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Netformx automates designing networks, which enables collaborative workflows within and across organizations. Its data-driven, rules-based software moves customers through an orderly process of designing, configuring, quoting and proposal generation.

Service providers, systems integrators and manufacturers worldwide use the company’s solutions to what it says “transform enterprise customer requirements into deployable network solutions.” They are supported by “the world’s most extensive centralized, multi-vendor knowledgebase of network equipment and services, configuration and validation rules.”

Netformx’s vendor roster has now become richer, in more ways than one with inclusion of ShoreTel’s (News - Alert) switches and IP phone systems with unified communications and contact center built in the Netformx KnowledgeBase framework. ShoreTel is the provider Netformx says “of intelligent yet simple Unified Communications (UC) solutions based on its award-winning IP business phone system.”

The planning of complex network services involves labor-intensive and error-prone data collection and management processes. Netformx DesignXpert automates the process and leverages their KnowledgeBase of over two million rules and 200,000+ devices. The KnowledgeBase ensures that devices and systems are interoperable, available and updated in accord with company releases. Including the ShoreTel IP Phone (News - Alert) system in the KnowledgeBase will now provide users, with more choices for their network designs with all the current information at their fingertips.

ShoreTel’s solutions offer organizations of all sizes integrated, voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that Netformx says “helps significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions.”

ShoreTel has recently enhanced them in its ShoreTel 11 release. In it the ShoreTel Communicator (formerly ShoreTel Call Manager) client has been made available for the Web and for the iPhone, in addition to BlackBerry and other popular devices.

ShoreTel has enhanced distributed architecture of ShoreTel with distributed database capabilities, such as the ability to be installed at remote sites, helping to alleviate potential performance bottlenecks and eliminate single points of failure. ShoreTel 11 offers extended legacy PBX (News - Alert) integration capabilities with expanded QSIG support, making it easier for customers to leverage existing investments and migrate to ShoreTel’s all IP-based UC capabilities over time.

ShoreTel will join an august group of other Netformx-supported partner suppliers including Avaya and Cisco plus Adtran, APC (News - Alert), Belden, Juniper, Plantronics, TerraWave and TrippLite among others.

“Adding ShoreTel as a supported vendor to the Netformx KnowledgeBase is an important milestone in the Netformx Alliance program,” said Dave Alexander, Director of Strategic Alliances for Netformx. “The Netformx community will now be able to better support their customers, specifically with IP Telephony offerings to the competitive small and mid size market. Also, the support for larger, more complex and multi-vendor deployments will improve by adding ShoreTel as another component in UC projects.”

Mark Arman, vice president of business development and Bernard Gutnick, senior director of product marketing at ShoreTel will be presenting at ITEXPO (News - Alert) West on the subject of unified communications.

To find out more about these speakers and ShoreTel, visit the company at ITEXPO West 2010. To be held Oct. 4 to 6 in Los Angeles, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Don’t wait. Register now.