When the curse of COVID comms comically crashed the House of Commons, many a corporate home-worker doubtless had a wry smile.
PM, Boris Johnson, losing audio during a remote Zoom lockdown update felt like a single moment in which our country’s struggle against the pandemic was perfectly personified.
Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, booming “...have you pressed the button, Prime Minister?” drew the same murmurs of amusement from MPs as those which millions of remote workers have grown used to.
But as well as exposing even our government’s failure to protect itself from the inevitability of the occasional glitch, it was a moment which also served to underline how our public sector is now leveraging the latest in technological advancement.
Formerly UK PLC’s more change-averse, less-agile cousin; the public sector is being forced to play catch-up in order to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
And the pace at which it has moved - and continues to move - is paying dividends for those it serves as well as the tech businesses to which it turns for product and support.
The most obvious case in point, of course, is the NHS.
When it comes to all things medical, our most beloved of public sector organisations blazes a trail the world over.
But when the heroic doctors and nurses at London’s Royal Brompton NHS Trust were unable to communicate effectively through new COVID-enforced barriers within its hospital, it was the latest in audio-video technology which came to the fore.
“The pandemic meant that the hospital had to create green and red zones for COVID and non-COVID patients,” says Jackie Candlish, UK Head of Public Sector at global audio and video collaboration vendor Jabra, which provided the solution.
“We connected those zones with the latest Jabra Panacast and Speak high-quality audio video technology, enabling separated teams of specialist clinicians to effectively work together as if those vital infection control barriers didn’t exist”
In our schools, colleges and universities too, tech has proved to be a most potent weapon in the battle to provide continuity of service.
