Empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação do Município de São Paulo S/A
Brazil

The Problem

The “Empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação do Município de São Paulo - PRODAM - SP S/A”, is a Public Limited Company, closely held corporation to the Governance Secretariat of the Municipality of São Paulo City Hall, whose sharing control belongs to the City Hall. The organization’s main objective is to support the public managers’ actions in the administration of the fourth more populous metropolis of the whole world.

Today, São Paulo has about 10,9 million inhabitants and many challenges. The PRODAM is an intelligence center that offers solutions and opens ways to permit its customers to be modernized and consequently to offer public services of better quality and with more efficiency and effectiveness. From the beginning of 2006 the company´s headquarter is at Francisco Matarazzo Avenue, 1,500, and its physical change was carried through taking care of the politicies of São Paulo City Hall - PMSP.

PRODAM’s internal structure is based on two Committees (Administrative Committee and Statutory Audit Committee), an Executive Direction consisting of a Director-President and five Directors, an Employee Representative Director, a Command of Cabinet, five Assessorships, four Internal Committees (Planning and Control, e-Government, Technology and Rationalization of Costs), 27 Managers and 750 employees.

Mission

"To provide the City Hall of the Municipality of São Paulo with information and integrated solutions in Technology of the Information and Communication, through quality, agility, safety and just price actions for improvement of public administration for the benefit of the society".

Vision of Future

"To be a reference in finding solutions on Information Technology and on Communication for the public sector, essential to reach the results of the City Hall of São Paulo".

Strategical objectives

- To assure high standard of relationship and attendance to the customer, with promptness, resolution and not recurrence of errors.
- To develop and implement or to specify and contract integrated solutions of ICT with accuracy, adequacy, errors-free and just price.
- To make available to the agencies of the City Hall the Acts of Register of Prices for acquisitions and to hire ICT products and services , economical and adjusted to their necessities.
- To make ICT infrastructure available, trustworthy, agile and reliable.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The main conquests gotten along the almost two years of administration can be congregated in regards to people, structure, process and technology, the biggest focus always being on the perfect attendance to customers and on satisfying them.

As for the people, qualification technique and managemental of the employees were retaken and lectures were accomplished to motivate them. Moreover, research on the organizacional climate, on the degree of satisfaction of the employees and customers were taken place, so that to define consistent enterprise actions with the real problems identified and adjust them to be ovecome.. Employees’ profile was evaluated and so it was possible to elaborate a modern Policy of Management of People and adjust it to a company of Technology of the Information and Communication.

Concerning the structure, it came to reflect the strategy of the adopted action. The organization set apart the areas of business relationship, technology of development and maintenance of systems, from infrastructure and administration. Such a procedure reduced the amount of hierarchic levels, regrouped activities and attributions and created new areas. The areas of quality control and management of great projects had been created and thus allowed the improvement of the services, what is already perceived by the customers.

About processes and technology, emphasis were given to the best practical ones when referring to projects management and to infrastructure, as well as to the methodology of development of systems implantation. Thus, practical of management praised by the PMBOK (for projects) and by the ITIL (for ICT infrastructure) were implanted. The methodology of development of systems has its structures on the basis of the rules of the CMMI, when were defined the responsibilities, the devices and flows of the organization, focusing on the certification, initially in level 2 of qualification.

The working procedures had been redesigned, with emphasis on the relationships between customers and home suppliers. The adoption of the practice of registering prices also deserves prominence. With the implantation of such a management process, the PRODAM bids at an auction the products and services of ICT, which are contracted directly by the agencies of the City Hall of São Paulo with the suppliers. Such a practice is a revolutionary innovation that makes enormous savings.

The ICT infrastructure was requalified by updating the computational park, magnifying its physical and logical security and by implantation of contingency structure.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Discriminação

2005 2006
Strategic Informations x x
Motivation Lectures for the employees x x
Capacity Training x x
Research on the organizacional climate x -
Research on Satifaction Levels x x
Employee Profile Evaluation x -
New ICT Model – São Paulo City Hall x
PRODAM Strategic Planning x x
Price Registering Act x x
Software Factory (from DMS to CEHTS)* x x
Technology Prospection x x
Commodities Contracting (Products and Services) - -
Third-part Services (Public Bid and Contract Managing) x x
Quality Control and Major Projects areas structuring - x
ITIL, CMMI and COBIT implementation - x
Office of Project implementation - x
DATA CENTER consolidation and upgrade - x
DATA CENTER physical and logical security improvement - x
Mainframe and Enterprise Servers Integration - x
Corporate Data Models construction - x
Headquarters’ moving x x
Corporate name change (from Cia. de Processamento de Dados to Empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação do Município de São Paulo) - x

*DMS – Development, Maintenance and Systems
CEHTS – Consulting, Specification, Homologation, Tests and Technological Solutions
*DMS – Desenvolvimento, Manutenção e Sistemas
CEHTS – Consultoria, Especificação, Homologação, Teste e Soluções Tecnológicas

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Initially, IT companies have been created for data and informations processing, with typical characteristics of a industrial model (preparation, data entry, processing, delivery), where the capacity to produce large volumes was the key point.
The private sector had incipient performance with low competition in the local and international markets. Technology was based on proprietary platforms for mainframes. While seen as a new technology, a solution for every problem, they were provided with abundant resource and allowed to do whatever they wanted. to There were no control.
With the increase of the society’s follow-up and expenses control, the crises started growing, becoming for significant in the 90´s. All the companies, municipal, state and federal, were more and more facing the difficult situation.
By the other hand, the private market was very advanced. So, a question emerged: Why the State needed those companies if what they offer could be found in the market? Then, with fewer resources, no allowance for technical updates, aged technical group and computing equipments, no hiring nor qualification of its staff, the data processing companies were forced to update.
Many circumstances have explained the existence of public ICT companies in Brazil: knowledge and focus on public business and ICT market; access and control of the strategic information; budget flexibility; easier adjustment to the business processes; higher autonomy in personnel management (hiring, salary, career); capacity to attract and maintain qualified personnel.
Created on June, 23rd 1971, by Municipal Law #7619, with corporate name Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Município de São Paulo – PRODAM, the company’s goals were to execute data processing and information management for the direct and indirect administration agencies of Sao Paulo City. The company acted widely and strongly in commodities; kept for the City Hall a Data Processing Center with no contingence and composed mainly by aged and obsolete computing center with unbalanced systems and equipments.
The company had an outdated and no motivated personnel, with low self-esteem, after great period of no opportunity for professional training and growth. They were in a defensive behavior; strengthen by the fear of the company extinction. There was resistance to the need of improving customer support. There were also hard deficiencies in the management team. It was notorious the absence of a management information system.
PRODAM was serving only the City Hall and their Agencies, through a collective bargaining that did not define the services to be offered.
The contracts were priced based on the total expenses, since there were no surveys on project costs or information systems, and results’ management did not exist.
It was perceived the attachment and accommodation related to the traditional way on managing the collective bargaining and there were no system of costs nor politics of prices of services.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
In the route of the changes, the organizational architecture was revised, with legal support, and adapted to the new management model based on projects and results. Now, PRODAM assumes new role on managing ICT contracts and monitoring the software factory.
In its prior role, the company was obtaining resources through contracts for developing and maintaining systems, DATA CENTER and commodities. Currently, third part products and services are contracted mostly based on the Price Registering Acts.
PRODAM has been fortified in two major areas, which are of fundamental importance to the City Hall: Strategic Information and Technological Prospection.
Moving the company to another location was always pursued by the public administration since it was established in 1973. At that time, the company was placed at Ibirapuera Park, a place whose vocation is for cultural and leisure activities. But the final decision was always delayed because of the high costs involved in the process.
In 2005, the task of moving the company to another location was finally accomplished. Such a moving had to be carried out cautiously considering innumerous minor tasks, such as: choosing the right place, costs problems, and avoiding the risks for the vital systems which could not collapse or be interrupted.
In advance, the physical moving was marking a very deep cultural change. All the old furniture and desktops have been replaced for new and modern ones, the special organization also suffered a hard impact, the changing from an horizontal distribution to a vertical one, and even the DATA CENTER has turned into a much more modern environment.
The own corporate name has been changed: from Companhia de Processamento de Dados to Empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação, in order to strengthen the idea that the company focus has changed. It´s the big step: a cultural change that will also requires people’s changings of habits and behavior.
As for the internal changes, it should be highlighted as more significant the actions related to people, structures, processes and technology.
A well planned, qualified and motivated work force was required.
The big challenge faced was: migrate from a model based on bureaucracy, vertical and feudalist, to a matrix-based working paradigm based on programs and projects.
So, a series of actions directed to people has been started: internal communication intensification in the Intranet; motivational campaigns, seminars and lectures; Capacity training, weekly managerial meetings for specific and detailed presentations over important subjects. At same time, the company has promoted an internal poll to measure its corporate feelings and an external one to collect information from its customers on their satisfaction level with the services provided. All employees have been evaluated on their professional profile. The alignment between the strategies, structures and programs, including their execution and decision processes was the key factor for the changes needed by the corporate structure.
The criteria was to outsource all product and services that could be offered by the market at better quality and lower prices, except those strategic and critic for the City Hall.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
On January 2005, the current administration adopted an strategy of implementing a process of management renewal, focusing on the continuous service level improvement, the increase of municipal collection without increasing taxes, and expenses reduction without cutting services, by developing integrated and directed actions to allow the achievement of efficient and effectiveness results for the Company and the City Hall.

In such a way, critical changes in the management structure have been implemented. Investments in technology, infrastructure upgrade, optimization of Strategic Information and Management areas (a base to develop policies and lines of directions) and Technological Prospecting (for continuous modernization), personnel training, computational environment modernization, this way reverting the accumulated damages.

The alignment of the corporate project with the lines of directions of the municipal administration, as well as its strategic planning which focus on the current administration values and directions, have allowed PRODAM to adopt a strategic vision of organizational motivation and synergy. These values guide its continuous pursuing of services quality, in order to be the main support in the policies development for the public administration and the key factor in the City Hall e-Government programs.

PRODAM has performed in a participative way, the Strategic Planning that allow it to define its Mission, Vision of Future and Strategic Objectives.

In order to stimulate the compromising with the corporate results and provide conditions for the company to work as a dynamic and integrated organism, it was instituted, in August 2005, a Management Model based on Projects which has PRODAM Strategic Planning as its alignment guide, with 22 priority projects involving many areas.

Workshops for each project have helped to define indicators, products and actions. By enrolling the value chains, the projects monitoring methodology was defined. Some are monitored by the Directors and Results Center, while others are only monitored by the responsible Directors.

By the end of 2005, an Agreement of Results was formulated that it configures the main commitments of results assumed with the City Department of Management and signed on June of 2006

PRODAM is permanently creating conditions to proceed in the way of the growth, survival and continuity, by developing its members, following the technology progress and pursuing its customers satisfaction.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
PRODAM, by means of a management capable of transformations, has managed to direct its business intelligence focus, explaining its existence as a public ICT company. It offers to its customers information and services to simplify and speed up administrative processes, as well as to eliminate bureaucratic formalities and requirements that only burden citizens, companies and public resources, thus becoming indispensable for the good performance of the City Hall.

The changes achieved with the efforts expended, the goals reached and the results obtained, reveal how, abiding to the legislation, was fulfilled the responsibility of providing the customer with high quality services and products.

Amongst the most significant advances demanded for the challenges of the competitiveness, it is distinguished the adoption of models of management supported in pointers, in this way allowing to survey the efficiency, the effectiveness and the economic of the enterprise performance, under the perspective of the quantitative and qualitative results reached by the organization.

PRODAM´s performance is positive. Today the company is recognized as reference in the ICT market because of its ICT projects and its technical and operational personnel, capable of managing strategic projects.

Its high-level management team constantly interacts with the market, and its Director-President is always invited to make presentations and lectures on how Sao Paulo City is modernizing its administration and applying ICT in its management.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The new Governing concept is PRODAM watermark in its ICT market repositioning in Brazil. The company prioritizes excellence in Customer Support, Undertaking and Innovation.

The organization is focused on introducing market’s best practices. Besides other models, ITIL methodology has been adopted as the main standard by the company.

The most advanced innovations are selected to compose the renewing process, such as CMMI Software Factory, ISO 17799 Information Security and COBIT.

Project management methodology is another step taken by the company on pursuing the excellence.

Price Registering Act is another policy adopted by the company, which allows a single Public Bid to register prices for products and services for use by the entire public administration, providing significant pricing reduction and faster contracting for the municipal organizations.

All these actions and their results are supported by legal instruments which give them all necessary sustainability to proceed with the projected goals, strengthening the process of interaction and integration between the company and its customers, and consequently, the entire society.

PRODAM’s experience reveals how reply and has already been copied positively for some municipal administrations.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
PRODAM is a public municipal company subjected to the same laws and regulations as public agencies.
Therefore, all interventions and implementations must abide on legal aspects.
Many challenges have been faced during the renovation. One of those was to change a carved mentality about the traditional way on managing the contract with the City Hall, which had no cost control and a consistent pricing policy.
The adoption of the Price Registering Acts as a contracting process denotes a very large innovation. By having Public Bids at PRODAM for direct contracting by the City Hall Agencies has allowed savings around R$6.000.000,00 (six million reals) in the first year, considering municipal, state and federal taxes.
Another challenge faced was the adoption of the current management concept, which seeks the migration of a burocratic, verticalized and full of compartments model into a matrix task paradigm based on programs and projects. This new model, results and goals oriented, might always have as main objective the effective support to the customer needs.
The directions taken by the current administration were the most creative and bold considering the existing scenario. So, it has been adopted those innovations in the management processes which would allow flexibility on achieving the goals.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação do Município de São Paulo S/A
Institution Type:   Other  
Contact Person:   Luiz Arnaldo Cunha Jr
Title:   President  
Telephone/ Fax:   5561 2167-9000
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   luizarnaldo@prodam.sp.gov.br  
Address:   Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 1.500 - Ed. Los Angeles
Postal Code:   05001-100
City:   Sao Paulo
State/Province:   Sao Paulo
Country:   Brazil

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