ShoreTel, s provider of IP phone systems with fully integrated unified communications, had announced that The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society is in the process of deploying a ShoreTel (News - Alert) UC system across 200 offices in the United States.

 

One of the nation’s largest not-for-profit long-term care providers, the Society has an 88-year history of creating communities where people can find meaningful lives and fulfilling work.

 

The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society said that it wanted to upgrade its communications system. In order to determine the one that would best serve its patients, residents, staff and other constituents, it “carefully” evaluated several IP system vendors.

 

Society officials said that in selecting ShoreTel, they noted its simplified management, ease of use, and highly reliable distributed architecture.

 

Rusty Williams, vice president for information services and technology at the Good Samaritan Society, said that because of the mission-critical nature of our services, it was very important to find a solution that could meet the needs and enhance the society’s ability to provide long-term medical care and support to thousands of residents and patients.

 

“The ShoreTel system does exactly that, and the flexibility of the solution opens up new opportunities for us to customize our own applications and use the communication system in creative ways in the future, such as doing point-to-point video between a resident or patient in one of our nursing homes with a caregiver working in a different location,” Williams said.

 

With the deployment of ShoreTel UC system, the society expects to support more than 17,000 end users in an installation that includes about 5,000 mobile devices and reaches across 200 offices in the United States.

 

The Society said that with ShoreTel solution, it’ll be able to preserve its investments in wireless; focus on WAN resiliency and bandwidth utilization; provide for virtual administration; enable mobile workers to answer calls on their desk or mobile phones; and more.

 

The deployment is being rolled out in several stages, and the phased deployment is an excellent example of the ShoreTel 360 Migration Program at work. This enables the Society to phase out its legacy equipment, integrate new elements and scale its system without disrupting its communications services.

 

“Our UC system delivers the ease of use and reliability that are crucial in the healthcare industry where fast, high-quality communications and quick response times are critical. Medical personnel’s time is better spent on patient care, not on trying to figure out a complicated phone system,” said John W. Combs, ShoreTel’s CEO.