer class in Austin,TX. It was a week of intensive study with a live lab and having hands on experience made the class worthwhile. I have taken all of the sales courses and remaining technical courses either online or self study to keep costs down. I send my techs to the first installer course in Austin as I feel it gives them a solid foundation and most of teh other courses they have taken have been online.

Incentivized

Simple and easy to follow, we had our branches around the country to be trained and the feedback was great. Only take if there was a desk phone training that would be great. The team provided us with video for the desk phone training

The training identified some things M5 (ShoreTel's cloud division) could provide, however it was only using it every day and asking the Shoretel support several questions that I got the hang of it. The training was able to highlight functions but I did not learn how to use the phone from the training.

I didn't participate in the implementation. But obviously it went flawlessly, as all users are set up in-house, and on the app.

Incentivized

Each of our locations has a dedicated ShoreTel router and managed QoS. With full management, it provides us a breath of space and bandwidth to use our resources in other means. Strongly consider the managed solution as you have to maintain more technical issues when hosting with your ISP. You have to make sure your ISP can provide you the best service for voice and data. Plug and 'hope' doesn't work with just routing your phones over any Internet connection....especially when your handsets run int he 100's

Panterra is dependable and has good support. Dialpad Connect has more features and an easier interface. AT&T has a lot of features, but Dialpad Connect's interface is easier. AT&T does not do call transcription that I know of. Comcast BVE and 8x8 services are lower quality and service is not great.

Incentivized

Aptela. I chose M5 (ShoreTelSky) because their platform puts call quality first. Their system also uses Cisco endpoints, which are very compatible with the rest of my Cisco network. I also liked the fact that ShoreTelSky uses the internet only as a backup for transport; I use MPLS as my primary connectivity.

Overall program is of average cost. SInce I use it simply for its phone/text capabilities. I would hazard that company that needed more options, might see it differently

Incentivized

So far, Dialpad has been a great improvement for our organization. It allows everyone to be on the same service and the integration with the mobile app means everyone is still using the "office" numbers even when on the go which makes it easier not having to balance multiple phone numbers from people

I believe that ShoreTel can be used by a minimum company size of about 25 to almost any size of a company and this can be achieved while the company grows, hence makes it pretty scalable when required. For companies which are smaller in size i.e. smaller than 25, I am not sure how useful it would be, it may be depending upon the type of business

Incentivized

• Saves me time with a downloadable transcript for call documentation.
• All calls are automatically recorded, which provides proof of what was said.
• Translation availability using IVR and AI language allows us to communicate with all families without needing to find a translator.

Incentivized

• At my branch alone, we are saving over $500 a month using Shoretel Sky versus the phone company we were using before them.
• Shoretel Sky has increased customer service by allowing our employees to easily transfer a call to the proper department or branch no matter where they are located instead of giving the caller a phone number to call.
• Most of our locations did not have caller ID before Shoretel Sky. That feature has increased employee efficiency because when they know who is calling before they answer allows them to professionally greet their caller and have their info up on their computer as they answer.