CONSULTANCY
Leading firms are mastering the art of data research and IT solutions, among many others, but Portugal will need a smart government and educational system if society is to keep up with disruptive progress.
What is your overall role in the general IT landscape in Portugal?
GABRIEL COIMBRA There are many challenges for firms in Portugal and around the world. The expansion of the sector at the macroeconomic level signals a new digital transformation (DX) economy. Enterprises must facilitate DX through their use of third platform technologies to create value and competitive advantage through new offerings, business models, and relationships. In order to achieve these goals, businesses should focus on using third platform tools to transform their decision-making and experience delivery. In this context, businesses need a thorough understanding of third platform technologies to capitalize on improved decision-making and deliver enhanced customized experiences to stakeholders. The rapid acceleration of this technology adoption means that organizations need to actively looking at ways to deliver this transformation.
RUBÉN BARREIROS I opened Gartner operations in Portugal in December 2005, after ending a distributor contract in Iberia with Profit. Gartner took an important step in deciding to go straight to all global markets, thus opening operations directly in Iberia. Since then, Portugal has been part of the Iberia region reporting to Madrid, where we now have more than 80 people. Gartner has been seeing double-digit growth worldwide for the last 30 quarters, and Gartner Portugal has also been growing. We have acquired companies along the way, such as Meta Group in 2005, AMR & Burton Group, Inc. in 2009, IDEAS International in 2012, Marketvisio in 2014, Nubera in 2015, Machina Research in 2016 and, more recently, CEB. With the addition of the latter, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate our growth. Our comprehensive services align to the needs of virtually every functional business leader, including information technology, supply chain, marketing, human resources, sales, finance, and legal. As a result, Gartner is one of the largest advisory companies worldwide, and our strategy is to grow via acquisition as well as organic growth.
EDUARDO MASTRANZA We provide executive management support for decision-making, but also have other services for other company functions, such as HR. That said, the most developed part of our business is IT and digitalization, while we also have other services for managers and technical teams. This helps everyone in the company, not only those at the C level.
How do you utilize new technologies to help your clients?
GC IDC helps ICT companies understand market trends and opportunities. For other sectors, such as banking, retail, manufacturing, and public administration, we help them navigate the digital transformation era with a portfolio of decision-making methodologies that enable them to make more informed strategic decisions and better understand technological trends, business requirements, and technology options. But we are also a data-centric research company. We crunch a great deal of data on IT and digital markets and analyze it using advanced techniques such as machine learning and advanced statistics to understand trends in technology and build test models to help companies understand how technology changes the entire economy. We also advise companies on how to monetize data, build information architecture, security and privacy strategies, as well as new business strategies around data.
EM Research is what we do, so we invest all of it in this area. We do not do applications but have our own tools, such as deploying AI-aided agents that help clients access the most valuable content. As part of our offering, we have a portal with all our research content. This significantly improves the value our members receive from their subscription. We also do all sorts of media and try to go to market with different aspects. Apart from events, we also have podcasts and webcasts; we cover the entire spectrum to deliver content.
RB We also do surveys such as the CEO and CIO surveys, where we ask them about their mission critical priorities, and gain extensive insight into what will be the key investments for the following years.
CONSULTANCY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
read articleFocus
Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
read articleInterview
António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
read articleInterview
Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
read articleInterview
Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
read articleInterview
Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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