ShoreTel to limit carrier distribution to Telstra

The company said today that its solutions had been available through the Telstra channel "for a little over a month".

The agreement was reached in February, following approximately six months of negotiations with the carrier.

Managing director of ShoreTel South East Asia, Vasili Triant, said the company had already closed four deals from Telstra, despite lack of promotion.

"There's two small-to-medium and two medium-sized deals," Triant said.

Triant described ShoreTel's current installed base as "relatively small".

"We've got about 200 to 300 customers locally right now," he said.

The agreement with Telstra will significantly expand its potential reach in Australia.

ShoreTel holds an existing distribution arrangement with Aria Technologies, which distributes competing technologies from the likes of LG-Nortel through the same Telstra channel.

Triant said he expected to come up against the likes of Alcatel, NEC, Cisco and Mitel in Telstra customer deals.

While he believed it was possible other carriers may wish to take on ShoreTel products following Telstra's move, inking carrier arrangements wasn't a big focus.

"The carriers are me-too types - if we get good traction with Telstra we may have Optus and others also say they want to carry the products," Triant said.

"My strategy though isn't to bring on the likes of Optus. It's to trial with Telstra and expand our partner base around that agreement and others. Our goal isn't to acquire telcos [as partners] at this point in time."