IP PBX maker ShoreTel is pushing to integrate workflow software with its phone systems in a bid to help users make customer interactions more efficient.

The package, expected to be announced this week, includes a software developers' program to encourage third parties to integrate their software with ShoreTel's and a program in which ShoreTel does the integration. The first result of the in-house effort is ShoreTel Salesforce.com Integration, which lets ShoreTel's VoIP application share data with Salesforce.com's CRM package.

For example, sales agents click to telephone a customer from within that customer's Salesforce.com files, or the agents receive a customer call while in Salesforce.com and access a screen displaying the sales department's record of that call. Over the course of the day and over many agents, the integration can save significant amounts of time, the company says.

IronPort, an e-mail security firm, uses Shoretel-Salesforce.com Integration with its sales agents. They call up data on customers or potential customers and click to call them. This capability boosts the number of calls they make in a day and increases the number of sales appointments they schedule, says Andy Halvorsen, the company's corporate IT manager.

Users typically do this type of integration with in-house programmers or hired consultants, says Robin Gareiss, executive vice president of Nemertes Research. That puts VoIP integration out of the reach of smaller businesses that lack the resources to do this customization, she says. Being able to buy integration prepackaged will extend the features to more business.

Larger businesses that already can afford in-house customization might want to consider prepackaged integration but should evaluate first how well the integration is done, she says, and weigh how much it would involve to do it themselves. "A large enterprise should look at how complex it is to integrate the PBX with Salesforce.com and how good Shoretel's skills are," she says.

Shoretel is also announcing Custom Developer Services, in which it will integrate applications on request. This will put such customization within reach of smaller businesses, Gareiss says. She expects Shoretel to pick applications popularly used by a particular industry.