“Reachability, reachability, reachability. When dealing with citizens, nothing matters more.”
Bringing staff into home offices, ensuring data protection, and at the same time maintaining accessibility for citizens: over the past few years, public authorities have faced immense challenges. The City of Unterschleißheim, however, was well prepared – thanks in part to a fortunate coincidence.
Secure Calls from Anywhere
It was almost by chance that Andrea Münz had already started exploring location-independent telephony before it became indispensable in hybrid workplace scenarios. In 2019, when the city museum was being renovated, employees were temporarily relocated to a nearby facility. There was no IP connection to the existing phone system – and Münz needed a quick solution. “That was the first time I looked into softphones,” she recalls. At that point, it was still unusual in German city administrations to log in from any workstation and make calls directly via a software client rather than a desk phone.
Guaranteeing Reachability While Staying Flexible
This experience of replacing desk phones with softphones proved to be pivotal. Within a short time, hundreds of staff were equipped with modern communications technology and could work flexibly from home or on the go. “What really helped us was that XPhone is not only stable, but also doesn’t need explaining. People today don’t want to plough through a manual. Things have to be intuitive – and that’s exactly what the XPhone client delivers.”
“People today don’t want to struggle through a manual. Things need to be intuitive – and that’s exactly what the XPhone Client delivers.”
Smart Call Routing for Remote Work
With mobile working came an even greater emphasis on telephone accessibility. To support this, the citizens’ office and the contact centre were provided not only with softphones but also with TeamDesk, XPhone’s integrated hotline management tool. This allowed calls to be routed intelligently: hotline staff could log in from anywhere, while the switchboard kept an overview of availability and could direct calls accordingly. Just as important was safeguarding staff data, for example by displaying only the office extension rather than private numbers.
Hotlines Across All Departments
The requirements were different for the city’s caretakers, who work across town halls, event centres, and schools – and who are on call around the clock. Their accessibility had to be guaranteed 24/7, even without a laptop at hand. The solution was a TeamDesk hotline that they could join or leave using their mobile phones. “It’s vital that at least one caretaker is always reachable,” explains Münz. “In the past, emergency calls had to be managed through complicated call forwarding. Today, each employee can transfer their availability to a colleague with just a few clicks.”
Future-Proof Administration
TeamDesk has since become an indispensable tool for the city. The telephony infrastructure has also been upgraded, virtualised, and connected to the IP network via a Session Border Controller. The legacy system now only manages desk phones in schools, while XPhone takes care of modern functions such as queues, voicemail, and hotlines.
And development continues. Münz is already working on the next steps to make citizen services even more efficient: “We are considering rolling out TeamDesk across all departments.”
One thing is certain: hybrid working and digital communication are no longer an exception – they are now a defining part of modern public administration.
