Framework for the semantic alignment of enterprise’s domain knowledge

Nowadays, the consumption of goods and services on the Internet are increasing in a constant motion. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) mostly from the traditional industry sectors are usually make business in weak and fragile market sectors, where customized products and services prevail. To survive and compete in the actual markets they have to readjust their business strategies by creating new manufacturing processes and establishing new business networks through new technological approaches. In order to compete with big enterprises, these partnerships aim the sharing of resources, knowledge and strategies to boost the sector’s business consolidation through the creation of dynamic manufacturing networks. To facilitate such demand, it is proposed the development of a centralized information system, which allows enterprises to select and create dynamic manufacturing networks that would have the capability to monitor all the manufacturing process, including the assembly, packaging and distribution phases. Even the networking partners that come from the same area have multi and heterogeneous representations of the same knowledge, denoting their own view of the domain. Thus, different conceptual, semantic, and consequently, diverse lexically knowledge representations may occur in the network, causing non-transparent sharing of information and interoperability inconsistencies. The creation of a framework supported by a tool that in a flexible way would enable the identification, classification and resolution of such semantic heterogeneities is required. This tool will support the network in the semantic mapping establishments, to facilitate the various enterprises information systems integration.

Online consumer behavior: The tablet shopper – A new kind of customer?

Tablet computers are on the rise and are increasingly superseding stationary computers in terms of modern online shopping. This paper therefore aims on understanding how tablet and website characteristics might impact online consumer behavior. The collected data resulted from focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted with a technology affine audience. It has shown that tablets indeed may have shifted shopping behavior from utilitarian towards rather recreational attributes. Discussions also revealed high customer expectations towards visited shopping websites and prevailing deficits. Thus, harnessing the concept of experiential flow is crucial. Compelling experiences are required to increase the duration of stay and consequently the likelihood of increased purchases.

Strategic account management: the path to gain customer loyalty

The account management field works closely with the sales team, serving as the customer’s primary point of contact. This project’s purpose was to understand if shifting the account management from brand centric to customer centric, would be the best fit for a Portuguese Pharmaceutical company. This customer centric approach - Strategic Account Management (SAM) - was studied, understanding the implicated trade-offs to the company. The workforce was probed about the project and their comments were analyzed. The conclusion points to an implementation of SAM and proposes the adaptations to follow in order to smooth the change.

Can location-based mobile marketing enhance the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty?

This study intends to explore the impact of customer experience on customer satisfaction and loyalty by trying to understand how location-based mobile marketing might enhance the customer experience. Primary data was collected from 201 smartphone users in 24 countries. Results have indicated that targeted location-based marketing positively influences customers’ experiences. Besides, the analysis has also shown a favorable impact on customers’ satisfaction and self-perceived loyalty. This suggests that location-based mobile marketing has the potential to positively add value to a customer’s experience and should therefore be considered an important tool in marketing communications.

Knowledge management framework based on brain models and human physiology

The life of humans and most living beings depend on sensation and perception for the best assessment of the surrounding world. Sensorial organs acquire a variety of stimuli that are interpreted and integrated in our brain for immediate use or stored in memory for later recall. Among the reasoning aspects, a person has to decide what to do with available information. Emotions are classifiers of collected information, assigning a personal meaning to objects, events and individuals, making part of our own identity. Emotions play a decisive role in cognitive processes as reasoning, decision and memory by assigning relevance to collected information. The access to pervasive computing devices, empowered by the ability to sense and perceive the world, provides new forms of acquiring and integrating information. But prior to data assessment on its usefulness, systems must capture and ensure that data is properly managed for diverse possible goals. Portable and wearable devices are now able to gather and store information, from the environment and from our body, using cloud based services and Internet connections. Systems limitations in handling sensorial data, compared with our sensorial capabilities constitute an identified problem. Another problem is the lack of interoperability between humans and devices, as they do not properly understand human’s emotional states and human needs. Addressing those problems is a motivation for the present research work. The mission hereby assumed is to include sensorial and physiological data into a Framework that will be able to manage collected data towards human cognitive functions, supported by a new data model. By learning from selected human functional and behavioural models and reasoning over collected data, the Framework aims at providing evaluation on a person’s emotional state, for empowering human centric applications, along with the capability of storing episodic information on a person’s life with physiologic indicators on emotional states to be used by new generation applications.

Customer relationship management at Siemens Healthcare – a diagnosis and proposal for strategy and market segmentation

Towards a holistic perspective of CRM, this project aims to diagnose and propose a strategy and market segmentation for Siemens Healthcare. The main underlying principle is to apply a full customer-centric outlook taking own business properties into consideration while preserving Siemens Healthcare’s culture and vision. Mainly focused on market segmentation, this project goes beyond established boundaries by employing an unbiased perspective of CRM while challenging current strategy, goals, processes, tools, initiatives and KPIs. In order to promote a sustainable business excellence strategy, this project aspires to streamline CRM strategic importance and driving the company one step forward.

Paradox of choice: The influence of assortment size on customer satisfaction

Recently researchers showed that more choice is not always better. Choosing from large assortments can be overwhelming, raising expectations and decreasing overall level of consumer satisfaction. Author contributes to existing overchoice studies by using real assortment of online stores to find influence of assortment size on customer satisfaction. 90 students participated in the main experiment, where they chose a smartphone case for their friend. Results of the study show that large assortment size leads to higher expectations, higher choice difficulty and higher level of satisfaction. This research does not show overchoice presence and author suggests future studies could focus more on assortment variety and more personal characteristics of consumers, like preference uncertainty.

The impact of online promotional efforts on customer acquisitiom and retention at continente.pt

Continente Online (COL) is the market leader of online grocery retailing in Portugal. Aiming at sustaining this position, it has been focusing its promotional efforts in acquiring and retaining customers. This report intakes an extensive study on the impact of COL’s exclusive promotional efforts (free delivery offers and ten percent discounts on loyalty card) on customer acquisition and retention, as well as, a cost analysis on these offers. Two econometric models were developed and the results were interesting. It was concluded that free delivery offers have a significant impact both in terms of customer acquisition and retention, having also a lower cost in comparison with ten percent on loyalty card discounts.

Developing a gamification system to increase customer lifetime value at MyGon

There have never been so many touch points between companies and consumers as there are today, which paradoxically makes it very challenging for companies to be able to retain and engage customers. Gamification is a strategy used by a large number of companies to increase customer engagement and customer lifetime value. This work aims at developing a gamification system for MyGon, a Portuguese startup working in the market of discounts and experiences. In addition to examining the literature concerning gamification, its elements and characteristics, recommendations were developed for addressing MyGon’s business goals of increasing conversion and customer engagement. The gamification mechanisms suggested include badges, missions, points, leaderboards and levels.

Development of process control strategies exploiting knowledge from systems biology: application to MDCK suspension cells

Madine Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cell lines have been extensively evaluated for their potential as host cells for influenza vaccine production. Recent studies allowed the cultivation of these cells in a fully defined medium and in suspension. However, reaching high cell densities in animal cell cultures still remains a challenge. To address this shortcoming, a combined methodology allied with knowledge from systems biology was reported to study the impact of the cell environment on the flux distribution. An optimization of the medium composition was proposed for both a batch and a continuous system in order to reach higher cell densities. To obtain insight into the metabolic activity of these cells, a detailed metabolic model previously developed by Wahl A. et. al was used. The experimental data of four cultivations of MDCK suspension cells, grown under different conditions and used in this work came from the Max Planck Institute, Magdeburg, Germany. Classical metabolic flux analysis (MFA) was used to estimate the intracellular flux distribution of each cultivation and then combined with partial least squares (PLS) method to establish a link between the estimated metabolic state and the cell environment. The validation of the MFA model was made and its consistency checked. The resulted PLS model explained almost 70% of the variance present in the flux distribution. The medium optimization for the continuous system and for the batch system resulted in higher biomass growth rates than the ones obtained experimentally, 0.034 h-1 and 0.030 h-1, respectively, thus reducing in almost 10 hours the duplication time. Additionally, the optimal medium obtained for the continuous system almost did not consider pyruvate. Overall the proposed methodology seems to be effective and both proposed medium optimizations seem to be promising to reach high cell densities.

The World Health Organization Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum : implementation of key modules and its impact on patient safety knowledge, skills, and attitudes of medical students at the University of Algarve

ABSTRACT - Objectives: We attempted to show how the implementation of the key elements of the World Health Organization Patient Safety Curriculum Guide Multi-professional Edition in an undergraduate curriculum affected the knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards patient safety in a graduate entry Portuguese Medical School. Methods: After receiving formal recognition by the WHO as a Complementary Test Site and approval of the organizational ethics committee , the validated pre-course questionnaires measuring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to patient safety were administered to the 2nd and3rd year students pursuing a four-year course (N = 46). The key modules of the curriculum were implemented over the academic year by employing a variety of learning strategies including expert lecturers, small group problem-based teaching sessions, and Simulation Laboratory sessions. The identical questionnaires were then administered and the impact was measured. The Curriculum Guide was evaluated as a health education tool in this context. Results: A significant number of the respondents, 47 % (n = 22), reported having received some form of prior patient safety training. The effect on Patient Safety Knowledge was assessed by using the percentage of correct pre- and post-course answers to construct 2 × 2 contingency tables and by applying Fishers’ test (two-tailed). No significant differences were detected (p < 0.05). To assess the effect of the intervention on Patient Safety skills and attitudes, the mean and standard deviation were calculated for the pre and post-course responses, and independent samples were subjected to Mann-Whitney’s test. The attitudinal survey indicated a very high baseline incidence of desirable attitudes and skills toward patient safety. Significant changes were detected (p < 0.05) regarding what should happen if an error is made (p = 0.016), the role of healthcare organizations in error reporting (p = 0.006), and the extent of medical error (p = 0.005). Conclusions: The implementation of selected modules of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum was associated with a number of positive changes regarding patient safety skills and attitudes, with a baseline incidence of highly desirable patient safety attitudes, but no measureable change on the patient safety knowledge, at the University of Algarve Medical School. The significance of these results is discussed along with implications and suggestions for future research.

An agent based architecture to support monitoring in plug and produce manufacturing systems using knowledge extraction

In recent years a set of production paradigms were proposed in order to capacitate manufacturers to meet the new market requirements, such as the shift in demand for highly customized products resulting in a shorter product life cycle, rather than the traditional mass production standardized consumables. These new paradigms advocate solutions capable of facing these requirements, empowering manufacturing systems with a high capacity to adapt along with elevated flexibility and robustness in order to deal with disturbances, like unexpected orders or malfunctions. Evolvable Production Systems propose a solution based on the usage of modularity and self-organization with a fine granularity level, supporting pluggability and in this way allowing companies to add and/or remove components during execution without any extra re-programming effort. However, current monitoring software was not designed to fully support these characteristics, being commonly based on centralized SCADA systems, incapable of re-adapting during execution to the unexpected plugging/unplugging of devices nor changes in the entire system’s topology. Considering these aspects, the work developed for this thesis encompasses a fully distributed agent-based architecture, capable of performing knowledge extraction at different levels of abstraction without sacrificing the capacity to add and/or remove monitoring entities, responsible for data extraction and analysis, during runtime.

Customer relationship management plan for wrike

Achieving long-term success for companies includes providing customers with exceptional products and ser-vices. It implies investing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and building a plan of its implementation. This issue is addressed in present Work Project by conducting interviews with top-management of Wrike and sur-vey with other employees which showed there is space for improvement of company’s current CRM. Results give insights of CRM in Wrike and are the basis of CRM plan proposal. The key effect of the proposed plan can be seen in the increase of the customer’s value and consequently result in Return on Customers.

Towards a knowledge society

Economies are moving towards competitive stadiums based on knowledge and innovation. The changing environment and the level of globalization demand important efforts in order to sustain competitive advantages. Portugal has experienced a remarkable evolution since its adhesion to the European Union in several fields: economic development, Research & Development (R&D) consolidation, health parameters and social cohesion. As other developed economies, Portugal started its journey towards a knowledge-based economy and has been consolidating an innovation system during the last 35 years. The following report aims to analyze the evolution of a system since its creation to its last transformation within a globalized context. Challenges such as the lack of maturity of the system, the economic crisis, the European paradox, and closing the gap with other European countries are addressed in the next chapters. Likewise, recommendations on these points are provided by the end of the report as potential solutions.

Customer service process optimization at Sonae e MC

Sonae MC is constantly innovating and keeping up with the new market trends, being increasingly focused on E-commerce due to its growing importance. In that area, a telephone line is available to support customers with their problems. However, rare were the cases in which those problems were solved in the first contact. Therefore, the goal of this work was to reengineer these processes to improve the service performance and consequently the customer’s satisfaction. Following an evolutionary approach, improvement opportunities were suggested and if correctly implemented the cases resolution time could decrease 1 day and Sonae MC will save €7.750 per month.