Relatorio de gestao_2010_INGLES.indd - Efacec

effi cacy of employees and assess the level of satisfaction concerning
their professional career, by listening and obtaining corporate
feedback.
In the scope of the Efacec Academy project, the department of
Strategic Management of Human Resources and Communication
developed, during 2010, the structure for the creation of the
Behaviour School, its team, objectives, mission and procedures
within the organization. The opening session of the Behaviour
School took place on the 16th of March 2011, including the presence
of many stakeholders.
By the end of 2010, the Efacec Group’s new Intranet was also
launched. This project, coordinated by Efacec’s Corporate
Communication department and developed with the cooperation of
the Information Systems department, provides a more personal and
wide support to all Business and Markets Units and Shared Services,
including over thirty independent channel managers. Based on a
modern content management system, the new platform allows
users to, among other functions, create and organize information
in an intuitive and coherent manner, reducing the replication of
information. It also allows users to program tasks and set permissions
and roles for either channel managers or users, who will then be
able to easily navigate, discover and use the available functions
without handling or search problems.
The new Intranet adopts a new approach to content production,
essentially based on usage standards of available functions and
information required by the company’s employees, and its growing
need for aggregation, but also independence and control over
important information regarding their activities. This change is
another important step towards the improvement of work tools
made available to the company’s employees, either in Portugal or
Efacec markets where access to the Intranet is already available.
This brings all the Group’s employees closer to each other and
improves their performance.
Lastly, throughout the entire year, the Communication department
played an important role in the relations between Efacec’s several
interested parties, in particular its employees and the press, and
the diffusion of the company’s corporate image, both domestically
and internationally, drawing up press releases, articles, newsletters,
reports and other documents, enlarging the company’s space in
the press and ensuring an important competitive result in terms of
image and value of the Efacec brand.
Financial Department
During the year of 2010, the Financial Department was involved in
projects of great importance for the Group and with a major impact
on the reported fi nancial information.
The Analytical Consolidation project (which was launched in 2009)
entered a stage of stability during the year of 2010, becoming the
main management reporting system and support to decision-making.
This reporting is presented in accordance with the Organization’s
matrix structure, presenting all Business and Market Units in a
worldwide scope.
The merger project between the Group’s systems companies
Efacec Engenharia S.A., Efacec Ambiente S.A., Efacec Sistemas de
Electrónica S.A. and Efacec Robótica, S.A., required the majority
of the human resources from the fi nancial department during 2010,
particularly during the second half-year of 2010.
The economical outlook witnessed in the year of 2010 required
a large involvement from the fi nancial department in the
renegotiation and management of the Group’s fi nance, achieving a
favourable evolution of the debt maturity.
2010 was also the year the support department for International
Subsidiaries was developed, which made possible to manage and
improve the quality of the reporting from Efacec companies based
around the globe, as well as making the incorporation of those
accounts easier in the Group’s Analytical Consolidation. At the same
time, a special focus was given to the ERP BaaN implementations
made in countries such as Brazil, India and Spain.
Information Systems
Efacec’s major expansion, especially internationally, demanded an
effi cient, quick and reliable answer from its Data Center, which, in
a centralized manner, is where almost all the corporate information
systems of the Group’s companies are available.
To meet these growing demands, several measures were taken in
2010:
• Improvement of several links concerning international
communications.
• Technological update of the virtual environment used in the Data
Center, increasing the fl exibility and processing capability.
• Actions leading to a higher reliability and availability of the most
important applications and systems in terms of physical security.
Therefore, during 2010, the Data Center located at the facilities of
Arroteia was subjected to a major update, not only technologically
but also in terms of environmental conditions and safety. The entire
equipment cooling system, fi re fi ghting and detection, as well as
access control and security, was deeply redesigned in order to
meet physical safety requirements by using high-end technologies
currently available.
Report and Accounts 2010 | 51