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

ShoreTel's Reliable, Easy-to-Use Phone System Enables Productivity and Emergency Notification Features, Helps School Save Money for Other Programs

Joe Vitalone, ShoreTel Vice President of North American Sales

Ed Smith, President, Faith Christian

ShoreTel products (hi-res version here)

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