Ramiro Gonçalves

Accessibility levels of Portuguese enterprise websites: equal opportunities for all?

Web accessibility is growing in importance. We may also find an increasing need for access to web resources by those with some sort of disability. The Web is very important for spreading information and for promoting interaction between the various elements in society. Given this, it is essential that the Web presents itself as a totally accessible resource, so that it can help citizens with disabilities and their integration in society. This obligation should be even greater for enterprises as primarily the Web is used as a marketing and business platform. With this document, we present indicators regarding the [lack of] accessibility levels of Portuguese enterprise websites. This article contains theoretical and background considerations as well as the results of two different studies that the research team undertook. First of all, the research team made a comparison between the 1000 largest Portuguese enterprises (annual sales volume) and the 1000 best Portuguese small and medium enterprises (sales growth and profit) using a specialised software tool and according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0; the research team then also considered WCAG 2.0 and its impact on enterprise Web accessibility. In the second study (qualitative in nature), focus group interactions led to a set of recommendations towards greater accessibility.

Efficient Measurement of the User Experience. A Portuguese Version

Abstract For the international use of software products it is important to know the culture, language and behavior of the citizens. Means: internationalization and location. To be able to evaluate these products it is significant to know how people from a country behave and express their feelings. This article presents a questionnaire which was initially developed in German, English and Spanish and is now available after a complex transformation in Portuguese.

Supporting accessibility in higher education information systems

Higher education institutions (HEI) and students are highly dependent of information systems, implemented as web applications. Students must be able to access this applications, thought accessible web interfaces, in order to perform their academic activities. This paper presents an overview of a typical set of web applications used by students and the main concerns regarding accessibility compliance. The analysis was conducted using the systems at the University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro.

PLAYER – a European Project and a Game to Foster Entrepreneurship Education for Young People

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as one of the basic skills to be acquired through a life-long learning. The European Union, under the guidance of the Oslo Agenda, promotes several initiatives to develop entrepreneurship culture in Europe. Education can make a significant contribution to entrepreneurship, encouraging the development of entrepreneurial attitudes and skills in young people. Serious Games are presently recognised as having an important role and potential in education and social networks emerged in the last years as the platform preferred by many, especially young people, to socialize, play games and even learn. This paper presents the PLAYER project, in which a game was developed and implemented as a Facebook application, to enable learning entrepreneurial skills progressively, by guiding users to develop a business idea in the form of a business plan.

Social networks sites adoption at firm level: A literature review

The current technological and social Era in which our society lives, provides for the necessary background in order for Social Networks Sites (SNS) to be considered an essential and very relevant tool not only for individual social interaction, but also for firms to perform business activities. By analyzing the existent literature on the SNS adoption at firm level, the authors perceived the existence of a knowledge gap on this topic, thus creating the need for a SNS related literature review. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review on the SNS topic, mainly focusing the efforts towards the adoption of this technology at firm level. Some final considerations on future research are also presented in the final section of the article.

A Review on the Portuguese Enterprises Web Accessibility Levels – A Website Accessibility High Level Improvement Proposal☆

Abstract The Web accessibility issue has been subject of study for a wide number of organizations all around the World. The current paper describes an accessibility evaluation that aimed to test the Portuguese enterprises websites. Has the presented results state, the evaluated websites accessibility levels are significantly bad, but the majority of the detected errors are not very complex from a technological point-of-view. With this is mind, our research team, in collaboration with a Portuguese enterprise named ANO and the support of its UTAD-ANOgov/PEPPOL research project, elaborated an improvement proposal, directed to the Web content developers, which aimed on helping these specialists to better understand and implement Web accessibility features.

CRUDi framework proposal: financial industry application

The alignment of information systems with the business goals of an organisation, although a topic of great importance, is not always properly valued or taken into consideration. In general, managers have different opinions to chief information officers (CIOs) in relation to IS, especially with regard to their importance and value to the business and also in terms of investment needs. Here, we discuss and study new approaches to methods and tools for assessing the relative importance of each information system to business, focusing on the financial sector including banks and insurance companies. We suggest the introduction of new key indicators for better decision support and to identify investment priorities, and present results regarding the relative importance of each process to support the business strategy. The primary goal for the inherent research project is to analyse the main problems and difficulties encountered by IS and IT managers, featuring different players and how they relate. The main contributions of this work are the CRUDi framework as a tool to improve alignment between business and IS strategies and the CRUDi survey and its results qualifying the financial sectors opinion regarding the relative importance of processes and investments.

Contact center: information systems design

The economic sector of contact centers is growing by more than 8% a year. It is a multidisciplinary area in which information systems are decisive to organizations’ success. Contact Centers’ Information Systems deal with real time requisites and critical business information. A theory-building research shows a framework with 12 key design factors to consider, which managers might use to develop projects and researchers may adopt for further investigation in the area of Contact Center design. This work intends to provide a valuable link between the research community and practitioners in industry.

E-Business Maturity: Constraints Associated With Their Evolution

To compete effectively in the e-business world, an organization must structurally transform its internal foundation. This structural change requires an organization to develop an innovative e-business strategy, focusing on speed to market and breakthrough execution. Despite the recognition and care that in recent years has been dedicated to e-business, there remains a need for continuing research efforts that seek to better understand constraints on the evolution of an organization to a state that can take advantage of e-business possibilities. There is a special need for this when considering small and medium enterprises, or businesses in developing countries. To minimize risk exposure from e-business initiatives, it is imperative for an organization to identify potential constraints on e-business evolution. In this setting, we develop a research model that involves e-business constraints and e-business maturity. We classify the constraints into the categories of environment constraints, organizational constraints, and technological constraints. Our results indicate that there are constraints that can be more or less problematic, depending on the stage of maturity. The results are also quite different in large organizations versus Small and Medium Enterprises.

Understanding the determinants of social network sites adoption at firm level

Though social networking importance no broad model characterizes its adoption.Seeking an SNS adoption model a mixed methodology research was conducted.A Delphi study was executed aiming consensus regarding SNS adoption at firm level.A research model exposing SNS adoption at firm level has been validated empirically.Several research model variables were significant to SNS adoption at firm level. The incredible numbers associated with social network sites makes technology a very attractive element in the eyes of organizations. Despite this, the existing scholarly literature does not demonstrate sufficient knowledge on how firms should adopt and use these technologies. With this lack in mind, a study was conducted aiming to understand what might be the determinants with the most influence on the SNS adoption process at firm level. the study was performed making use of a mixed methodology approach. In order to achieve an initial list of variables that might have a significant level of relative importance (RI) to the adoption of SNS, a Delphi study was designed and executed through the inclusion of 25 experts in the IT/IS area. From the Delphi results, a proposal for an adoption model that characterized the adoption of SNS at firm level was designed and validated through an empirical study. This empirical approach revealed that the proposed model explained 65% of variation in SNS adoption at firm level. The active involvement of top management, the alignment of the SNS plan with the firms business plan, the existence of competitive pressures, and the use of SNS for gaining competitive advantages are the determinants with the most influence on technology adoption by firms.