KEY FINDINGS
What has our research taught us about the future of Public Sector connectivity & technology?Read on to find out all of our unique research alongside the views of Public Sector IT leaders and tips on how to modernise and evolve your own output.
To gain a fuller picture of the public sector’s current approach to communications, we asked survey participants to identify how they engage with external contacts - be they citizens, patients or partner organisations. Unsurprisingly, ‘email’ (97%), ‘mobile phones’ (75%) and ‘paper-based comms’ (61%) were the most frequent channels, with communication platforms like ‘Microsoft Teams’ (89%) and ‘Zoom’ (46%) also featuring prominently. These results indicate that the public sector is now adopting an omnichannel approach, blending traditional modes of communication with digitally enabled comms.
Indeed, comments from participants appear to validate this assessment, with many highlighting the use of apps, online platforms and social media as a means of engagement. It is interesting to note, however, that 50% still rely on ‘traditional landlines’. With the National Copper Switch Off just over the horizon, organisations that fail to prepare for the transition to gigabit connectivity could face significant disruption, leaving external contacts such as senior citizens with fewer ways to stay connected.
Setting aside the National Copper Switch Off for now, we asked participants to consider potential impacts to the way their organisation currently communicates with external contacts. For instance, 78% said ‘cost reduction pressure and budget stretch’ would have an impact - of which 39% said the impact would be ‘significant’. Similarly, increasing expectations on the ‘ease of use and availability of communication channels’ was identified as a potential impact for 79%, and a ‘significant impact’ for 34%. Evidently, organisations may experience some difficulty managing the expectations of external contacts amid challenging economic conditions.
Additionally, while ‘remote and flexible working’ remains a challenge for 66%, this was seen to be less of an impact comparatively - a finding borne out in the responses to our next question. This perhaps suggests that, while the transition is ongoing, organisations are continuing to acclimatise to new working patterns
When asked to identify the biggest challenges facing organisations in relation to their communications strategy, participants appeared to echo our previous findings. Indeed, meeting the expectations of ‘service users’ (56%) was the biggest challenge by a narrow margin, with ‘data protection, compliance and auditability’ (54%), ‘ensuring presence across multiple channels’ (50%), ‘cost reduction’ (49%) and ‘legacy technology’ (49%) all cause for additional concern.
The spread of percentages illustrates the many communications challenges organisations now face. However, participants also took to the comments section to highlight specific issues, including: unfocused strategies, competing demands, digital inclusion, reduced resources and budgets, and limitations as a result of inadequate training or technology.
In line with the previous question, it is worth noting that ‘remote or mobile working’ ranked comparatively low with 26%, which again substantiates our view that this does not have a significant negative impact. In fact, perhaps the opposite is true, as the results of our next question seem to suggest.
Similarly, 52% highlighted ‘evolving expectations’ as an opportunity to broaden communications channels and improve the user experience. However, as one recipient cautioned, all of this relies on putting the proper strategy and infrastructure in place: "Without a clear and transparent communication strategy there is much confusion as to the direction of travel and plans of how the corporate communications teams can deliver all the required functions."
Interestingly, far from being a barrier, facilitating ‘remote access and collaboration for remote staff’ actually ranked as the no.1 opportunity (63%), with the ability to ‘flex and scale communication channels’ close behind with 61%. This renewed focus on remote working as a positive opportunity and the scalability of comms emphasises one of the public sector’s core ambitions – collaboration and breaking through siloes to support employees and external contacts alike.
Turning our attention to cloud, we asked participants to tell us the extent to which their organisation had migrated their communications. Given that the majority (56%) rely on a ‘mix of on-premises and cloud-based communication platforms’, it’s clear that there is no unified approach to migration. Requirements vary from organisation to organisation, and rather than wholesale adoption, the public sector is opting for a blend of on-premises and cloud-based solutions.
Additionally, there are likely to be services that organisations do not want in the cloud or might have difficulty migrating. Despite this, only 6% are hosting all communication tools on-premises, while 18% consider their platforms ‘fully migrated’. It is worth noting, however, that a relatively high percentage (20%) ‘don’t know’, which may point to an apparent lack of awareness of how their services are deployed. To a certain extent, this is to be expected. After all, does every employee need to understand whether their services are delivered on premises or via the cloud?
However, while the feedback was broadly positive, one local government respondent offered a slightly more pessimistic appraisal: "Although we are adopting cloud more and more, at the moment we are not tangibly experiencing its benefits as the activity is very much technically led rather than business or organisationally led and understood. The positives are not visible, but the negatives most definitely are."
We also asked participants to share the biggest benefits. With 60%, ‘improved access via multiple devices and locations’ was the biggest benefit, though the spread was fairly even: ‘ease of data storage and retrieval’ (55%), ‘ease and speed of adapting to changing business requirements’ (45%) and ‘futureproofed service’ (45%) all ranked highly.
Thinking about those negatives, we set out to identify the biggest barriers to cloud communication. While ‘legacy technology’ (31%), a ‘lack of in-house skills’ (30%) and ‘security concerns’ (28%) were the top three barriers, opinion was split - with 20% unaware of any barriers and 27% unsure either way. Instead, the most useful insights came from the comments, where participants highlighted ‘unreliable systems’, ‘poorer quality of service’ and a ‘lack of standardisation’. Public cloud, the process of buying in computing services through third-party providers, was another issue of note, with one university respondent stating: "When something major goes wrong we have no leverage to expedite a fix, meaning loss of business that the standard "service credit" compensation does not offset in any meaningful way." If more organisations intend to successfully transition to cloud for communications, decision makers must have a fuller picture of the breadth of options available to them and an acute understanding of the differences between public and private cloud.
With network and Wi-Fi infrastructure in mind, we asked if participants were confident that their infrastructure was capable of providing a solid foundation to deliver effective services and improve the user experience. While the majority (50%) were ‘somewhat confident’
and a sizable proportion (20%) ‘very confident’, it was quite alarming to see 19% either ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ confident. So, why might this be?
According to participants, organisations are facing a broad spectrum of challenges that run the gamut from ‘network performance and coverage’ (47%) to the ‘pressure to reduce operational costs’ (43%), the ‘availability of skilled resources’ (40%) and the ‘availability of funding and resources’ (40%). What is fascinating is that many of these challenges could be offset by the migration to cloud - an observation that highlights potential gaps in knowledge and awareness.
Conversely, when asked which areas would most benefit from further development to drive better outcomes, ‘cyber security’ came out on top with 74%. Of this, 40% said that this would feel the ‘most benefit’. Elsewhere, ‘Wi-Fi access and performance’ (69%) and ‘internet connectivity’ (68%) also ranked highly, while ‘unified communications’ (59%) and ‘multi-site connectivity’ (41%) were comparatively low, perhaps indicating that these are lesser priorities or that they have already received a degree of development.
Returning to the National Copper Switch Off, we asked participants if proposals to retire the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), its copper infrastructure and all Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines by the end of 2025 were achievable. The majority (46%) agreed that the transition was possible but ‘not within the given timeframe’. While a quarter (25%) felt confident that the upgrade would be completed ahead of the 2025 deadline, 16% didn’t think the transition was achievable at all. Tellingly, this initial deadline has since shifted to 2027, which suggests that the government is just as uncertain as the wider public sector community.
Clearly, there is a high level of scepticism regarding the viability of the proposals, but are participants aware of the potential impacts on their organisation? If your organisation relies on traditional phone lines to alert those monitoring your alarm systems or care lines, for example, the switch off will effectively render those systems inoperable and upgrades will be required.
Clearly, copper phone lines impact more than simply telephone systems, and organisations may have to evaluate parts of their operation - such as security systems, lift communications, broadband and digital subscriber lines (DSL) - before the planned shut-off. With this in mind, we asked: how prepared are organisations for the copper switch off?
According to our participants, just 7% have made the transition to fibre networks, while 46% have either ‘begun to develop a strategy’ (29%) or have a ‘fully defined strategy’ in place (17%). The remainder (also 46%) have either yet to implement a strategy (10%), were unaware of the implications for their organisation (4%) or were unsure if steps had been taken to smooth the transition (32%). Again, it’s worth noting that not all respondents hold technical roles and responsibilities, and it is to be expected that their knowledge of the National Copper Switch Off would be limited.
Evidently, there’s still considerable work to be done ahead of the updated 2027 deadline. In fact, as one of our respondents highlighted, the transition to full fibre might be more complicated than first thought: We have a significant portion of our workforce who now work from home, so the issues of the Copper Switch Off go much wider than those that can be directly managed within our own organisation. We have little idea as to when our staff will be affected, how they will be affected, or for how long, so we cannot plan for this, and our home working strategy and resultant reduction in available office space means that we may not be able to accommodate all of those staff who are impacted at any one time.
It is interesting that remote working, previously identified as one of the biggest opportunities for organisations, might also be the cause of additional disruption. As our respondent concluded: "We need a lot more information on the when and where aspects of the Switch Off. Without this we can only cross our fingers and react as and when issues arise."
Finally, we asked participants if the National Copper Switch Off had accelerated their organisation’s implementation of VoIP for all internal and external communications. While 23% had already implemented VoIP, 35% said that the transition had ‘somewhat accelerated’ (26%) or ‘greatly accelerated’ (9%) their plans.
Similarly, regarding the use of ‘ultrafast broadband through dedicated internet’, 21% had already made the transition, while 26% said that the transition had ‘somewhat accelerated’ (19%) or ‘greatly accelerated’ (7%) their plans. While this seems to indicate that the National Copper Switch Off is beginning to have the desired effect, encouraging organisations to take the initiative ahead of the deadline, 25% said that the transition was having no impact at all. This certainly suggests that more needs to be done if organisations are to avoid significant internal and external disruption post-switch off.
By Mark Cunningham, Head of Public Sector & Solution Sales at TalkTalk Business
If our research indicates anything, it is that the public sector transition to cloud communications is ongoing.
While traditional modes of communication - email, mobile and paper-based comms, for example - remain the preferred method for many, our findings illustrate that the dial is shifting. The public sector has begun to blend established channels with digitally enabled alternatives, such as apps and unified communication platforms, and cloud adoption is gathering pace.
Why might this be? At face value, the UK government’s longstanding ‘digital first’ aspirations appear to be bearing fruit, but the transition from old to new is not quite so straightforward as it may seem.
Predictably, forward momentum is being undercut somewhat by significant cost and budgetary pressures and widespread concern over the ease of use and availability of communication channels. Indeed, many participants went on to emphasise the expectations of service users and data protection, compliance and auditability as threats to their organisation’s ongoing communication strategy.
While far from insurmountable, there is no quick fix for challenges as ingrained as these, but organisations can accelerate the transition to cloud first. For instance, cloud infrastructure is proven to be more cost-effective than on-premises solutions, meaning organisations can make significant savings long term.
Similarly, in many instances, the mobility of cloud makes it far more convenient to users than traditional methods of communication. But we are not there yet. Greater levels of support will be needed to secure buy-in and prioritise long-term strategies over short-term problem solving.
It is also encouraging that public sector professionals appear to recognise the benefits of cloud communication - in particular, the ability to access platforms anywhere via multiple devices, simplify data storage and adapt services as required.
But while there is a broad commitment to modernisation, the public sector effort to futureproof network infrastructure is fraught with difficulty. Whether it is network performance and coverage, pressure to reduce operational costs or the availability of skilled resources, participants feel a solid foundation for digitally enabled communications is lacking.
But what of the National Copper Switch Off - the decommissioning of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and all Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines? Clearly, participants were right to be sceptical about the 2025 deadline, which the Government has delayed to 2027.
The delay confirms that the true impact of the Switch Off has been underestimated. As discussed in our report, decommissioning will affect everything from telephone lines to alarm systems and lift communications. The risk to public services is very real.
If you are not ready to move to Digital Voice, we can support with our unique ability to offer voice services via MPF, using existing copper wires from our equipment in Openreach exchanges, to your premises. Our MPF voice services are unaffected by the Switch Off, allowing us to continue offering broadband and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) with MPF. This gives you control, providing more time to plan a move to Digital Voice.
Going forward, TalkTalk Business will make it our mission to work hand in hand with the public sector. In doing so, we hope to play our part in empowering organisations to deliver cost-effective, secure and flexible communications - supported by the best infrastructure and, ultimately, fit for the future.
