The e-Poupatempo center in São Paulo, Brazil has been a huge success since launching in 2005, now servicing nearly 700 visitors a day.

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AMD’s Nigel Dessau blogs about e-Poupatempo e-Poupatempo Learning Lab page Download the e-Poupatempo Capsule Google Map: 50x15 Learning Labs

Learning Lab Update: e-Poupatempo
05/9/2008

In a city of 18 million people, where transportation is expensive, traffic jams are common and the illiteracy rate is high, providing fast and convenient access to high-quality government services is a necessity. So in the fall of 2005, the government of the State of São Paulo teamed with AMD to launch “e-Poupatempo,” a virtual version of the state run Poupatempo project where São Paulo citizens can go to renew drivers' licenses, pay their phone bills, find information on medical services and employment, and in general have access to a variety of people and information. Through the 50x15 Initiative, AMD, Telefonica and the State Government of São Paolo deployed thin clients connected to an AMD Athlon™ processor-based HP desktop computer that acts as a server to provide the thin clients with printing capabilities.

“Poupatempo,” which means “save time” in Portuguese, didn’t take long to become a success. Shortly after the Center opened in the fall of 2005, nearly 400 users a day were taking advantage of e-Poupatempo. The Center was so successful, in fact, that in February, 2006, AMD and the administration of the State of São Paulo received an “IT Innovation” award for the initiative, which was nominated along with hundreds of federal, state, and local Brazilian government projects.

Continual Success in São Paulo

According to the 50x15 Learning Lab capsule, “The e-Poupatempo Center – Replicating Success: Learning Labs in Action,” in less than a year since opening, visitors to the e-Poupatempo Center grew six-fold. And it has continued to draw an increasing number of São Paulo citizens. In 2007, the Center was used by more than 180,000 visitors, or 15,000 users each month. On a daily basis, e-Poupatempo has continued to provide services for a growing number of visitors: from 631/day in 2006, 674/day in 2007 (with a peak of more than 1,400 in a single day), to more than 670 users/day in 2008. All together, e-Poupatempo has performed more than 416,000 services from its premier two-and-a-half years ago to March, 2008.

In a recent blog that largely highlighted 50x15 activities, Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD, wrote, “The response to the AMD powered e-Poupatempo center has been very positive, and with the trained staff available to assist users, even first-time computer users are able to take advantage of the efficiency enabled by e-services.”

The continual success of the e-Poupatempo initiative validates the importance of e-Services to the people of São Paulo and the need to use the learning lab as a model to replicate other labs just like it, not just in other Brazilian communities but in other areas of the world as well.