Public Sector MARKET REPORT
“Getting accepted onto a Crown Commercial Services framework is important if you want to be successful
within this sector, as it puts you in a much better position to win contracts,”
Marie Hamilton, Central Government Account Director, Avaya
that although the Lifesize Icon
700 and 300 tick all boxes in
terms of quality, one size doesn’t
t all.
“ e Icon 500 will be released
in early 2020 to bring 4K quality
to the smaller public sector
organisations. is will be
available from Nuvias UC with
all the value-added services to
make it easy to sell, deploy and
support.”
Jason Welsh at Nimans says,
“Public sector is embracing
new technology much more
because they want to cut costs.
ere’s more video calling to cut
travelling and the Jabra Panacast
solution has already been a huge
success. Video will continue
to grow and develop in line
with collaboration and smarter
working practices.”
According to Marie Hamilton
at Avaya, the public sector is
focused on how to engage more
e ectively with citizens and their
internal sta .
“ e new products that are
getting noticed include those
that deliver a better experience
for workers by simplifying
the user experience. We are
also seeing contact centre tech
innovations being picked-up
by the public sector – things
like webchat and chatbots that
o er di erent alternatives for
engagement with citizens.”
How is the purchasing
behaviour of this vertical
changing?
“Cost is key in this sector and
continues to drive purchasing
behaviour,” says Jason Welsh at
Nimans.
“ ere’s little sign of the purse
strings being loosened yet despite
austerity being over. What we
are seeing is a continued move
towards the cloud.”
Jon Cole of VideoCentric says
it is an ‘Internet rst’ strategy
that is driving services to ‘the
cloud’.
“Historically the Public
Sector has always been a CPE
environment, both from an
ownership standpoint and
because sensitive data is
>
Jason Welsh, UC Devices
Business Manager at Nimans
believes it is not di cult to enter
the public sector arena.
“ is is especially so given the
dedicated support available from
Nimans and our key vendors.
is covers a multitude of factors
from special pricing to demo
days to help them clinch more
sales. At the bigger end of the
market tender frameworks tend
to be more prevalent but on
a day-to-day basis all resellers
should be able to target this
sector.”
Which products and services
are selling well?
Jonathan Morris at Nuvias UC,
says that from working alongside
Lifesize and VideoCentric for
their Public Sector projects, He
can see the real opportunity for
their icon devices within the
healthcare sector.
“Everyone knows that
healthcare is best delivered
face to face. However, the
unfortunate reality is that many
patients are unable to receive
in-person medical attention,
whether that’s due to being
remote, requiring a specialist
appointment or carrying a
medical condition that inhibits
mobility. With the 4K image
quality that the Icon 300 and
700 Lifesize icons provide,
doctors can now connect to
their patients, and each other
virtually.
e medical eld is always
changing, and physicians
must keep pace with all the
latest advancements in their
specialties. For this reason,
continuing medical education is
critical. HD video conferencing
technologies help doctors
attend distance-learning courses
to further their careers and
enhance their level of care.
is is the same case with
teachers in universities, another
vertical that is improving
with the introduction of video
conferencing. In the future, this
will expand to video parentteacher
evenings and even
virtual educational eld trips.
When implementing a new
solution across an organisation,
there are several things to
consider, such as room size,
licences and user adoption.
Nuvias UC can assist with presales
site surveys to ensure that
the solution is t for purpose
and environment, installations
and end-user training to
guarantee users are making
the most of their devices and
noticing a real ROI.”
Jason Welsh at Nimans
reminds us that budgets tend
to be limited so any product
that can save money o ers a
huge advantage.
“Despite the perception
austerity is ending saving
money and enhancing
productivity are crucial. It’s
about the product and the
knowledge around the product
set and the value it will give
such as a UC device. It’s about
the whole experience. e
education sector has really
embraced Microsoft Skype
For Business and there are lots
of associated opportunities.
ey don’t tend to o er one
big order but a contract that is
gradually rolled out.”
Marie Hamilton at Avaya
says her company is seeing
massive public sector growth in
solutions which support digital
transformation.
“Also, just as the private
sector is moving towards tech
that enables exible working,
uni ed comms etc. so the
public sector wants to do the
same so that they can meet
employee expectations and
attract the best talent whilst
also improving e ciency.”
“ e Public Sector as
a whole has a ‘cloud- rst’
strategy,” says Ben Ryland
at 4net Technologies. “ e
4net portfolio includes cloud
and managed services which
help these organisations meet
these aspirations. We are also
helping organisations with
their digital transformation
plans which could involve
enabling communication via
multiple methods to improve
the customer experience. We
are also seeing a large focus
on employee engagement and
sta wellbeing within contact
centres which is another key
area of growth for us.”
Are there new products on the
horizon?
Jonathan Morris at Nuvias notes
Jason Welsh, UC Devices Business Manager at Nimans
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