Presentation
ARSAT, a telecommunications company of the Argentine National Government, launched its open data portal in May 2017 with the aim of making its management more transparent, providing citizens with information about its performance, services and projects in progress.
The implementation of the initiative had an impact on the company's interior, as it allowed them to order large amounts of information and systematize processes horizontally. Among other aspects, this allows the person in charge of the portal to update the datasets in an agile way, delivering the data in a timely manner. Other views are connected to web services complying with the security requirements of the company, such as the registration of visits and audiences, which are updated on demand. The data published on the portal are organized into six categories: Federal Internet Plan; Transparent Management; Plan of Connectivity to Rural Schools; Satellite Services; Open Digital Television and Cine.Ar Play.
In addition, you can access the affidavits of directors and managers, and their salaries; to the list of suppliers, information about the personnel, budgetary executions, record of visits to the company, tenders and detailed information about the projects carried out and the services provided.
Transparency improves efficiency and effectiveness in the management of a public company.
Beyond transparency
Although the ARSAT portal contains information related to transparency and accountability, the data published on the portal have value for the company's clients and their suppliers. The publication of Public and Private Tenders provides valuable information for the ARSAT suppliers, allowing to know the amounts and winners of the awarded bids and information regarding the bids in process.
The opening of this data, together with other factors, had a substantial impact on the costs of installing antennas in rural schools.
Data openness reduced costs of antennas installations in rural schools.
On the other hand, ARSAT helps customers choose the services that best suit their needs. Through the publication of data from the Federal Internet Plan, the local internet providers of the portal can know the current and future connection points, which allows them to plan their business.
But the data of the Federal network of optical fiber and of Nodes in service, not only are used by external users but they are key in the task that carries out the commercial and operative area of the company. These areas, instead of requesting information from other managements -with the response times that implies- enter the portal and access the data directly, without intermediation, improving its efficiency and effectiveness. Likewise, the marketing area of the company uses the open data portal to plan its campaigns.
The opening of this data, together with a strategic planning in the commercial area, has generated a substantial drop in the megabit per second price of the large internet providers - ARSAT competitors. This decrease in the wholesale price has an impact on the final consumer of internet services, thus improving the delivery of the service and its domiciliary cost.
Competition improvement reduced the price of megabits per second, impacting the cost of domiciliary internet.
Preliminary overview
The usage statistics of the open data portal shows an average of 250 unique visitors per day and an uninterrupted growth since its launch. This shows that having a clear strategy on the data, a substantial impact can be achieved in the sector where the company performs.
ARSAT is a growing company, and from that position, the opening of data can contribute to its leverage.