Tiago Carrilho

Business Intelligence Standardization and Corporate Strategy: A Paradox

Market evidence suggests the increased investment of companies in BI systems to feed their strategy processes. The change in the strategy fundamentals increases substantially the value of information for both strategies’ implementation and control. One domain neglected is the use of BI systems for strategy conception. And this is something increasingly important in today’s constantly changing world of business, where new information in a knowledge economy is usually synonymous of more added value and competitiveness. However, together with this tendency, we experience a general trend for BI systems standardization, a dominant movement for BI solutions providers to standardize processes in order to take advantage of learning curves and processes, and economies of scale and scope. Considering that each strategy should be unique, and departing from the principle that BI systems are closely related with corporate strategy, it seems that there is a double paradox in BI markets that companies should solve as soon as possible, in order to take the most out of the momentum of BI markets.

Desenvolvimento de competências em projectos locais de promoção do emprego

In this article we analyse competencies development in projects for local employment promotion, on the basis of case study methodology. Project results are studied on the basis of competence concept. In the three projects competencies were developed in order to enrich personal and social dimensions. A Medida project was characterized by strong dynamic of all dimensions, with the exception of enterprise dimension, in face of the focus in professional training in order to enrich both «knowledge» and «practising» levels. In Formart project we observed a strong development of «knowledge» level, and a restrict dynamic of «knowledge-practising» and «practising» levels due to the lower percentage of individuals integrated in employment market after professional training. Le Cheile project was characterized by intermediate information, professional and information-professional dimensions of competence concept, due to the higher percentage of individuals who applied professional training in their workplaces. However, the majority of these individuals demonstrated difficulties related with self-employment.