For any industry, upgrading from a distributed legacy phone system to a unified communications strategy has the power to minimise costs, improve productivity and generate new growth opportunities. The transition to UC solutions has never been greater in the public sector landscape, where agility, security, and efficiency are all crucial.
Accessing the right tools not only allows public sector organisations to reduce the costs of legacy infrastructure. The right solutions can also help align teams, improve customer service, and deliver new opportunities for wider communities of people.
The Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services (HCDSS) is a public sector government company responsible for serving the community since 1968. The group supports more than 8,000 people per year, providing those with developmental disabilities with more opportunities to work, learn, and participate in their communities.
To continue serving these individuals, the HCDDS chose to work with Zoom on building a comprehensive solution leveraging everything from Zoom Meetings to Zoom Phone for better, more unified communications.
Let’s look at how the HCDDS and Zoom worked together.
Prioritising Ease of Use in the Public Sector
The HCDSS is focused on supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and their families through all stages of life. To deliver this support, the company needed a communication solution capable of enabling continuity during the pandemic and improving the overall case management and service delivery process.
According to Brian Knight, the Director of Information Technology at the Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services, Zoom was the clear choice to help his agency achieve its mission. Before 2020, Knight said he and his team rarely took part in any video meetings, as most interactions happened in person. However, this changed when the pandemic began.
When COVID-19 emerged, Knight and his team knew simple solutions like Skype weren’t enough to suit their new requirements. The team was offered a 90-day license of Webex, but the solution didn’t seem to provide everything they were looking for. Finally, the company decided to pilot Zoom, purchasing only ten meeting licenses, to begin with.
The response from the team was overwhelming, with many of the users highlighting how simple the technology was to access. The HCDDS executive team were on-board too, and Knight eventually decided to demo the solution with the hopes of boosting adoption across the entire organisation.
What started with a simple demonstration of the benefits of Zoom Meetings quickly evolved into an exploration of the complete Zoom ecosystem. The HCDDS team began looking into the benefits of flexible audio communications through Zoom Phone. Once again, the company started by testing licenses with a small group and moving on from there.
For Knight, the implementation of Zoom solutions was a seamless and cost-effective experience. The cost of entry was practically nothing, as the company didn’t have to invest in any specialists to set things up. What’s more, having video and audio in the same environment with the addition of Zoom Phone only made managing the ecosystem more straightforward.
Exploring New Opportunities with Zoom
Once Knight and his team had effectively deployed Zoom Meetings and Phone across the agency, they also began to implement Zoom Rooms for in-office conference sessions and Zoom Chat to ensure quick and easy messaging capabilities for the team. According to Knight, the impact of the upgrade was felt by constituents and employees alike.
The company quickly noticed significant changes to its workflows, starting with better accessibility. Live transcription became an essential tool for many users, as it allowed hearing-impaired individuals and employees to gain extra support.
At the same time, for remote and hybrid workers moving into the new age of work, Zoom also helped to prioritize better work-life balance. The team loved the opportunity to set their business hours on Zoom Phone, and the leadership group also noticed attendance in meetings going up. Zoom leads to better participation in various conversations, particularly with court-appointed guardians.
One of the most significant benefits of switching to Zoom for the HCDDS team was the simplified management and ease of use they could access. The company wanted to find something easy to use and that any other person could quickly gain access to. After seeing such success with the Zoom platform, Knight promptly spread the word to colleagues and cohorts.
The HCDDS leadership group quickly started sharing their glowing reviews of Zoom with a group of all the IT county board directors in the State of Ohio. People in the group noted they were previously using more traditional PBX systems but started to move to Zoom based on Knight’s recommendation.
Knight and his team even discovered how beneficial having the right hardware solutions from Zoom could be. The group quickly realised how Zoom Rooms could help regularly support some of the schools HCDDS works with. As a result, Knight decided to show these schools how to use the product first-hand, providing a demo of the group’s Zoom Room capabilities.
The schools that saw the demonstration have already shared their excitement about switching to Zoom Rooms hardware.
Looking ahead with HCDDS and Zoom
According to Knight and the leadership team at the Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services, Zoom has quickly emerged as one of the most powerful and versatile solutions in their toolkit. More than just a video conferencing solution, the service soon became the go-to service for all HCDSS communication and collaboration needs.
The progress HCDSS is making with Zoom has already begun to expand to other organisations in the public sector, helping them to continue providing critical services to the public. Zoom is proud to say its vast ecosystem of tools for meetings, messaging, and phone calls are helping to empower and elevate the vital work of local and state agencies in Ohio.
