These days, virtually all companies are moving through a rapid digital transformation process, accelerated by the challenges of the pandemic. However, the public sector is under exceptionally high pressure to innovate, as failure to do so can have a wide-reaching impact on an entire community.
A unified communication solution capable of synchronising teams and powering productivity is often one of the essential initial investments in any public sector strategy for digital transformation. However, finding and implementing the right solutions can be challenging.
For public sector companies in the non-profit landscape, it’s essential to innovate quickly while keeping costs as low as possible. Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing vendors out there to help.
The National Housing Federation, for instance, turned to RingCentral, one of the most prominent market leaders in the cloud communication space, when looking for a cost-effective way to power their newly mobile workforce. Here’s what happened when RingCentral and the National Housing Federation joined forces.
Investing in Better Communication for Growing Teams
The National Housing Federation is the crucial voice behind many housing associations spread throughout England. The group is committed to building a country where everyone can live in a high-quality home, where they can afford to pay the bills. The members of the National Housing Federation provide more than 2.5 million homes across the UK to over 6 million people.
Every year, the group invests in a wide range of neighbourhood projects to support and enrich communities while simultaneously looking for ways to make their operations as streamlined and efficient as possible.
In recent years, the National Housing Federation discovered its current communication technologies weren’t suitable for a rapidly evolving cloud-based and mobile team. As the group’s on-premises phone solution approached the end of its contract, the National Housing Federation decided t was time to upgrade to a solution suitable for a new flexible working environment.
The group had several important factors to consider when choosing the solution to deploy next. According to Kalpesh Sonecha, the Head of ICT for the National Housing Federation, it was important to find something which offered both native mobile support and strong value for money.
The Federation believes IT is the backbone of the service it provides to the community, and without a robust solution, the non-profit group can’t thrive. Staff members need to be accessible to customers in all environments, whether they’re in the office, travelling or working remotely. At the same time, the group needs to ensure phone systems remain secure and reliable.
Adapting to Mobile and Flexible Work
When the National Housing Federation decided to replace its legacy phone system officially, the ICT team needed to think carefully about the existing communications infrastructure. The group had already introduced flexible working a year prior, which meant only about 60% of staff members were in the office on any given day.
The older phone system required the staff members to be in the office to make and receive calls, which meant that employees on the move had to remember to forward business calls to other numbers when not in the office.
Phasing out this ageing phone system allowed the National Housing Federation to discover new ways of improving and upgrading its operations. The previous solution had also relied on using different vendors and platforms for everything, which led to a highly disjointed ecosystem. When making the new change to the communication landscape, the Federation wanted to unify its technology into a single easy-to-use solution.
After carefully reviewing a wide selection of communications providers specialising in the cloud, the Federation decided RingCentral was a clear choice. The group reviewed the Gartner Magic Quadrant and focused specifically on leaders in the Unified Communication space to make their decision.
RingCentral allowed the National Housing Federation to place all communications into a single platform, which staff members could use anywhere. This newly unified environment means all staff members can stay productive and informed.
Unlocking Operational Benefits
According to Kalpesh, RingCentral allowed the Federation to place all of their communications, including text, voice, video and team messaging, into a single platform staff members can use from anywhere, even when working remotely. External affairs managers travelling all over England are reachable via chat and business numbers through RingCentral apps. Plus, teams can even host video conferencing sessions on the move.
The National Housing Federation says the mobile productivity and accessibility of the RingCentral ecosystem are so valuable that they’d struggle to put a price on it.
As a nationally distributed organisation with locations worldwide, the NHF has consistently struggled with keeping team members aligned and connected in an ever-evolving environment. This complexity only increased as remote and hybrid working strategies became increasingly common throughout the public sector.
RingCentral’s Unified Communications solution helped connect all of the National Housing Federation locations quickly and securely. Moreover, thanks to the Glip team messaging feature built into RingCentral, employees across offices are more equipped to collaborate quickly and effectively. They can use the platform to chat in real-time, track tasks, manage a range of complex projects, and share files immediately.
Looking Ahead with RingCentral
The National Housing Federation’s overall experience with RingCentral’s help has led to a more productive, efficient, and synchronised team, even in the remote world of work. To further benefit, consolidating all of the organisation’s primary communication services, such as video conferencing, audio, phone and team messaging, into a single unified solution has also cut costs.
As a non-profit organisation, the ability to reduce overall IT communications costs is significant to the National Housing Federation. According to the team’s leader, they’re always looking to save money and reinvest revenue into more value for members. Cost savings have been a valuable victory achieved by switching to RingCentral.
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