About ShoreTel Shoregear

ShoreTel is a Sunnyvale, California-based telecommunications company that delivers unified communications (UC) and call center technology. The company, which was founded in 1996, has regional offices in the UK, Germany, India, Australia and Spain. Edwin J. Basart and Mike Harrigan, who previously founded Network Computing Devices, set up the organization. Since its inception, ShoreTel has acquired various companies. In 2010, the organization purchased enterprise mobile provider Agito Networks in a deal worth around $11.4 million. In 2012, ShoreTel purchased New York City-based M5 Networks for $146 million — one of the biggest financial acquisitions of that year. The company rebranded M5 Networks’ cloud services as ShoreTel Sky and has since introduced new services under this name, including conference calling and instant messaging. In 2016, ShoreTel acquired Corvisa, a deal which helped them expand their SIP trunking capabilities. ShoreTel changed its name from Shoreline Communications in 2004. In 2013, Don Joos, previously of Avaya, became ShoreTel’s president and chief executive.

ShoreTel is a leader in VoIP communications, with a variety of products for small, medium and large businesses. These include Connect Cloud, which combines UC and VoIP technologies in the cloud. This flexible platform includes popular features like call blocking, call forwarding, and phone alerts. Call centers use this service: they access a dashboard and monitor call activity in real time, assess agent and queue statuses, create reports and share valuable data. Another service, Connect Hybrid, offers businesses a hybrid cloud solution. Users can download applications, includeing CRM and ERP integration apps, which allows companies to track customers and clients for more effective operations. Connect Common UC Platform was launched in 2015, after two years of planning and development. This platform has a single user interface and combines cloud-based and on-premise UC products. Other services include Connect OnSite and Flex Contact Center, a comprehensive solution for call center management. All of these platforms provide users with enhanced disaster recovery, so businesses can access data after an emergency like a storm or a flood, or a security breach.

ShoreTel has won a string of awards over the years. Its ShoreTel Connect service scooped the Unified Communications Product of the Year Award in 2016. The company also won Technology Provider of the Year at the 2016 IT Europa Awards and Best Telecommunication Website at the 2016 Web Awards. Other accolades include Best in Unified Communications and Collaboration at Network World Asia’s Product Excellence Awards, Best Midmarket Solution at the Xcellence Awards and Communication Solutions’ Product of the Year.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software company that aims to build better customer relationships.

Founded in 2007, Zendesk was the brainchild of Mikkel Svane, Alexander Aghassipour, and Morten Primdahl – all former employees in the customer service industry. They created Zendesk as a straightforward and intuitive solution to customer tracking and incident reporting problems that they used to encounter in their day jobs.

The trio received $500,000 in seed funding from angel investor Christoph Janz in 2008. It was followed the next year by a $6 million series B funding from Charles River Ventures and Benchmark Capital. From Copenhagen, Denmark, the Zendesk headquarters moved to San Francisco, California.

Zendesk debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 with the ticker symbol ZEN and an IPO price of $9 per share. The company now has over 1,600 employees and serves 87,000 customers in over 150 countries. It has offices in London, Madison, Manila, Copenhagen, Dublin, Tokyo, Montpellier, Berlin, Melbourne, Singapore, and Sao Paulo.

Zendesk offers a suite of products that work together to help improve customer relationships. One of the most popular is Zendesk Support – a simple system that tracks, prioritizes, and solves customer support tickets. It is backed by experts (called the Advocate Team) that provide worldwide support through a variety of channels. It also has a Success Team that can work as an extension of the user’s own team, helping them create strategies and set goals to optimize the customer service experience.

Another well-loved product is the Zendesk Help Center, which delivers seamless self-service experiences to reduce support requests. It features a fully customizable Help Center, a knowledge base, an online community, and a self-service portal.

Users can also make themselves available across multiple channels through Zendesk Chat, Zendesk Talk, and Zendesk Message.

As one of the most popular CRM platforms on the market, Zendesk has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions.

In 2011, Zendesk won Best Relationship Management Solution at the SIIA CODiE Awards, the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program. It also won in the Most Innovative Use of Big Data in the Cloud category of the 2014-2015 UK Cloud Awards Program.

FastCompany also ranked Zendesk fifth on its list of the Most Innovative Companies in Enterprise Software last 2016.

Zendesk founder Mikkel Svane has received accolades as well, including his inclusion in the Inc. Founders List in 2016 and Inc. Magazine’s Top 40 CEOs to Watch in 2015.