Since VORTAL’s foundation, we have promoted a policy of permanent investment in Research & Development (R&D), with the aim of achieving exceptional levels of performance and competitiveness, namely in our continuous research in the field of integration of computer systems and networks.

The electronic G2B2B (government-to-business-to-business) marketplaces we have operated since 2001 are supported through VORTAL’s electronic platform. This unique solution has been developed from scratch by our analysts, programmers and testers, with the support of our business consultants and other teams of experts, namely from Accenture and Indra, among others, with scalability and availability in mind. The main adopted technologies are Microsoft, development framework with C #, XML/XSLT/XSD, Webservices and SQL server.

The platform architecture uses the most modern technologies, resulting from extensive research over business-to-business electronic process integrations. In order to ensure continuous research and development in this area, VORTAL has established several partnerships with Universities and other companies, which guarantee the permanent monitoring of the latest technological trends, speeding up their adoption and implementation.

Our team gathers very diverse experiences and backgrounds, with an architecture core where business to business process integration research services play a critical role. We continually invest in training our employees to enable the development of innovative solutions capable of increasing competitiveness, bringing value to our customers and consequently to the economy.

The development of our platform is based on a policy of growth through continuous research and innovation, leveraged by the demands of our customers. This orientation has earned VORTAL an important recognition from the main Portuguese association for innovation, COTEC, which in 2015 awarded the Product Innovation Prize to the VORTAL platform.

VORTAL’s main objectives, based on its R&D policy, are:

Promote creativity;
Receive and process new ideas and suggestions from our clients and partners;
Promote a knowledge network;
Develop research in the field of integration of computer systems and networks;
Identify new concepts through the development of prototypes.

Examples of this dynamism in R&D are the participation in projects like PLAGE, H-Know, vortalWAY and VORTAL Social Apps, where VORTAL is the leading promoter.
The innovative nature of our activities has inspired several Business Schools, including AESE – Business and Management School, to make VORTAL one of their case studies. VORTAL is also one of the case studies in b-MERCATOR.
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Project Title: Dynamic Factors of Competitiveness – VORTAL Qualification

Project Code: POCI-02-0853-FEDER-018583

Main Objective: Improve the productivity and profitability of the company and reduce errors, through the integration of the SinfoxCRM platform with the own platform VortalNext (new product) and the new ERP Navision.

Intervention Region: North of Portugal

Beneficiary: VORTAL – COMÉRCIO ELECTRÓNICO, CONSULTADORIA E MULTIMÉDIA, S.A.

Approval date: 08-02-2017

Start date: 01-04-2016

Completion date: 31-03-2018

Total eligible cost: 188,167.50 euros (One hundred and eighty-eight thousand, one hundred and sixty-seven euros and fifty cents).

FEDER: 188,167.50 € (One hundred and eighty-eight thousand, one hundred and sixty-seven euros and fifty cents).

Objectives, activities and expected/achieved results:

Turnover – achieve a turnover of €17.7 million by the end of 2019;
EBITDA/Business Volume – achieve a ratio of 32% in 2019;
International Turnover – represent 35.5% of the company’s total turnover at the end of 2019;
International Market Diversification – achieve international sales by 2019, in at least 4 new target international markets;
Increase the penetration of its corporate solutions in the domestic market – to account for about 25% of domestic turnover by the end of 2019;
Innovation – launch a new product in the market by mid-2018. Continue to innovate in its solutions. Continuous improvement of its products, using new methodologies and models that can have a positive impact on the market and continue to present solutions that keep up with the state of the art or even (in line with this project) that impose it;
Institutional Notoriety – VORTAL has been invited as a speaker at 10 international events, in recognition of its competence and high level of know-how in electronic contracting, eSourcing and eCommerce.
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Project Title: Internationalization of Vortal

Project code: POCI-02-0752-FEDER-018329

Main Objective: Internationalization of VORTAL’s electronic contracting and transactional Internet platform solutions

Region of intervention: North of Portugal

Beneficiary Entity: VORTAL – COMÉRCIO ELECTRÓNICO, CONSULTADORIA E MULTIMÉDIA, S.A.

Approval date: 22-02-2017

Start date: 01-04-2016

Completion date: 31-03-2019

Total eligible cost: 636,797.50 euros (six hundred and thirty-six thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven euros and fifty cents).

FEDER: 286,558.88 € (Two hundred and eighty-six thousand, five hundred and fifty-eight euros and eighty-eight cents).

Objectives, activities and expected/achieved results:

Turnover – 12.9 million euros at the end of 2019;
International Turnover – 17% of the company’s total turnover at the end of 2019;
International Market Diversification – Bosnia, Belgium, Netherlands and Mozambique.

Institutional Notoriety:

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Project Title: VortalInterData: Automatic and intelligent cataloguing, categorization and search system for suppliers using B2B platforms

Project code: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-038361

Main Objective: Strengthen research, technological development and innovation

Region of intervention: North of Portugal

Beneficiary Entity: VORTAL – COMÉRCIO ELECTRÓNICO, CONSULTADORIA E MULTIMÉDIA, S.A.

Approval date: 21-08-2018

Start date: 01-07-2018

Completion date: 30-06-2020

Total eligible cost: 986,914.21 euros (nine hundred and eighty-six thousand, nine hundred and fourteen euros and twenty-one cents).

Financial Support from the European Union: FEDER – 706,485.45 € (Seven hundred and six thousand, four hundred and eighty-five euros and forty-five cents).

Objectives, activities and expected/achieved results:

This project proposes the development of a platform for intelligent cataloging and categorization of entities, which streamlines the process of procurement of goods and services, with intuitive interfaces suitable for the user and the history of responses from the entire universe of users. The promoters propose to use natural language processing technologies, transaction security, data integrity and reliability using blockchain technology as the main innovative aspects;
Success rate in terms of technical-scientific results expected in the project: High (80% to 100%).