decision analysis partners delivered a comprehensive digital transformation project to the Government of the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by a grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

The project’s objective was to develop a digital roadmap to expand, enhance and modernize the state of Rio Grande do Sul’s digital infrastructure and develop a new business model for its operation.

The state had an existing broadband network that connected most state government buildings to its datacenter in Porto Alegre. While the Porto Alegre metropolitan network was a state-of-the-art fiber-based network with gigabit bandwidth, remote area connections were mostly low-speed (e.g., 512 kbps or 1 Mbps) copper-based connections provided by Oi, the legacy carrier. These connections could not support browser-based applications. The costs being incurred by the state for these “retail” connections were excessive.

DAP conducted assessments of the current infrastructure throughout the state’s major Secretariats and departments and developed future requirements. Our team worked with major service providers to determine available network facilities around the state and obtained competitive price information. A roadmap recommending significant backbone and last mile bandwidth upgrades, expansion into new areas and redundancy was developed along with a supporting cost model. We designed and analysed business alternatives and provided preliminary environmental and developmental impact assessments.