Message from the CEO
Welcome to another edition of CriticalNews!Here we are again heading towards the end of another year. Once more it has been a challenging and thrilling year. We have been growing at a good pace, as planned, and we have been investing strongly in developing our own products and technologies – the best example being the setting up of the Critical Links “sister” company earlier this year.
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News articles:
Galileo In-Orbit Validation - Application Software for the Satellite On Board Security Units
The
Galileo Programme, financed and led by the European Union and the
European Space Agency, is steadily progressing at Critical Software.
The most recent landmark was the reception of the Authorisation to
Proceed (ATP) on the Application Software for the Satellite On Board
Security Units, code named Crypto at Critical Software.With this contract Critical Software becomes one of the few SME companies Europe-wide - if not the only one - taking part in all segments of the Global Navigation Systems Infrastructure: Space, Mission and Control segments.
More about Galileo at:
http://www.esa.int/esaNA/index.html
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/intro/future_en.htm
For more about the space market offer at Critical please contact: space-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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edgeBOX is
a converged multi-function network appliance that combines a range of
best-of-breed technologies to deliver an all-in-one networking solution
for SMEs and enterprise branch offices. It provides a comprehensive
range of data, voice and security services including: Security
Appliance, Phone System, Collaboration Server, Network Management
Server, Internet Gateway and Wireless Access Point. This new version 4.3 of the edgeBOX software has a brand new GUI with a more intuitive layout and a significant performance increase over the previous versions, making remote management much faster.
It also includes improvements on VoIP and Managed Services-related features distinguishing local and remote administrator profiles.
For more info on edgeBOX:
http://www.edgebox.net
To find out more about the telecom market at CSW please contact:
telco-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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Information System for Portuguese Registry and Notaries Division - Ministry of Justice
Critical
Software will deliver consultancy services to the Portuguese Registry
and Notaries Division helping to define their IS platform and guarantee
a centralised way to manage human resources, internal mobility, data
generated by its activities and provide useful information to upper top
management to support audit activities and compatibility with national
budget control regulations. The present project comprises the initial phase of the typical software life cycle, namely requirements elicitation and analysis, architecture specification and functional specification that will describe, thus describing the Information System to be implemented during the 1st semester of 2007.
Critical Software has strong competences and know-how in implementing demanding and critical solutions for the Government sector.
More about Portuguese Registry and Notaries Division - Ministry of Justice at:
http://www.dgrn.mj.pt
To find out more about the government market offer at Critical please contact:
gov-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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Automatic Electrification and Essay System for EFACEC Group
Critical
Software is implementing an Information System that controls the
assembling, electrification and essay processes needed to build
specific equipment for power transmission and distribution. The system
will manage work orders from the ERP, design plans, MMIs and automatic
testing with an intuitive and user friendly interface delivering
essential reports. With this system EFACEC will achieve a more
efficient and cost effective final product under higher quality
standards.The EFACEC Group is leading the supply of integrated solutions and equipment in the market of power generation, transmission and distribution.
More about EFACEC Group at:
http://www.efacec.pt
For more about the government market offer at Critical please contact:
gov-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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Integration solution for the Portuguese Navy
Critical Software S.A. has
been requested by the Portuguese Navy to extend to the Corte Real
frigate the ongoing integration work on the Vasco da Gama class
frigates. This deployment is part of a generic solution comprising the replacement of the former interfaces and monitoring equipment responsible for the integration of the tactical command, electronic warfare, navigation and sonar systems.
The new equipment is based on COTS components (hardware and software), strengthened to meet the operational demands of a warship, in terms of performance, reliability, availability and security.
For Critical Software, this extension is a clear recognition of our superior performance in delivering system & software capability against the strict requirements of the defence sector.
To find out more about the defence market offer at Critical please contact:
defence-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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Certification of Avionics software according to DO-178B
A defence and aviation
electronics company based in North Wales, awarded Critical Software
Technologies a contract to certify the embedded software in an avionics
component to DO-178B for an undisclosed customer. The component is
based on an FPGA with an 8051 microcontroller linked to sensors and
actuators and an ARINC 429 interface. Critical has successfully
redesigned the software architecture, re-worked part of the software
source code, defined test procedures and executed test campaigns
producing all the required outputs for DO-178B class A compliance. More about our "sister" company in the UK:
http://www.critical-software.co.uk/
For more about the aeronautics market offer at Critical please contact:
aeronautics-bizdev@criticalsoftware.com
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Interview with Carla Nogueira - Quality Manager
In extremely competitive
market, Quality represents an important and unique factor to
differentiate suppliers. Carla Nogueira deals with daily quality
concerns, helping to improve Critical’s software development and
maintenance processes as well as organisation workflows.
Talking to CriticalNews, Carla highlighted critical issues about
processes and standards, giving us a broad vision of quality
management.
Q: How critical do you consider a QMS to be in an IT company? A: As a map and road signs are designed to make your life easier, so QMS is for any company.
Just imagine a situation where you want to go from one place to another
(e.g. from Toulouse to Cannes), enjoying a few stop over days visiting
other cities. You have a map that tells you what roads you must take
and where to turn.
Without a map and road signs giving you the directions… how
would you manage to go from one place to another? Without a map, you
would be wandering around, perhaps driving into dead-ends, or into corn
fields!
Well, that’s why a QMS is important. It gives you, as a
“traveller”, all the right directions to follow to achieve
a desired purpose. It’s a well structured framework that you can
rely on. If you follow it, the probability of achieving the desired
result is very high.
Q: How
do the Quality certifications that CSW acquired (ISO 9001:2000/TickIT;
to NATO AQAP 2110 and AQAP 150; CMMI level 3; ISO 15504 and EN9100) fit
the strategy of the companyA: Certifications recognise our efforts in Quality and our commitment to it.
All certifications have a prior objective - visibility. It’s a
fact. The market demands certain guarantees. Certifications are
guarantees.
The point is that, being assessed against so many different approaches
and implementing improvement suggestions based on each one of the
reference models, Critical Software’s QMS became stronger
and more consistent. It institutionalised best practices within
the company.
A: The company’s fast growth is the challenge that we need to face now.
We want to maintain the Quality Culture and make sure that we provide our workers with all the support they need to perform their tasks in such a way that their final product or service achieves high quality standards.
Having an international operation puts us in an “open field”. It means increased competition.
We are aware that we are facing higher levels of responsibility and visibility. We want to use that to increase the recognition that we are different.
Because we believe in our work.
Because we believe in the quality of our products.
To summarise, we believe that Quality makes the difference and we’ll not stop till we have CMMI Level 5 recognition!
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Critical Software was represented by Nuno Almeida, Business
Development Manager for Space, at the ninth Workshop on Advanced Space
Technologies for Robotics and Automation ‘ASTRA2006’.
This workshop was organised by the Automation and Robotics Section of
the European Space Agency (ESA) Directorate of Technical and
Operational Support.
The workshop took place from November 28th to November 30th, at
the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk,
Netherlands.
More about this workshop at:
http://www.congrex.nl/06c14
Fourth Conference on Image Information Mining
Critical Software attended the Fourth Conference on Image Information Mining for Security and Intelligence. The conference was organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) and took place at Torrejon air base in Madrid, Spain, from November 27th to November 28th. It was followed by a "Panel on Information Mining from images, geo-information and text".
Andrea Pelizzari, the Business Development Manager for GMES, attended the conference on Critical Software's behalf.
More about this conference at:
http://earth.esa.int/rtd/Events/ESA-EUSC_2006/#_Program
NC3A's 2006 Industry Conference
The NC3A Industry Conference brought together NATO’s capability development and acquisition experts that span the life cycle from concepts and requirements to competitive bidding and implementation. The conference was held in Brussels, Belgium, from 26th to 28th November. António Raposo, the Business Development Manager for Defence, was the Critical Software representative at this event.
More about this conference at:
http://www.nc3a.nato.int/conference.html
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Welcome to another edition of CriticalNews!
Here we are again heading towards the end of another year. Once more it
has been a challenging and thrilling year. We have been growing at a
good pace, as planned, and we have been investing strongly in
developing our own products and technologies – the best example
being the setting up of the Critical Links “sister” company
earlier this year.
2006 also brought market recognition for Critical’s outstanding
Engineering and Quality practices. The Aeronautics EN9100 accreditation
and the Software Engineering Institute CMMi® Level 3 score
organisation wide were just two of the accomplishments. In the end it
is also an acknowledgment of the trust you have placed in us. We will
definitely pay this back, keeping up our investment in best practices
to build up more resilient software and deliver even better systems.
Read, elsewhere in this edition, a talk with Carla Nogueira,
Critical’s Quality Manager, to get more insight on the challenges
driving Quality@Critical.
This edition also brings the usual glimpses of some of the projects on
which we are engaged at the moment. To highlight but one, awarded to
Critical on the Galileo programme - the European led Global Navigation
System. With this contract Critical becomes one of the few companies
taking part in all segments of the Galileo System Infrastructure:
Space, Mission and Control segments.
Enjoy the newsletter, and season’s greetings to all Critical staff!
Gonçalo Quadros
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Critical
Software SA is an international systems and software company with
headquarters in Portugal and offices in San Jose (US),
Southampton (UK), Lisbon and Porto (PT). Critical Software S.A.
supports mission and business critical information systems across
diverse markets including Aeronautics, Defence, Financial Services,
Government, Industry, Space and Telecom. Today the company employs over
150 people and operates a quality system certified to CMMI® Level3,
ISO 9001:2000 Tick-IT, ISO 15504, AQAP 2120 and EN9100. » Back to the top «