In a pivotal move to consolidate international relations and promote cooperation, esteemed representatives from the Federal Senate of Brazil and the House of Commons of Canada recently convened for a high-level meeting. This enlightening exchange aimed to provide a platform for both entities to share insights into their respective digital strategies.

From the Canadian side, Christopher Henry, Konrad Kyc, and Michael Evraire presented the House of Commons' innovative citizen development model. This progressive concept responds to the escalating demand for smaller applications within their organization, utilizing a metaphor of filling a jar with rocks, pebbles, and sand to symbolize different scales of applications. The ServiceNow platform plays a key role in their strategy, being used to develop the essential building blocks of exposing enterprise data, creating design patterns, and developing reusable libraries.

The House of Commons also shed light on their application development and service management strategies, discussing lessons learned from their early stages and how they are using these insights to adjust their processes. They elaborated on their future plans to modernize their software system Prism, detailing their ambition to transform its monolithic structure and develop an API-first approach. This move, focusing on microservices, aims to enable citizen development and reduce dependencies on technical teams, making their digital strategy more efficient and interconnected.

From Brazil, Márcio Tancredi and Gleison Carneiro Gomes shared the Federal Senate's distinct strategies and methodologies in response to the bureaucratic challenges they faced in the procurement of services and products. In an effort to streamline processes and enhance solution production, they have implemented a robust governance model that encourages decentralization and department-specific development. This innovative approach signifies a significant shift away from traditional strategies, aiming to tackle areas that have largely been underserved.

A key instrument in their arsenal is a tool developed by the Court of Auditors of the Union (TCU). This tool empowers individuals with basic technical knowledge to create systems and solutions for business-related problems within their operational environment, thereby fostering a sense of ownership and efficiency within departments. In parallel, they are exploring new ways to meet the escalating demand for IT solutions, placing a stronger emphasis on market solutions and existing resources within their Office 365 suite.

The interaction between the Federal Senate of Brazil and the House of Commons of Canada illuminated the power of collaboration and shared knowledge in driving digital transformation. This meeting was a testament to the global strides being made in the world of digital governance, and the promise of further progress through international cooperation. Each entity continues to innovate and adapt, learning from each other to better serve not just their organizations, but also the citizens they represent.