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ShoreTel (News - Alert) wants business communications to be simple even as workers go mobile and communications itself gets increasingly complicated with the new mix of voice, chat, video and presence.

With simplicity in mind, ShoreTel has recently released a slate of products that make business communications easier.

One way ShoreTel is making unified communications easier is by driving it through devices that users already know: their smartphones and tablets.

The company recently rolled out ShoreTel Mobility 6 release and ShoreTel Conferencing, both solutions that turn Apple’s iPad into a business communications tool.

ShoreTel Mobility 6 delivers a native iPad user interface that enables users to place and receive calls with their business persona, exchange instant messages, listen to voicemail messages and create multi-party calls by dragging names from enterprise directories together with a swipe of a finger.

ShoreTel Conferencing for iOS delivers easy collaboration capabilities, including the ability to share presentations controlled by their iPad or iPhone (News - Alert) with remote participants or view shared desktops of their colleagues' PCs and Macs.

It has taken unified communications on iOS to the next level by also releasing the ShoreTel Dock in May. The Dock is a business-caliber docking station for iPhones and iPads that creates a desktop business communications system from those devices with a handset for calls and a stand for the iOS to serve as the communications hub. When coupled with ShoreTel Mobility 6, it creates a mobile IP phone setup that can be set up and moved easily by mobile workers.

ShoreTel has also recently integrated with IBM (News - Alert) Sametime, integrating its unified communication system with IBM’s real-time social social software and Big Blue’s Lotus Notes.

The integration means that users can manage all of their collaboration in a familiar application interface. It also means one-click convenience for instant messaging, e-mail, and telephony interactions, which are initiated from the contact list, as noted in a recent CIO Today article.

“Since many enterprises with already implemented IM and collaboration platforms will be looking for UC telephony platforms that can accommodate their current embedded systems," noted Ken Landoline, principle analyst at Current Analysis (News - Alert), “the ShoreTel Communicator enhancements in this area will ensure that ShoreTel's systems will meet their requirements.”

Further, ShoreTel is helping small businesses move easily into unified communications by offering a new integrated solution, the ShoreTel SBE (News - Alert) 100, that mixes hardware and software packages that provides organizations with up to 100 users at five or fewer locations with the benefits of reliability, scalability, and ease of use, setup and management when it comes to unified communications. Most standard functions, such as adding or changing phones, and moving users, can be done by anyone with basic IT knowledge and skills, making it a good fit for small businesses that often lack dedicated IT staff.

There are many players in the unified communications space, but ShoreTel clearly is positioning itself as an “it just works” business communications solution at a time when others are adding complexity. This could pay off both for the company and customers as more workers find that they need powerful but simple business communications.