Economic Benefits of Public Service Digital Transformation: The Case of the City of Sao Paulo

The digital transformation of public services is a Brazilian Federal Government strategy supported by initiatives underway in various states and municipalities. Among these initiatives, the case of the city of So Paulo is the countrys main reference point. The aim of this study is to evaluate and measure the economic benefits to both the municipal administration and to society as a whole, generated by the digital transformation of public services implemented by the municipality of Sao Paulo. As part of the study, and with a view to comparing the scenario before and after digitization, a methodology was developed that considered the main costs associated with providing assistance to citizens and to processing the demand for public services. The analysis concluded that digital transformation led to an average 73.9 percent reduction in the unit cost of public service requests for society as a whole (citizens and firms) and an average reduction of 39.9 percent for the municipal administration in the unit cost of satisfying public service requests. In the 12-month period following digital transformation of the set of services analyzed, the estimated rate of return was 27.1 BRL for each real invested.