Amid tough economic conditions, and now a potentially incoming recession, more people will likely look for alternative arrangements rather than working from home to save on their heating and electric costs. With energy bills rising and the weather getting colder, many public sector buildings, and even small businesses such as cafes or coffee shops, could see more people using their services as an alternative to working from home. This isn’t unprecedented – indeed, last year saw a similar trend, with families taking drastic steps to ensure their children could complete their homework.

The public sector industry needs to evolve and accommodate users by offering new unified communication (UC) capabilities, to allow users to work easily from any building.

UC technologies have enjoyed a sharp rise in adoption rates in recent years, particularly after the breakout of the pandemic, with more industries implementing new technology and software to scale up services and adapt to new scenarios. Institutions such as government services including healthcare, education, and law enforcement, are beginning to implement new UC strategies within their infrastructure to improve internal connections, offer new Wi-Fi connectivity, and increased security whilst using public networks.

UC capabilities are the next logical step for the public sector to offer. With hybrid working models and work-from-anywhere frameworks here to stay, public sector buildings must be prepared to offer users a safe, secure, and connected place to work and help users save on rising heating bills.

Flexibility is the key to driving down costs

Flexible working and hybrid models have become firmly entrenched within almost every office structure in the UK. But with increased flexibility to work from home, there is the increased cost of utility bills to consider.

With public sector buildings becoming a somewhat surprise solution to this predicament, companies must ensure their work-from-home staff can change their place of work easily. Secondly, employees must ensure that public sector buildings can offer new UC capabilities to prevent any connectivity or security issues. Stability, reliability, and undisrupted business continuity must be provided for by public sector buildings if they are to become a viable option for employees to work from.

Accepting the challenge

As companies work to ensure their UC software offers sufficient flexibility to work from public sector institutions, the industry must also prepare for the influx of more users which presents its own challenges.

Public workspaces must be equipped with a secure IP communications infrastructure, to protect the network and users from threats arising from multiple users. Technologies such as VoIP gateways and session border controllers allow connections between legacy telephony infrastructure and modern VoIP networks securely, allowing users to work from anywhere and detecting any security threats to the network.

In line with strict regulatory rules and guidelines within the public sector, organisations must ensure they stay compliant with new data regulations regardless of physical location. UC solutions can take the strain off IT teams and supervisors by tracking what tools and information are shared within teams, and ensure this data is not at risk when workers are using public networks. UC portals can easily grant or remove access to different features and this can be completed remotely for remote working employees.

Preparing for a digital future

It is clear that the future is becoming an increasingly digital one. Increased security and enhanced connectivity will transform public sector buildings. The advantages of UC solutions within public sector organisations are limitless, and with increased footfall to libraries, youth centres, and public workspaces, organisations can increase their UC capabilities to support more work-from-home employees during today’s cost-of-living crisis.

With new innovations such as expanding cloud environments, increased use of AI, and cross-agency collaboration developing the advantages of UC solutions, it is time for the public sector industry to get on board, or risk falling behind. So, it is time for the industry to innovate and drive the adoption of UC platforms throughout the industry to allow organisation to unlock new opportunities and provide increased flexibility to more employees. With work-from-home employees facing more challenges on a daily basis, public sector organisations can help support them during this period by offering new, secure, and connected places to work.