Corporate

This section gives voice to companies and organisations that have worked with INESC TEC in various projects and activities. A good relationship and good examples are fundamental ingredients for science and technology to serve society with equal amounts of enthusiasm and professionalism.

Miguel Mateus, Information Systems and Communications Director at Generg

• "It is important to emphasise the deep knowledge and experience of INESC TEC in these areas and the professionalism and objectivity of how INESC TEC was able to manage the various interests of all stakeholders, by not only applying the theory but, above all else, by having the sensitivity in dealing with strategic issues and mediating conflicts of interest, which necessarily arise when such transverse and disruptive measures are proposed."

History of the relationship between the company and INESC TEC

Generg is one of the largest national groups in the renewable energies sector that operates in mini-hydroplants, wind farms and solar power plants in Portugal since 1988 and has 489 MW in production in Portugal.

The relationship with INESC TEC started a long time ago, starting from a partnership in the development of the Prewind project, a system which is now a reference for wind forecast and it is used by most companies in this sector.

In 2009, INESC TEC developed a project to improve the wireless network that connects most of the Wind Farms of Generg and of which resulted an important set of conclusions and measures that substantially improved the debits, the security and the reliability of this indispensable communications network.

The Executive Commission of Generg in partnership with INESC TEC started the SIG - Management Information Service project in 2010, that aimed at developing an entrepreneurial, technological, applicational and informational architecture that shaped the strategy of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and began with the development of the DSIC - Information Systems and Communications Direction, its mission, organisation and skills.

Business areas

Utilities - Renewable Energies

Year in which collaborated with INESC TEC

2010

Title of the project

INESC TEC Centre with which the company collaborated

CSIG - Centre for Information and Computer Graphics Systems

Project managers (INESC TEC)

António Gaspar, José Correia, Paulo Monteiro

Statement about the project

Project SIG was definitely the most important collaboration of the partnership developed with INESC TEC, since it created the foundations for the development of ICTs capable of integrating the main business processes, perfectly orchestrated into a value chain that allowed a detailed interpretation of Generg's activity and how ICTs supported it. 

Over 50 meetings were held between February and May 2010 with all the functional areas of Generg, which gave rise to the modeling of the entrepreneurial architecture in its various aspects: organisational, business, informational, applicational and technology.

From the project resulted a vision of the future situation and an action plan with 14 measures and respective recommendations, namely: To evaluate the implementation of a Dispatch Centre; to reduce the organisational risk and to ensure the business continuity at GENERG; to reformulate Headquarters-Servers infrastructure and Data Center; to reorganise the GENERG’s national network; to acquire and to implement a Maintenance Management Software; to implement a production management and control of guarantees application; to speed up the information collection for GENERG's budget and information sharing; to implement a layer of decision support.     

In fact, it is with satisfaction that we can see that 70% of these measures are implemented today, and the remaining are planned for the next two years.

What are the significant outcomes about these projects that you can highlight?

The current Executive Administration has continued the modernization plan outlined in the SIG, investing in the past few years a very significant amount in a number of projects that have completely rebuilt ICTs: the strengthening of the technical and human resources of DSIC, the reorganisation of the computer and telecommunications infrastructures,the IT security, a new paradigm of an ERP system to support business processes in an international dimension and the creation of a Dispatch Centre are some examples of projects that have contributed to a number of financial, quantitative, measurable or observable benefits.

But not only that, the development of ICTs were still decisive to support the strategy of internationalisation and development of the Organization when in 2015 Novenergy started to control 100% of Generg. In fact, the implementation projects entitled ERP SAP and Renewables Management System (RMS), which supports the Dispatch Centre, were only possible because there was an integrated vision that allowed the development of a technological base capable of ensuring the operation of these systems, and especially the development of a culture that believes that ICTs are an important pillar for the organisational development.

Statement about the partnership

The development of the SIG project proved to be of great importance and an opportunity for all its stakeholders, as it foresaw a unique opportunity to document the organisational processes of Generg for the future memory, following a theoretical model with the guidance of the team of Engr. António Gaspar.

Its implementation has made it possible to establish a future model for the development of ICTs and to understand how processes, technologies and people should be developed in a holistic and integrated vision that allows the Organization to establish a plan of action for its ICTs according to the strategy of Shareholders.

It is important to emphasise the deep knowledge and experience of INESC TEC in these areas and the professionalism and objectivity of how INESC TEC was able to manage the various interests of all stakeholders, by not only applying the theory but, above all else, by having the sensitivity in dealing with strategic issues and mediating conflicts of interest, which necessarily arise when such transverse and disruptive measures are proposed.

From a personal point of view, I understand that it was a very special moment, since I had the opportunity to apply and to learn a variety of areas that go far beyond technology, and above all an opportunity to stimulate a strategic vision for the ICTs that have supported me significantly in my professional activity as Information Systems Director.

Although the reality of the Novenergia Group is different today compared to 2010, not only because of the international scope, but also because it has developed internal set of skills in non-existing areas, namely in the field of ICTs, we can identify some measures of SIG that have not yet been developed and which we intend to address to INESC TEC in the near future, namely the completion of an IT Security Policy that unfortunately, for priorities reasons, was unfinished.