How do Municipalities & Public Institutions Master the Digital Transformation?
- A Spanish Success Story

written by Alexandra Carballo Porto | August 13^th, 2024

Just like private businesses, public institutions draw huge benefits from implementing new technologies. These technologies help with the automation of processes, the improvement of customer services and the overall enhancement of working conditions in the public sector. Digital transformation covers much more than mere technological advancements, it also covers topics such as security aspects.

What are the Specifics of a Communication Solution Suitable for Public Institutions?

When it comes to the digital transformation of public institutions, their communication solutions play a decisive role. They are of paramount importance for providing better access to public services for the citizens and businesses. Not every communication system meets the strict requirements for the implementation in public institutions. One of these requirements is keeping personal data secured at all times. The communication and collaboration platform innovaphone myApps meets all requirements and provides customized solutions for all types of authorities and public institutions.

Why is innovaphone myApps Ideal for Public Institutions?

1. Security by Design
   

   A broad spectrum of security mechanisms is already standardly included within the system. State of the art technology, on-premises / private cloud data hosting and advanced redundancy scenarios ensure a safe and reliable communication system that is optimally protected from external attacks.

2. Data Privacy & Legally Compliant Data Processing
   Accessing and processing sensitive personal data (i.e. of citizens, businesses, civil servants) require compliance with GDPR to ensure an extra level of protection.
   
   
3. Digital Workspace
   

   The next generation workplace provides mobility and collaboration tools to enable a productive way of working and the ability to work remotely. Employees of the public sector will benefit from full flexibility and a well-equipped digital workplace.

4. Energy Transition & Sustainability
   Sustainable and energy-efficient solutions reduce costs, are good for the environment and enhance collaboration between departments and communication with the citizens.

5. Flexibility & Scalability
   Adjust the communication solution to changing requirements and fluctuation. Integrate 3^rd party systems and tools. Users will be able to access the solution from any device and any location.

The Award Winner: Municipality Sant Boi in Spain

The innovaphone project for the town administration of Sant Boi de Llobregat was awarded the @aslan prize* for digital transformation in public administration (category: “Improving Efficiency & Staff Experience”).

The project to modernize the phone network of the town administration and its municipal companies is part of the digital transformation plan for the Catalan community Sant Boi de Llobregat. The project was co-financed by the economic stimulus package of the European Union, "NextGenerationEU". Approximately 1,000 users were migrated to a modern IP phone system, including UCC and digital workstations that are accessible for mobile work to greatly improve the services for citizens.

*@aslan is a Spanish non-profit organization, made up of 190 technology companies from the ICT industry. Driven by innovation, the association provides a neutral and agile environment to boost the market and to promote new technologies such as: cyber security | intelligent networks | data management & AI | cloud & data centers | digital workspace.

Initial Situation:

The switchboards were on premises and distributed across various town administration offices and municipal companies. They enabled telephone communication only, and were therefore unable to meet the latest requirements of digitizing workstations for the town administration. The previous installation provided old servers and equipment on site while the new system would allow all communication to be moved to a virtual environment. This would provide higher performance and ensure daily backups of the new installation.

The Challenge:

• Integration of all municipal sites and devices into one single, unified communications system; Integration of IT devices and use of existing connections
• Implementation of a highly reliable, standard-based and scalable solution
• Redundancy: Ensuring system security & uninterrupted phone services
• Already used functions should be implemented & improved
• Interface with Catalan language for myApps client
• Personalized devices with "NextGenerationEU" logo

The Phases of the Project:

• 1^st phase: 860 users were migrated immediately and all at once thanks to the speed of the innovaphone devices: automatically, by simply entering the activation codes to register the users and registering the new end devices that had been reset to default factory settings.
   
• 2^nd phase: Migrating all communication functionalities to virtual machines, two Data Processing Centers (DPCs) were created at two separate and geographically redundant locations.

New Services:

• Virtual innovaphone telephone system running on VMWare without requiring a 3^rd party operating system - hosted in highly secure European data centers
• Single software on a single server with all system functions (PBX / SBC / Unified Communications / Reverse Proxy)
• Data security in accordance with European data protection standards
• secure and powerful communications solution that ensures simple and efficient access to various town services
• Mobile workplaces for employees to work remotely
• Modern UCC functionalities - integration of phones and softphones, screen sharing tools, video calls, voicemail, fax, chat messaging
• Integrated video conferencing system with access via web browser - no locally installed software required
• Professional switchboard for convenient call management (innovaphone Switchboard)
• Open innovaphone App platform: New tools & apps (developed by innovaphone, innovaphone app partners) can quickly be integrated into the existing system
• Standardized security mechanisms & protocols that can be verified at any time and which protect all phases of the communication process: from establishing a connection, over transmitting data and voice, to managing access data

"NextGenerationEU": Project Co-Financed by the European Union as Catalyst for the digitization of Companies & Public Institutions

Digital transformation is one of the four areas structuring the stimulus package NextGenerationEU (NGEU). This European recovery plan was launched in 2020 to fight the severe impact the pandemic had on the economy. Ever since, it has proven to be a great opportunity for businesses and public institutions to implement structural transformation, and to promote digital change and innovation.