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– Migration of the on-premise datacenter 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 advancing to improve student engagement and assist teachers in creating educational content

With a datacenter that limited system innovation FIEG (Federation of Industries of the State of Goiás), one of the main entities promoting industrial development in the state, composed of the entities FIEG, SESI, SENAI and IEL, was facing challenges in meeting the demands of an increasingly digitalized market. The solution found to overcome these obstacles was the complete migration to the cloud AWS, as well as the development of a series of AI initiatives, the design of which involved the SoftwareOne, a global leader in cloud software and solutions.

The migration project 

Initially, AWS conducted a assessment to assess the technological environment of the FIEG system and identify migration opportunities. The study revealed that, with a datacenter on-premise, the FIEG system needed to plan its resources for a five-year horizon, which included recurring investments in infrastructure, servers and telecommunications.

Thus, based on the business case presented by AWS, the FIEG system 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 datacenter 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 the FIEG system, with the strategy 'lift and shift and re-platforming', in order to meet the speed and single-step migration that the client demanded”, explains Otavio Argenton, Country Manager at SoftwareOne.

To ensure the success of this complex migration, which was completed in December 2023, specialized 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 project time, 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 the FIEG system as a whole, 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 technical team’s assistance, both in the execution of the project itself and in the post-project, which used active listening, agility and experience to assist us, complying with the entire schedule drawn up, and also enabling us to develop new solutions”, adds Marcos Paulo Fraga, IT Manager of the FIEG system.

A leap in accessibility with generative AI 

With the success of the migration to the cloud, the FIEG system sought to advance with a new educational demand: improving accessibility for students with visual or hearing impairments. This is because, until then, these students had to wait a few days for recorded classes to be manually transcribed and subtitled.

“Digital inclusion is a top priority for educational institutions, especially in the context of distance learning (EAD). Delayed access to classroom materials impacted accessibility for students with disabilities and was a constant concern for us,” says Fraga.

In view of this need, SoftwareOne and AWS worked together with the FIEG system to develop an innovative solution, with the aim of improving accessibility in the EAD environment. Using tools for Generative AI 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 more quickly. In addition, Amazon Textract was implemented to read and interpret various document formats and extract their textual content, facilitating access to teaching materials. Another resource adopted was Amazon Transcribe, responsible for automatically generating subtitles for videos of recorded classes, which eliminates the need for manual processes and reduces waiting time for students.

Integrated with the Moodle LMS, the SESI and SENAI student portal, the accessibility solution also relies on Amazon Bedrock, which uses generative AI to analyze captured content and produce personalized summaries and insights for students. This set of technologies enables students with visual or hearing impairments to have immediate access to academic materials, significantly reducing educational barriers.

“By ensuring security, reliability and flexibility, this solution not only ensures student inclusion, but also optimizes the teaching-learning process as a whole, creating a more accessible and equitable experience in the FIEG system's distance learning environment,” highlights Otavio Argenton from SoftwareOne.

Teacher presence, engagement and assistance 

With the aim of optimizing classroom dynamics, continuing the educational innovation project, SoftwareOne, AWS and the FIEG system, through SESI and SENAI, are now working on developing two new AI-based solutions to automate processes and offer insights to teachers.

The first of these initiatives is classroom attendance monitoring. Using technologies such as AWS SageMaker and Amazon Rekognition, a facial recognition solution will be implemented, connected to cameras installed in classrooms, which will automate student attendance tracking. With this feature, the manual roll-call process will be eliminated, allowing teachers to save time and focus more on content and interaction with students. Thus, the tool will not only improve efficiency, but will also ensure greater accuracy and control over school attendance.

The second project is sentiment analysis, which will also use AI to monitor student engagement in real time. By analyzing facial expressions and behaviors during classes, the system will be able to identify whether students are attentive, engaged, or unmotivated. With this, the education departments of SESI and SENAI will be able to obtain valuable insights into student receptiveness to content, allowing adjustments to teaching methodology, if necessary. This analysis will help improve the educational process and promote an environment that is more adapted to students’ needs.

“These two innovative projects, which will be implemented soon, represent a significant advance in the digital transformation of education at SESI and SENAI, bringing efficiency, personalization and improvement in the quality of teaching”, says the IT Manager of the FIEG system.

For Paulo Cunha, AWS Director for the Public Sector in Brazil, the strategic collaboration between the three institutions enabled a complete digital transformation for the FIEG system. “What started as an assessment for backup and disaster recovery purposes in the cloud quickly turned into a strong business case for migrating the entire data center. This journey not only modernized the infrastructure and applications of the FIEG system, but also paved the way for exploring the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in education,” adds Cunha. “This will boost the productivity of SESI and SENAI teachers, in addition to improving access to educational resources for students,” he concludes.

About SoftwareOne 

SoftwareOne is a leading global provider of software and cloud solutions that is redefining how organizations build, buy and manage everything in the cloud. By helping customers migrate and modernize their workloads and applications – and in parallel navigate and optimize the resulting software and cloud changes – SoftwareOne unlocks the value of technology. The company’s approximately 9,300 employees are driven to deliver a portfolio of 7,500 software brands with a presence in more than 60 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol SWON.

Visit us at www.softwareone.com.

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