"We needed a solution that was agile, modular, and capable of integrating with other systems. We found all of that with SoftExpert software. With the support of Suporte Gerencial, the project was delivered ahead of schedule, what was planned for 60 days was completed in just 15. Today, the solution is an absolute success."
Rafael Figueiredo, Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation, Recife City Hall
More speed and agility
70% reduction in service review time
Paperless
Over 70 processes automated
Government 4.0
More than 805 services available to citizens
Recife City Hall
Recife, the capital of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, is a city known for its rich cultural heritage, vibrant economy, and growing reputation as a hub for technology and innovation. In recent years, Recife City Hall has positioned itself as a global reference in digital governance through bold initiatives that align with the principles of Government 4.0.
By embracing innovation as a core value, Recife is setting new standards in public administration, inspiring cities worldwide to rethink how governments deliver services to citizens in a digital era.
Government 4.0: Recife City Hall accelerates digital transformation with SoftExpert technology
Entering the Government 4.0
Recife City Hall faced a major challenge: fully embracing Government 4.0 by replacing outdated tools such as paper, pens, and stamps with digital technologies designed to strengthen the relationship between government and society. To improve citizen services, the municipality knew it needed an internal restructuring through process digitalization and automation—the first step in a long digital transformation journey.
Until recently, all documents were physically stored in departmental archives, making access and retrieval slow and difficult. Departments operated in silos, managing processes individually, which often led to communication failures. Without a process management tool capable of generating alerts and tracking pending tasks, there was little control over responsibilities and deadlines.
Serving a population of over 1.6 million residents with more than 800 public services, Recife City Hall’s main objective was clear: to make life easier for its citizens. This meant delivering excellent digital services while also ensuring inclusivity for residents who are not digitally connected, combining modern digital platforms with efficient in-person assistance.
A Strategy for digital transformation
To launch this transformation, the Executive Secretariat for Digital Transformation designed a strategy built on six key pillars: a service census, service prioritization, clustering, a digital transformation council, digital transformation pipelines, and a unified portal called Conecta Recife.
Rafael Figueiredo, Recife’s Secretary of Science, Technology, and Innovation, explains:
"By conducting the census, we identified 613 services available to citizens—a number that surprised us. From there, we completely redesigned the City Hall’s portals, moving away from isolated departmental websites toward a centralized approach. We restructured services into streamlined paths and renamed them to simplify the citizen experience."
The next step was clustering services by common IT solutions and citizen needs. A guiding principle was established: residents should be able to access any service within just three clicks.
A digital transformation council was then created to determine which services should enter the digitalization pipeline. At this stage, SoftExpert BPM was introduced—a process management software designed to improve visibility and control across business processes through a user-friendly, human-centric solution.
SoftExpert BPM supports continuous process improvement, managing the full lifecycle—from modeling and optimization to automation, execution, and monitoring. Once implemented, it enabled integrated management across several municipal departments, including Tourism, Sports and Leisure; Sanitation; Mobility and Urban Control; the Executive Secretariat for Digital Transformation; the Urban Transport and Transit Authority; the Urban Maintenance and Cleaning Company; and the Municipal Pension and Health Authority.
Among the automated processes, one of the highlights is CredPop, a popular microcredit program offering loans of up to BRL 3,000 (USD ~600) to help residents start or expand their businesses. Promoted by Mayor João Campos, CredPop is an important tool for economic inclusion, job creation, and income generation for entrepreneurs, microenterprises, and cooperatives.
According to Figueiredo, the Mayor set the ambitious goal of delivering CredPop within six months. The digital transformation team, together with SoftExpert and its partner Suporte Gerencial, delivered the project in just 60 days.
Inclusive digital transformation
Today, more than 100 document types have been cataloged, categorized, and digitized within the platform. Over 4 million images have been validated and are now available for secure consultation. More than 100 processes are automated, with 27,000 workflows already executed.
Through the integration of SoftExpert Suite with Sinqia (credit supply control) and Conecta Recife (citizen service app), Recife City Hall has significantly accelerated service delivery, reducing turnaround times by up to 70% in some cases.
Beyond internal process improvements, the solution has delivered tangible results for citizens—especially through CredPop. Since its launch in 2021, more than 2 million residents have benefited, with BRL 5 million (~USD 1 million) in loans granted, making it the most accessed service on the city’s citizen app.
Other services have also been digitalized, such as pension requests through Reciprev (the municipal pension authority), urban commerce control (registration of street vendors), and fully online processes for survivor benefits and funeral assistance.
As Figueiredo emphasizes:
"We opened a huge door to integrate the platform across all sectors and systems. The no-code capabilities of SoftExpert Suite are essential—they allow us to design processes without needing programmers, who are increasingly scarce. This flexibility is fundamental to accelerating and transforming the services we deliver to our citizens."
