A global leader in offering eSourcing and eProcurement solutions, VORTAL possesses a cloud-based eMarketplace, where thousands of public and private buyers are connected with an international community of qualified suppliers to make everyday business.
VORTAL has grown in stature to support customers globally with offices in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy, UK, Mexico, and Colombia from small Public Bodies (like small municipalities), large Public Bodies (large Cities, Regional Governments in different countries, National Central Procurement Bodies), to the entire public administration of several Countries, as well as from SMEs to large multinational corporations.
VORTAL is rated regularly by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Suites and mentioned by Forrester and Spend Matters as a top player in the market. The company has also been consecutively distinguished as one of “100 best companies to work for in Portugal” in a survey carried out by “Everis” and “Exame” magazine. VORTAL is an international leading eSourcing and eProcurement platform for the public and private sector, which connects thousands of buyers with an international network of qualified suppliers. VORTAL is part of the project “ESPDint – Interoperable ESPD (European Single Procurement Document) and VCD (Virtual Company Dossier) services inside and between European Countries”, financed by the European Commission to develop native integration of ESPD in VORTAL’s platform. With the ESPD and VCD implementation pilot, VORTAL will make available to all users these instruments integrated in the platform so that it becomes a step in the process taking advantage of all previous documents and information inserted. Once the Economic Operator answers the ESPD questions, it can be reused seamlessly.
The Visionary Leader
Rui Dias-Ferreira, Founder and CEO of VORTAL, is the visionary who has led the company to what it is known as today. Prior to founding VORTAL, he served for 12 years as an Associate Partner at Accenture, managing Supply Chain projects in the Engineering and Construction sector. At Accenture, he worked on a wide-range of projects involving medium-sized and large companies in Portugal, UK, Spain and Italy. A regular guest speaker at seminars and conferences, Rui holds a degree in Engineering and has a postgraduate diploma in Production Management from APICS – The Educational Society for Resource Management. He has also completed an Advanced Managing Program from IESE, Universidad of Navarra.
Additionally, Rui boasts an impressive profile in the public sphere with his involvement in the development of entrepreneurship as a mentor of several start-ups at Startup Lisboa and as a promoter of the Junior Achievement award and is extensively involved with social initiatives like working for the homeless.
Rising Above Imminent Industry Changes
When it comes to tackling competition, VORTAL always prefers to focus on innovation. Now the organization is working very hard to create an ecosystem that is completely innovation driven, repeatable and scalable for turning creative ideas into profitable business models.
“We want to stress our innovation methodology, our focus on integrating the best of breed technologies with a great focus on usability and user interface excellence.” asserts Miguel Sobral, VP of VORTAL.
The organization also believes that the biggest challenge now is rising above the imminent industry changes. “Procurement platforms will be much more dependent on supplier communities than before. This means that users are increasingly looking for dynamic solutions to discover and qualify suppliers that avoid searching the web for potential suppliers without references or credentials. Standalone solutions where a buyer is closed in a silo with the suppliers they are used to working with for years will lose the perspective of the market and will become less competitive in the medium term.”– added the CEO.
Aiming to Reinforce Co-operation with Integrations and Consulting Partners
For several consecutive years, VORTAL has been growing at twodigit levels and will continue to develop the most innovative services for buyers and suppliers, both in private and public sectors. Soon the organization will also be leading the interoperability movement and will position itself as one of the most complete providers of services to suppliers.
The organization is also aiming to reinforce its co-operation with integration and consulting partners to be able to deliver new services and innovative solutions to deal with corporate and public-sector spending. VORTAL is now advancing its approach to Research & Development and Innovation through:
- Creating a brand new 400m2 “VORTAL Innovation Lab”, a state of- the-art workspace, fully equipped to explore and develop innovative products and services as well as new business models.
- Re-designing the R&D and Innovation process in a multidisciplinary and open environment.
- Reinforcing its workforce with 40 new and highly talented personnel.
- Employing an R&D and Innovation Coach reporting directly to the company’s CEO to lead the innovation programmes at VORTAL and guide the internal teams and external partners in their innovation efforts.