Mobile technology in governmental organizations: the IBGE case

The use of Mobile and Wireless Information Technologies (MWIT) for the provision of public services by the government is a relatively recent phenomenon. This paper evaluates the results of mobile technology adoption by the IBGE (The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), via a case study. In 2007 the IBGE applied 82,000 mobile devices (PDAs) for data collection in a broad census operation in Brazil. The challenges for the deployment of MWIT in a large scale required a sheer work on innovative working practices and service goals. The case studied reveals a set of outputs of this process, such as the time and costs reduction in service provision, improvements on information quality, staff qualification and increase in organizational effectiveness.