SoftwareOne case study
FIEG drives digital transformation with migration to the cloud and development of AI solutions in partnership with SoftwareOne and AWS
FIEG, SESI, and SENAI‘s migration from an on-premises data centre revamped the business, using GenAI to improve accessibility for SESI and SENAI students with visual and hearing impairments, and further improving outcomes and experiences for students and teachers.
- Migration from an on-premise datacentre to the AWS cloud impacted 2,300 employees, 10,000 students, and 70,000 people connected to FIEG
- Generative AI solutions have improved accessibility for students with visual and hearing impairments, and are now moving forward to improve student engagement and assist teachers in creating learning content
With a datacentre that limited innovation, FIEG (Federation of Industries of the State of Goiás), one of the main entities for fostering industrial development in the state, which comprises the institutions SESI, SENAI and IEL, was facing challenges to meet the demands of an increasingly digitised market. The solution found to overcome these obstacles was the complete migration to the AWS cloud, as well as the development of a series of AI initiatives, the project of which involved SoftwareOne, a global leader in software and cloud solutions.
- Client
- FIEG, SESI, and SENAI
- Industry
- Education
- Platform
- AWS Cloud
- Services
- Cloud Services: Application Migration, Managed Cloud Services, Generative AI
- Country
- Brazil
The migration project
Initially, AWS conducted an assessment to understand FIEG's technological environment and identify migration opportunities. The study revealed that, with an on-premise datacentre, FIEG needed to plan its resources for a five-year horizon, which included recurring investments in infrastructure, servers, and telecommunications.
Based on the business case presented by AWS, FIEG then decided to migrate to the cloud, with SoftwareOne being chosen to lead the project, after standing out in the bidding process. The contract, signed in August 2023, provided for the complete migration of the datacentre to the AWS cloud, with an initial duration of three years.
"We started the project with a small assessment, which took only 40 days, and then we presented the migration plan to FIEG, with the 'lift and shift and re-platforming' strategy, in order to meet the speed and migration in a single step that the customer demanded", explains Raphael Parra, SoftwareOne's position.
To ensure the success of this complex migration, which was completed in December 2023, specialised tools were used that allowed the complete mapping of the environment and the execution of pre-migration technical activities.
The results were impressive. More than 2,100 hours of design, 111 servers, 200 applications, and 130 databases with 50 terabytes migrated in a Big Bang operation – that is, everything transferred at once, without partial steps. In addition, the project impacted FIEG in general, involving 2,300 employees, 10,000 students, and 70,000 people connected to the institution, who benefited from the new environment.
"We were positively surprised by the assistance of the technical team, both in the execution of the project itself and in the post-project, which used active listening, agility and experience to serve us, complying with the entire designed schedule, and also allowing us to develop new solutions", adds Marcos Paulo Fraga, IT Manager at FIEG.
A leap in accessibility with generative AI
Following the success of the migration to the cloud, FIEG aimed to address a new educational need - improving accessibility for students with visual or hearing impairments. Previously, these students had to wait several days for the recorded classes to be manually transcribed and subtitled.
"Digital inclusion has been one of the great challenges faced by educational institutions, especially in the context of distance learning (EAD). The delay in access to class materials impacted accessibility for students with disabilities and was a constant concern for us," says Fraga.
Faced with this need, SoftwareOne and AWS worked together with FIEG to develop an innovative solution to improve accessibility in the distance learning environment. Using generative AI tools and native AWS solutions, it was possible to automate and accelerate the entire process of adapting academic materials.
Among the main technologies used in the project is Amazon Polly, which converts texts into audio, allowing visually impaired students to consume materials such as PDF and Word documents in a more agile way. In addition, Amazon Textract was implemented to read and interpret various document formats and extract their textual content, making it easier to access learning materials. Another feature adopted was Amazon Transcribe, responsible for the automatic generation of subtitles for videos of recorded classes, which eliminates the need for manual processes and reduces student waiting time.
Integrated with Moodle LMS, FIEG's student portal, the accessibility solution also features Amazon Bedrock, which uses generative AI to analyse captured content and produce personalised summaries and insights for students. This set of technologies allows students with visual or hearing impairments to have immediate access to academic materials, significantly reducing educational barriers.
"Ensuring security, reliability and flexibility, this solution not only ensures the inclusion of students, but also optimises the teaching-learning process as a whole, creating a more accessible and equitable experience in FIEG's distance learning environment", emphasizes SoftwareOne's position.
Attendance, engagement, and assistance to the teacher
To optimize classroom dynamics and continue the educational innovation project, SoftwareOne, AWS and FIEG are now working on the development of two new AI-based solutions to automate processes and offer insights to teachers.
The first of these initiatives is the control of attendance in the classroom. Using technologies such as AWS SageMaker and Amazon Recognition, a facial recognition solution will be implemented. This solution, connected to cameras in classrooms, will automate the marking of student attendance. As a result, the manual call process will be eliminated, allowing teachers to save time and focus more on content and interaction with students. This tool will not only improve efficiency but also ensure greater accuracy and control over school attendance.
The second initiative focuses on sentiment analysis, using AI to monitor student engagement in real-time. By analysing facial expressions and behaviours during classes, the system can identify whether students are attentive, engaged, or unmotivated. This will provide FIEG's education area with valuable insights into students' receptivity to the content, allowing for adjustments in teaching methodology if necessary. This analysis will help improve the educational process and create an environment better suited to students' needs.
"These two innovative projects, which will be implemented soon, represent a significant advance in the digital transformation of education at FIEG, bringing efficiency, personalisation and improvement in the quality of teaching", says FIEG's IT Manager.
For Alyson Torreiro, Enterprise Account Manager for Education at AWS, the partnership between the three institutions was disruptive at all points of the journey. "What is most impressive about this project is that it all started with an assessment to analyse the feasibility of migrating to the cloud, and resulted in a project in which the entire environment was migrated without any noise, and also in new innovation projects that drive a new growth journey for FIEG", he reinforces.
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