The ubiquity of quality standards including CMM/CMMI and ISO 9001 attest to the quality of Brazil¦s software developers and IT services providers. But when assessing Brazil as an IT services destination, process maturity and adherence to international standards only tells part of the story - its just as important to consider how Brazilian business challenges have been met by Brazilian innovation.

A good example of critical custom application development by the Brazilian IT sector is the country's payment and check clearing system. By 1993 the annual rate of inflation in Brazil was close to 2,500%, or about 50% a month. The Brazilian government initiated a structural solution to hyperinflation with the Real Plan in 1994, but prior to that a technical solution had been developed. The indexing of bank accounts and other financial instruments to inflation drove demand for a highly automated and efficient mechanism for making payments and transferring funds - in other words for getting rid of cash as quickly as possible. Visitors to Brazil are sometimes astonished that checks can be used virtually anywhere cash can, including paying cab fare.

In 1993, just before the Real Plan took effect, the Brazilian payments system cleared about 350 million checks per month, and checks drawn and presented in most larger cities were cleared within 24 hours. The efficiency of Brazil's 1990s-era payment system remains unmatched today even in much of the developed world, including the United States.

An even more ambitious new payments system went live in April 2002. Whereas the original system was primarily focused on increasing speed and efficiency, the new one aimed for further efficiency gains while simultaneously reducing risks. At the heart of the new payments system is the STR - Sistema de TransferÛncia de Reservas (Reserves Transfer System), which handles real-time interbank funds transfer and is operated by the Brazilian Central Bank.

The development of the new payments system took only 1 year and 9 months. Brazil's indigenous IT skills and, ironically, experience with hyperinflation have been cited as key success factors for the initiative.