Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of a web-based platform integrating benchmarking and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the Portuguese secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach: The benchmarking platform is designed around a set of key performance indicators that are displayed using benchmarking graphs. These indicators are also aggregated through the methodology of DEA to provide a summary measure of performance. Findings: The benchmarking platform developed enables schools to perform internal and external evaluation through a standard model that is based on indicators of school activities. It encourages schools' efforts of continuous improvement and increases society awareness regarding schools' context and results obtained. Practical implications: The benchmarking platform can be useful for schools and general public. For the general public, there is a tool that allows the construction of user-defined rankings online and benchmarking tools that allow the comparison of performance of a specific school with others. In addition to these features, schools have in the BESP platform a repository of historical data, and the possibility to see a set of graphs that show for some indicators their evolution over time. Originality/value: This paper describes a breakthrough in the Portuguese education context. The BESP platform is the first in this context to combine DEA and benchmarking tools in a web-based environment, designed to enable real-time performance assessments. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities presented by DEA to assess quality of life and evaluate the performance of city managers in what concerns the promotion of urban quality of life. Using the data provided by the Urban Audit program, from the European Union, we defined the city profile regarding quality of life for 206 cities. Two approaches are presented: the construction of a composite indicator of quality of life and the assessment of local management performance, contextualised by the GDP per capita to measure the ability of local authorities to promote quality of life given the economic condition of the country. The results identify the cities with urban best practices and present a model of intervention for the cities considered inefficient, based on benchmarking principles.

Abstract
A good relationship between companies and customers is a crucial factor of competitiveness. The improvement of service levels has become a key issue to develop and maintain a loyal relationship with customers. This paper proposes a method for promotions design for retailing companies, based on knowledge extraction from transactions records of customer loyalty cards, aiming to improve service levels and increase sales. At first, customers are segmented using k-means and then the segments' profile is characterized according to the rules extracted from a decision tree. This is followed by the identification of product associations within segments, which can base the identification of the products most suitable for customized promotions. The research reported is done in collaboration with an European retailing company.

Abstract
The design, production and distribution of small series of health fashionable goods for specific target groups of wide impact in terms of market for the European industry as elderly, disables, diabetics and obese people represents a challenging opportunity for European companies which are asked to supply the demand with affordable price and eco-compatible products. Added to this challenge, textile, clothing and footwear manufactures seek for innovative collaborative networking solutions that could provide an entire digital life-cycle for the products and services required by the market. Aligned with this need, the EU CoReNet project aims to design and develop a new smart collaborative consumer-driven framework with the related services and components. This paper addresses the multidisciplinary complexity of customer-oriented and eco-friendly networks for health fashionable goods in particular addressing business requirements analysis, value chain issues, co-planning production and co-design topics in collaborative business processes tailored for high variability of the consumers demand and expectations.

Abstract
This paper aims to explore the performance alignment in collaborative network environments. It has been stated that performance management based on data collection and the evaluation of key performance indicators (KPIs) may not be effective due to the different indicators and measurement systems in place for the various participants in a collaborative network (CN). Therefore, measuring the strategic and inter-organizational alignment based on key alignment indicators (KAIs) can be an excellent alternative to improve performance evaluation systems. This approach has led to the exploration of the performance prediction paradigm and develops tools to estimate a performance and evaluate the degree of alignment by creating instances of a future performance in collaborative networks.

Abstract
It is well known that the definition of bus schedules is critical for the service reliability of public transports. Several proposals have been suggested, using data from Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems, in order to enhance the reliability of public transports. In this paper we study the optimum number of schedules and the days covered by each one of them, in order to increase reliability. We use the Dynamic Time Warping distance in order to calculate the similarities between two different dimensioned irregularly spaced data sequences before the use of data clustering techniques. The application of this methodology with the K-Means for a specific bus route demonstrated that a new schedule for the weekends in non-scholar periods could be considered due to its distinct profile from the remaining days. For future work, we propose to apply this methodology to larger data sets in time and in number, corresponding to different bus routes, in order to find a consensual cluster between all the routes. ©2010 IEEE.