ShoreTel IPO Marred By Patent Infringement Suit

Peter Proulx, CEO of Premcom, a ShoreTel partner in Amherst, NY, agreed that the channel could use some more help from the vendor in marketing its products. Premcom has also doubled its ShoreTel business over the past year, growing it to about $3 million, roughly half of the company's overall revenue, Proulx said.

"Marketing has been pretty much up to the resellers at this point. We've been out there educating the customers. If they could use some of the money to do a little more advertising, they could take advantage of the momentum that's building," Proulx said. "People are starting to recognize their name, so they would benefit from it."

Helping drive ShoreTel sales is the simplicity of the vendor's wares, solution providers said.

"VoIP can be very complicated to understand, and ShoreTel's hallmark is that it is an easy system to install and manage," Casey said.

Rivals have been taking notice of ShoreTel, said Proulx.

"ShoreTel is the talk of all of our competitors because they just make a product that works. We're winning deals," Proulx said.

ShoreTel's growing success could be one reason Mitel has targeted it with a lawsuit, partners said.

"[ShoreTel President and CEO] John Combs came from Mitel, and he has in particular targeted Mitel," Casey said. "I'm not too concerned about it. It's a sign that others are recognizing that they're a voice leader."

Partners said they have had no communication from ShoreTel on the status of the IPO. One channel executive's broker told him shares are now expected to begin trading on Friday.

ShoreTel has been in the VoIP equipment business since its founding in 1996 as Shoreline Communications. It changed its name to ShoreTel in 2004.

Revenue for fiscal year 2006, ended June 30, 2006, hit $61.6 million, up from $35.5 million in 2005. The company earned $4 million in 2006, compared to a loss of $1.4 million in 2005, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is issuing 7.9 million shares through its IPO and expects to use the proceeds for working capital and potential technology acquisitions, according to the filing.

ShoreTel's move to go public comes as Avaya, one of its main rivals, is going private. Avaya, Basking Ridge, NJ, is in the midst of an $8.2 billion merger with investment firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital.