ShoreTel vs Lync

Its really hard to say because I have used both of them and liked them both alot, shoretel is probably more affordable but the licensing was a bit of a headache for me when it comes to purchasing manager licenses/professional licenses etc.  Equipment was cheap in price but the licensing is always where the money is.  Other than that once it was all figured out everything worked very well.  Lync also worked very-well and I found it very easy to integrate into the environment.

Lync was probably the better option for me with all of it integration and features where with shoretel it has the features but you have to purchase licenses for it.  Shoretel is a nice software even for smaller businesses, I am not 100% sure they are quite yet ready for the big business environment.

Then again this is just a personal opinion and this is only my take on it.

Here's a few good reads.

http://baysidemedia.com/ShoreTel/prospect/1012/lync-vs-shoretel.html

http://www.techtipsfromthefield.com/2012/01/microsoft-lync-as-enterprise-voiceno.html

http://voxnetworksolutions.com/support/?p=409

My opinion, if you got an EA with Microsoft that covers Lync, then why pay another vendor. Sure Lync is still working it's way, but that's what the EA is for too. New features made available and you got them. I also like how Lync can now integrate with Polycom phones, so you got the best of both worlds there, and it's all native to Microsoft Office.

If you dont got an EA, then maybe going the ShoreTel way may save you some money there, but just make sure to allot some money for maintenance contracts and any vendor visits for add/moves/changes.