Our ShoreTel customers were quite excited when we shared that Mitel had extended the End of Life date for ShoreTel version 14.2 to September 30, 2020. We posted this originally revised update based on bulletin 18007. The previous bulletin from March 2018 had an original EOL date of Dec. 2019, which was pushed out to the end of 2020.
Despite the fact that Mitel bought ShoreTel way back in 2017, there are still plenty of businesses using original ShoreTel equipment and hardware. If this is the boat you’re in, read on or contact us for a free consultation.
As a reminder, EoL means that such products are no longer eligible for support, software updates or even bug fixes. In addition, it also means that these products won’t qualify for any RMAs either. An additional bulletin was released as Number 18012 regarding lifecycle policy definitions and process: (Mitel Lifecycle Policy for ShoreTel Products):
The table below released by Mitel provides a summary of End of Sale and End of life dates for older voice switches, VPN Concentrator products, and of course 14.2 software: 
You have a few options to think about. Either keep your existing 14.2 as long as you can until it dies, but there are further issues such as compatibility with Windows servers, non-support issues, and the list of risks go on. We understand you want to maximize your investment, but there are a number of reasons why moving to MiVoice Connect is critical to further protecting that investment.
The truth is, if you haven’t started at least considering what steps to take to begin the migration process, then we strongly recommend you start a conversation with an experienced Mitel partner that can guide you through the process.
Our recommendation has always been, and continues to be is that anyone still using the 14.2 version of ShoreTel which was EoL in 2020, to contact us about upgrading their PBX to the supported Mitel MiVoice Connect platform. Besides the many long-term benefits, there are things to consider when changing or migrating your ShoreTel end of life PBX and environment, that you may not be aware of.
We’ve put together a guide for what to take into consideration when getting ready for migrating from ShoreTel legacy (14.2) to MiVoice Connect PBX. Check it out here and let us know if you have any questions.
As an established Mitel Platinum partner with extensive ShoreTel experience supporting and upgrading ShoreTel PBX systems and environments, we understand that these upgrades take time, plenty of planning and preparation for a successful implementation and deployment.
We’ve helped clients such as Salvation Army, the Milwaukee Brewers, Elkay manufacturing, Brunswick, and many others, and we can do the same for you.
Let’s talk about ShoreTel and Mitel MiVoice Connect support plans for a minute.
There are different support plans if you don’t currently have one for Mitel/ShoreTel PBX users. We can help you decide which one is best for your business needs as there are pros and cons to consider for each.
Our support plans include services that help you and your team plan accordingly, have realistic expectations, and provide project management and admin and end user training.
To learn more, just reach out for a quote, and we’ll be glad to speak with you about your current situation no matter what stage of the process you may be in.
If you’re also using ShoreTel ECC, now called MiVoice Connect Contact Center, you may be wondering if it’s worth keeping your contact or call center on-premise. We’ve been helping businesses in the same situation by working with them to plan a migration to cloud for their contact center environment.
There are many advantages to moving to cloud for contact center deployments, without having to move the entire organization’s infrastructure to cloud. This is called a hybrid-approach. Again, feel free to contact us if this is something you want to look into and we can help.
With the acquisition of ShoreTel by Mitel, the Mitel Product Release Lifecycle Policy—and the Mitel definitions within that policy—now apply to ShoreTel products. The key points are described here:
Mitel defines key events in the product lifecycle as follows:
• End of New Sales: Sales of an item will no longer be made to new customers. Items will remain available for purchase by existing customers. Full support of the product continues.
• End of Add-on Sales: Sales of an item to all customers cease. Technical support services are still offered, but no scheduled releases or service packs are available. Patch releases for critical issues may be offered at Mitel’s discretion.
• End of Life: Best effort technical support for catastrophic failures/critical issues only.
• End of Technical Support: No technical support and all software assurance (SWA) contracts are terminated.
The four phases in Mitel’s product release lifecycle, and the level of support provided in each, are as follows:
Full R&D SW support
Live Phone Support
KB
Web Tickets
Full Repair and Replacement HW Support
No active Design Support (bug fixes), No new Release or Service Packs
Patching at Mitel Discretion
Live Phone Support
KB
Web Tickets
HW Repair
No Design Support
Best Effort Support for catastrophic failures/critical issues
KB
No Technical Support, all SWA contracts terminated
If you have any questions regarding the above please contact your Mitel/ShoreTel partner. If you are interested in our partner services as a Mitel/ShoreTel Platinum partner, please contact us here.
All information in this Mitel Minute Update has been published with permission by Mitel.
**This post has been updated to reflect the latest changes we've received from Mitel. Mitel may make additional changes at anytime which may not be included in this update. Be sure to check with your Mitel partner or contact us if you do not have a ShoreTel/Mitel partner.
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