Civica improves video communications offer for local government

Faced with unprecedented take-up of video collaboration during the pandemic, and a longterm shift to remote and hybrid working, Civica is partnering with cloud-based video communications firm Vonage to enhance its communications offering to local government.

“Enhancing and streamlining our video offering has become a core focus for Civica during the pandemic, and we expect demand for unified and scalable communications platforms to rise exponentially within the local authorities we service,” said Steven Garratt, Managing Director of Civica Modern.Gov. “With Vonage we are able to keep users within our ecosystem, allowing us to ensure that both local authority employees and members of the public can join meetings, communicate, and view secure and easily accessible information from any device.”

Civica Modern.Gov manages the digital solutions of over 300 local authorities in the UK. 

Civica will use the Vonage Video API to create an engaging video platform for both internal meetings and external communications with the public.

Vonage Communications Platform APIs allow developers to easily enhance and build intelligent, intuitive customer experiences directly into their existing applications and devices.

For local authorities the move to virtual services during the last year has necessitated rapid digital transformation - and Civica's tie-up with Vonage will improve the functionality and user experience of its current offering.

The digital meeting platform will include request-to-speak and screen share functionality, archiving/broadcasting, chat for moderators, a virtual lobby, all integrated alongside secure document annotation and voting tools.

“We are seeing a permanent shift in the way that public sector organisations communicate and operate, a transformation that has been accelerated by the pandemic. Traditional methods are no longer effective in meeting the engagement needs of service users,” said David Darmon, Vonage Vice President of Sales for EMEA. “We are empowering organisations like Civica to do what’s next and stay ahead.”

Both companies are suppliers on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) G-Cloud framework, which enables public sector organisations to search, evaluate and procure cloud services from select suppliers.