It has been more than 6 months since we first heard news that Mitel was to acquire competitor ShoreTel to create a new UCaaS giant. But since then, Mitel has kept quiet about the merger and any future plans the provider has for the newly combined solution offerings — that was until last week. In fact, just last week Mitel went ahead and outlined their latest integration portfolio for North America, following their acquisition of ShoreTel.

This new giant provider now has the ability to serve clients in North America with new packages that are designed to meet the needs of almost any business of any size looking to move to the cloud. Overall, Mitel is rebranding its existing solutions, and integrating them closely with technologies and solutions acquired from ShoreTel.

New Integrated Flagship Solutions

So back when I first reported on the merger of these two providers, I concluded that Mitel will now stand as a UcaaS giant in this consolidating market. Mitel was able to snatch up much needed cloud solutions to help bolster their hosted offerings, and that seems to be exactly what the newly combined giant has done.

In their announcement, Mitel explains that the provider is now aiming to offer “a broad portfolio designed to provide customers maximum choice and flexibility to deliver the best path to the cloud.” This announcement also specifically states that Mitel is first focusing on the North American market, “chosen for their ability to deliver simplicity, reliability and enterprise-grade communications and collaboration.”

Essentially, North America offers Mitel the best opportunity to begin rolling out their new solutions. And now that the acquisition is officially completed, it’s really interesting to see is how Mitel is directly translating existing ShoreTel offerings into their portfolio. With this new combined force, Mitel will now offer:

Retail UcaaS Solutions

  • MiCloud Connect – Previously ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, now offered with Teamwork and Contact Center solutions
  • MiCloud Flex – Previously Mitel MiCloud Enterprise, now offered with MiCollab and MiCloud Contact Center

On-Site Solutions

  • MiVoice Office 250 with Phone Manager applications
  • MiVoice Connect – Previously ShoreTel Connect ONSITE, now offered with Connect UC and Contact Center
  • MiVoice Business with MiCollab and MiContact Center Business

These solutions are being classified as Mitel’s “flagship portfolio,” serving as the core of Mitel’s new solutions and offerings. However, the provider does make a note to explain that they will continue to “provide industry-proven cloud and on-site solutions and applications that have made it a market leader,” so don’t expect your existing Mitel services to disappear any time soon.

A New UCaaS Giant

Way back in March of 2017, I had a chance to sit in on Mitel’s annual Analyst Event to learn more about the provider’s future plans. Back then I wrote an article discussing the provider’s new goal of digital transformation, and how moving forward Mitel is looking to focus more on seamless communications and collaboration by moving efforts into the cloud. Mitel previously did have existing cloud offerings, but still had the majority of seats utilizing on premise solutions.

The key takeaways we had from that event were as follows:

  • Mitel is undergoing a digital transformation, looking to quickly migrate everything into the cloud.
  • Mitel is well-positioned to lead a digital transformation with its existing customer base, technology stack, and global presence.
  • New vertical applications will help differentiate companies, such as slimming down CRM offerings into one specific vertical.

And when I first reported on Mitel’s acquisition of ShoreTel, I specifically noted that this was the perfect step forward in moving towards that digital transformation.  At the time, Mitel CEO Rich McBee had said that

“Mitel and ShoreTel are now stronger together and even better equipped to help take our customers to the cloud, seamlessly and simply,” and this latest announcement of integrated products helps demonstrate that exactly.

Mitel recognizes that the Cloud is where businesses are moving, and is quickly taking over as the standard operation for communications and collaboration. By integrating both existing solutions from Mitel, and newly acquired solutions from ShoreTel, the combined provider is much better equipped to help businesses make that transition into the cloud.

“North American businesses are rapidly moving to the cloud, but they are not all doing it at the same pace or with the same configuration. Our customers need choice and a clear technology path forward,” said Bob Agnes President and Executive Vice President of Products and Solutions, Mitel. “Mitel’s portfolio is purpose-built to provide maximum choice and flexibility to meet customers’ immediate needs, solve their business problems, and move them ahead-where ever they are in their journey.”

A New Agile, Cloud Focused Provider

By bringing in assets, technologies and existing cloud solutions into their existing portfolio, Mitel is now much more capable of serving businesses in whatever way they need. Mitel is clearly moving forward with their “digital transformation,” just as we saw Avaya announcing last week, and now has an integrated portfolio of the right solutions to make it happen.

What was really interesting was to hear this news so shortly after the acquisition closed, in fact only a single fiscal quarter lately. That shows how quickly Mitel is looking to move, and how capable and confident they are of delivering the solutions that businesses need. It will be interesting to continue to follow Mitel on their transformation in the near future, and I’m curious to see if and how they further consolidation their solution offerings, and if we will eventually see on-prem disappear altogether.