Page 31 - Respond 2018 Magazine

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significantly improve efficiency levels to all stakeholders
involved.

The SAJ implementation project has impacted not only on the
efficiency levels of the State Court. It has improved the whole
ecosystem of stakeholders involved in judicial processes.

Claimants’ and lawyers’ need of physical presence in the
local courts have been practically eliminated, except in cases
of personal audiences. Considering that the Court has a
stock of around twenty million judicial processes and that
every year four million processes are initiated, it can be
conservatively inferred that the SAJ system has avoided at 2003 the World Bank published a seminal work titled “Legal
least eight million displacements to local courts. and Judicial Reform: Strategic Directions” This publication
indicated that there is a direct effect of the quality of
The pictures below show a local court of law in São Paulo the judiciary (represented by characteristics such as
before the implementation of SAJ in 2010 and 6 years later, predictability, impartiality, accessibility and the wide-spread
with the system in full operation, without “physical” judicial perception of the rule of law) on economic growth and
cases, on paper. The contrast in working conditions are poverty reduction.
overwhelming.
The impact of this project in the environment is as
overwhelming as it was in terms of efficiency. Considering
the estimated number of four million processes being
initiated every year and that as of 2016, 100% of those
judicial cases are entered in the digital format, there can be
estimated that, by 2026, approximately ten million kilograms
of paper will not be used. This represents approximately
two hundred and fifty trees that were not cut, equivalent to
two thousand and two hundred football fields. The avoided
production of the papers also meant the non-emission of
sixteen tons of CO2 and one million cubic meters of water.

Bottom-up involvement and coincidence of purposes as
drivers of transformational strategies
The choice for Softplan proved to be of vital importance in
this process. With its own mission – “To make a difference
in the life of organizations and people, providing specialized
technologic solutions in business processes” – being an
almost perfect fit with the objective of the State Court.

São Paulo’s State Court success story is a good example
of how the tripod Processes, People and Systems, when
strategically operationalized, is a key driver of organizational
transformation. It also illustrates the benefits and significant
Tangible and intangible gains increases in efficiency levels of the judiciary system in a
In an internal study of the impact of the adoption of a developing country, brought by the association of public and
group of five key functionalities in 2015, Softplan estimated private enterprises.
the elimination of around fourteen million hours of work
annually, or the equivalent of ten thousand employees, one The deeply rooted beliefs and the sense of belonging that
fifth of the Court’s workforce. These highly skilled public the State Court fostered in the process of implementing
employees have shifted from labour intensive to intellectual SAJ were effective in converting stakeholders’ individual
challenging tasks. In practical terms, this meant better satisfaction into societal collective gains: reduce global
quality of work and increased productivity. warming, higher efficiency and productivity levels of public
services and increase the gross domestic product.
An important intangible gain enabled by a more productive
judiciary lies on its impact in the economy. There is an www.softplan.com.br
important line of academic research that correlates
the effects of greater legal security and the economy,
particularly in the growth of the gross domestic product. In

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