Link- Alimente Esta Ideia
Company description
Link Consulting was established in late 1999, as the result of INESC’s spin-off, one of Portugal’s most prestigious R&D IT Institutes by intervention of Aitec. Link Consulting is a company with over 12 years of experience on information systems integration, and development of support solutions to business processes, recognized for the technical excellence of its consultants. As a company of innovative characteristics, it congregates about two hundred highly qualified and motivated employees, with great knowledge of the market and the companies, based on a wide experience dealing with national and international companies.
Our mission is supporting our customers to become leaders in their segments by the alignment, integration, efficiency and security of their electronic business processes through our experience, competence and continuous innovation in consulting and information systems engineering.
Link Consulting headquarters are located in Lisbon and is internationally present with offices in Brazil and Angola and also develops activities in other countries: Belgium, Cape Verde, Spain, France, Israel, Luxembourg, Morocco, Malta, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Switzerland.
Microsoft Portugal needs no prior introduction and was the finantial partner of the project providing cloud services and technical support, advertisement campaingns and communication skills.
Market
The key sectors of the market are Link’s main targets. One of Link Consulting development pillars is the creation of specialized functional and technical competences which effectively answer the specific needs regarding information systems services in the sectors where our customers run their businesses. Besides consulting, integration and information systems development services, Link Consulting has a set of vertical solutions for quickly address specific problems at reduced costs. We have among our customers the biggest and more relevant Portuguese companies and institutions.
Link Consulting has been striving to create conditions for the internationalization of its services and solutions to occur as a natural part of the regular activity. Besides the offices in Brazil and Angola, international presence has been materialized via projects carried out in Morocco, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, France, Israel, USA, Mozambique, Cape Verde and São Tomé. Success achieved in some of these geographic locations has proved and reinforced our strategy, which has been implemented with dedication and persistence.
Link Consulting has structured its Services, Solutions and Products offer based on a very close collaboration with customers facing complex challenges and with a vision for internationalization of their activities. It also privileges, whenever possible, synergies with other Aitec companies, INESC and other Research institutions, and is an active player in European R&D projects.
To provide the best solutions, link established partnerships, responding to all the needs of its customers.
The offer is currently structured around five business concepts:
SmartCITIES- Advanced Solutions for Managing Mobility and Access to Services in the Cities; Internet of Things -The relationship between Objects and information systems will Transform the Supply of Goods and Services;
Internet of Services-Dematerialization and Transparency leverage Qualitative Leap in Public and Private Services;
Interactive Emotions-New Formats , Interactive Services and Multiplatform, creation of interactive digital contents and multichannel, in partnership with media, telecommunications and services companies;
System Quality Assurance- Software and systems testing, reduce costs associated with the identification and correction of bugs, security vulnerabilities and performance in high functional complexity systems and with high technological heterogeneity.
Link has been, since inception, a company with R&D in its DNA. Born as a spin-off of one of the most prestigious R&D centers in Portugal – Inesc, has been involved in many research projects and initiatives, at national and European level. Some of the projects originated offers over smart cards, forest management and RFID, but also in disease management. Link is also part of a group that has for many years been a source of successful seed capital and incubation platform for more than 50 IT companies, now present in the Portuguese market. Link has pioneered in many technologies and innovative approaches related to telecommunications, smart cards, enterprise architecture, bag tracking, and more recently, has been looking into social networks and cloud computing. R&D is something that we need to keep innovating and remain competitive in local, and each time more global, markets.
Differentiation
The main competitors are Consulting and Information Technology Companies that operate in the markets where Link Consulting is present. Our differentiation comes from our vision:
Anticipating trends by identifying, creating and developing businesses and offers for generating value in the global market of Information Technology and Communication.
Developing competitive offers both at national and international level
Strategic partnerships with reference and market leader companies
Excellence in Engineering focused in adding value to the customers’ business
Vision of future oriented to a sustained growth
A recognized technological know-how, consultants with experience in complex projects, solid methodologies and a focus on our clients’ goals are the main reasons that contribute to our clients’ high level of satisfaction and loyalty.
Openess and Compliance
Focusing on the “Alimente esta Ideia” project:
Framework MVC3.0 to guarantee scalable, standards-based web applications using well-established design patterns.
Full Web Service Layer Integration for external requests.
Cloud Based Architecture using Staging / Production deployment promotion.
Full use of SQL Azure.
Product(s)/solutions
In this Project, innovation is closely connected to the technological component and to business targets.
• On one hand, the objective of developing a Web Application capable of working seamlessly when integrated with Facebook APIs and Live Messenger, capable of living independently as an autonomous web-site and with customized interfaces that would work when called by mobile and pads terminals, forced the setting of a robust framework (MVC3) capable of isolate the components and create opportunities for reuse. We must keep in mind this project was developed in little less than one month.
• Likewise, it required the whole development cycle to be designed for using Azure as staging and production platform, and that a complete cost of ownership analysis was performed associated to development options, according with pricing provided by Azure.
• After choosing this infrastructure (cloud) and performing the cost of ownership analysis in cooperation with the development team, it was possible to:
1. Reduce drastically the infrastructure costs without impacting the solution availability and speed, with savings reaching about €92, i.e. €9/day while the campaign was in force, and at a certain time having 5 servers working for the application
2. Leverage a cross-organization teamwork completely clear and efficient at all levels,
3. Leverage the value added and used methodologies to other solutions and products being developed and explored by Link Consulting
4. open up potential to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve responsiveness to end client
As a business component, this was the first time a crowdsourcing campaign for food was done. It is an unparalleled initiative
It was clear how civil society was engaged, collecting about 70 tons of food, in a total amount of €70K donations in just over 6 days
It made possible for people not living in Portugal to make donations. The proof of success was that the 2nd country with more views, following Portugal, was Angola.
This campaign was the foundation to new initiatives, more global and potentially transnational, with a social impact leveraging the changing of behaviors.
Besides, the developed platform is general, and can be applied to any crowdsourcing campaign
References
Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=101801636557162
Facebook App:
http://apps.facebook.com/alimentestaideia/
WEB
http://www.alimentestaideia.net
Over 60 references in printed and digital media (attached sent by email).
The campaign was launched the 26th June with the first donation made by the 1st Lady, Dra. Maria Cavaco Silva
Relevance on television in prime time: SIC / TVI / TVI 24 / RTP
Digital media press
http://tek.sapo.pt/noticias/internet/ba_recolhe_68_toneladas_de_alimentos_online_1158201.html
http://noticias.portugalmail.pt/artigo/20110606/campanha-online-do-banco-alimentar-reune-68-toneladas-de-alimentos
http://www.publico.pt/Sociedade/banco-alimentar-ja-recolheu-64-toneladas-de-alimentos-via-internet_1497597
http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5gsjoijj1QJZ_PCFocgzugB0-Hg5g?docId=12647739
http://sol.sapo.pt/inicio/Tecnologia/Interior.aspx?content_id=21146
http://www.dn.pt/inicio/portugal/interior.aspx?content_id=1870475
http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/Lusa/2011/05/27/solidariedade-banco-alimentar-ja-recebeu-mais-de-4.000-litros-de-leite-em-doacoes-online
http://www.tvi24.iol.pt/sociedade/banco-alimentar-doacoes-online-campanha-recolha-alimentos-solidariedade-tvi24/1256457-4071.html
http://www.semanainformatica.xl.pt/1025/act/600.shtml
http://www.publico.pt/Sociedade/agora-a-internet-tambem-serve-para-abastecer-os-cabazes-das-familias-pobres_1496027
http://aeiou.visao.pt/video-banco-alimentar-recolhe-alimentos=f605064
http://sol.sapo.pt/inicio/Tecnologia/Interior.aspx?content_id=20190
http://www.destak.pt/artigo/96413-cavaco-silva-apadrinha-projecto-solidario-da-microsoft
Television
http://videos.sapo.pt/aI6tYQHfJOgyCCOOoGLL
http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/vida/2011/05/26/bancoalimentar.mpg?tabPane=Comments
http://videos.sapo.pt/k6Y8zkefKvhRn2N5Yg8f
http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/pais/2011/05/28/20110528_jonet.mpg
