Editorial

10 years fostering innovation

Critical celebrates this year its 10th anniversary. Since 1998, we have trailed an intense but also an enthusiastic and determined path based on knowledge, creativity, and technological pioneering. During the last 10 years, we have been involved in projects that have, somehow, made an impact on people's lives and organizations and with willpower and resolve we have managed to create a company that is able of embracing the biggest upcoming challenges.

Critical has been getting double-digit figures growth from day one. After starting-off at a business incubator in Coimbra, Portugal, we later opened investigation centres in Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal, subsidiaries in the US, UK, Romania - Brazil by the end of 2008 - and have wrapped up several partnerships with international companies to have physical presence in strategic locations worldwide.

Accommodating the company's business strategy, Critical successfully established its first spin-off - Critical Links to develop and promote edgeBOX -, and more recently its first spin-in "child" -Critical Materials to provide technology and products for the advanced materials field.

We are proud of the work that we have accomplished, but we want to become even better at what we do. To make this come true, we want to look at what we've done in the past in a learning perspective and be able to fulfil our goal from day one: to provide dependable technologies for mission and business critical information systems and, through that, become a global player strongly identified with innovation, creativity and excellence.

We would like to thank all who have accompanied Critical along this journey, starting from our determined and amazing people, costumers, partners and everyone who contributed with a friendly word of encouragement or wise advice, and that, like us have always believed in the company's success.

Ten years, ten important milestones:

• July 1998: Critical Software starts its operations
• October 1999: Critical Software opens a sales office in Silicon Valley, San Jose
• December 1999: Critical Software and DEI reach NASA
• November 2004: Critical Software S.A. opens UK Subsidiary
• February 2006: Critical Links is established to lead global marketing push for edgeBOX
• March 2006: Critical Software achieves CMMI™ - SE/SW Level 3
• December 2006: Gonçalo Quadros is the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2006
• August 2007: Critical Software opens Romanian Subsidiary
• March 2008: Critical Materials heads for ASD advanced materials markets
• June 2008: Critical celebrates its 10th anniversary

Ten years, ten key figures:

• Physical presence in more than 10 countries
• Turnover in 2007: 14M €
• Exports: 70%
• Number of employees in 2007 across all sites and locations worldwide: 279
• Average employee age: 28 years
• Average annual growth of 40%
• Highly qualified personnel: 80% have university degrees; 20% have doctorates/masters
• Average R&D annual investment: 12% of turnover
• Support to Social, cultural and environmental responsibility: 3% of annual profits
• Years spent fostering and innovating: 10

Rui Melo Biscaia

Critical celebrates its 10th anniversary

Critical Software decided to reunite workers, families and friends in a huge festivity to commemorate its 10 years of existence. The get-together took place, last 28th June on the City of Coimbra Main Stadium and joined up several hundreds of people in a casual and relaxed atmosphere. There were several activities suitable for all ages and moods, from boat trips in river Mondego, to a treasure-hunting game through the beautiful city of Coimbra, balloon rides, football tournament and diverse outdoor extreme activities and adventures. The celebration carried on with an appetizing meal where guests and workers had the chance to mingle and ended to the sound of the lively and humorous "Quarteto dos 3 irmãos Pedro e Paulo". It was a day to remember undoubtedly...

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Critical's xLuna onboard "Exomars" Space Mission

Critical Software is involved in a project with the European Space Agency (ESA) to test its new Operation System concept named "xLuna" on a Robotic Probe used in the preparation of the ExoMars mission, ESA's Robotic Mission to explore the red planet targeted for launch in 2011. ExoMars will provide Europe with new enabling technologies for the exploration of Mars - specifically the entry, descent and landing system, the rover and the drill - thus opening the way to future scientific exploration missions. The design of a robotic mission to operate on Martian Soil is very demanding given the challenging constraints implied in the operation of such a system. Interplanetary Radio Communication is one of the known limiting factors. Information exchange between the Rover and the Control Centres on Earth suffer massive delays, or are not possible at all for some periods. Using such a robotic probe efficiently depends on the ability of the system to perform basic tasks, including decision making, without the need of interaction with the Control Centre on Earth.

This increasing requirement for autonomy raises the complexity of the software applications running on board, as information needs to be processed with algorithms that are now more complex and mission planning deals with larger amounts of data than before. Critical Software has developed xLuna - a Real Time Operating System - to meet these requirements of the future of space exploration. Critical's core technologies associate open source platforms such as RTEMS and Linux, for delivering a software platform that allows non critical functions to share the available processing resources without compromising the core system management routines.

Critical is preparing a xLuna demonstration for mid October 2008.

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Critical Software performs a technological upgrade on "Segurnet"

Critical Software and Associação Portuguesa de Seguradores (APS) - the Portuguese Insurance Companies Association - signed a contract to upgrade "Segurnet" - a communications' platform for the Insurance sector acting as a main link to all member companies, through a set of protocols (Car Plates National Directory, Car Accident Claims and Frauds Directory and Insured Direct Compensation).

This upgrade consists of responsiveness increase, new features development and existing features adjustment. The contract comprises "Segurnet" architecture upgrade, migration of the current platform into an advanced framework that enables regular updating, as well as continuous support. Filipe Freitas, Critical's Business Development Manager for this market, remarks that the company is "developing a high-quality, robust and reliable solution that meets Segurnet's requirements, in a structured manner", adding that "this technological upgrade process is done through a Service-Oriented Architecture approach, based on distributed computing and supported by an integrated infrastructure, set on standards".

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Critical Software eyes South-American market

Critical Software has made one more breakthrough in the South-American market, in the scope of the Portuguese Prime Minister official visit to Venezuela. This is a country that entails great business opportunities, mainly in the Energy area, which is one of the biggest targets for the company in the future. Critical integrated the business men entourage that recently travelled to Venezuela at the invitation of the Portuguese Prime Minister.

As an integrator for production management decision support systems and for energy production and distribution assets, Critical Software distinguishes itself for the capacity to integrate best-of-breed products on innovative solutions, designed to meet each specific client's requirements. "The solutions we develop, using market standards, with different SCADA systems integration, make it possible to leverage complex platform integration to supply Real-Time Performance Management (RtPM) solutions. We are in line with the needs arising from new approaches to Condition Based Maintenance processes which are very important in the current context of operation costs streamline", emphasizes Filipe Freitas, Business Development Manager for Energy & Utilities.

Critical has been developing solutions for Energy & Utilities sector, related to the energy production and distribution, and is very aware of the opportunities that may establish long term partnerships, mostly in the South-American market where the growth perspective is very significant. This market approach comes naturally as a consequence to the strategic international targeting supported by the company's engineering skills and innovative platforms. The opening of a subsidiary in São Paulo, Brazil, later on this year, will give Critical a regional proximity and projection capability on contiguous markets.

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Critical's participation on 4S Symposium was a success!

The Small Satellites Systems and Services Symposium, the "4S Symposium", is a biennial event with a large international participation, that covers all aspects of small satellite programmes such as flight experiences, mission definition, technologies, launches, ground segment and data exploitation.

Critical's participation on this year's event held in Rhodes (Greece) was a huge a success. "Critical was able to establish contacts with several international organizations that are becoming aware of the criticality of onboard software, ground station software, as well as the connection between both", says Paulo Guedes, Business Development Manager for Aeronautics.

Given this exposure and recognition, Critical Software was invited by ESA-ESTEC to become the point of contact and, in together with ESA, be responsible for the promotion of future 4S events taking place in Portugal.

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Critical at Farnborough Air Show 2008

Critical Software exhibited on FAC's booth at Farnborough Air Show 2008, one of the most important international aerospace fair held every other year, from 14th to 20th July. There it had the chance to meet some of the most influential people as well as decision-makers from the ASD market worldwide.

In addition, Critical hosted 2 workshops:

• Workshop on Software Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety
  Focused on the challenges of implementing an availability driven supply chain and associated integrated logistic support processes. Critical gave a keynote speech on strategies for designing an efficient information system to support this type of business transformation, followed by a round table discussion on availability based contracting. Different drivers such as TCO or service availability were also discussed, as the main design and implementation challenges.


• Workshop on Infrastructure Support for Availability Based Contracts
  Focused on the challenges of increased software complexity in the context of full product lifecycle support costs. Insights on some of the methodologies that are available to manage software complexity and to control TCO of software intensive systems were given, followed by a round table discussion on software RAMS.

Attendants had the chance to get to know Critical Software's range of software engineering techniques that further the use of complex software in business, mission and safety critical applications and help control the total costs of ownership of software based solutions.

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YES!VV Project closure with public demonstration

Last 30th June in Lisbon, Critical promoted a public session for YES!VV project demonstration, a project that intends to expose an innovative process in the field of Independent Software Verification and Validation (ISVV). The application of ISVV aims to raise reliability and increase the quality of software products, thereby reducing risks and costs through the operational life of the software. ISVV provides assurance that software performs to the specified level of confidence and within its designed parameters and defined requirements.

The public session held in Hotel Tivoli Oriente consisted of a series of presentations and discussion panels regarding ISVV methodology and its applicability to markets, other than Aerospace - Like Telecom and Banking - where system failures typically have high impact in financial as well as in terms of people security. Experts from Critical Software gave their insights on ISVV related topics throughout the day.

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Critical's ISVV and RAMS services are exhibited in Brazil

Following Critical's approach to the South-American market, specifically in Brazil where it will soon open a subsidiary, the company promoted yet another public session about ISVV and RAMS services. This event's huge success established Critical Software as a strong and recognized brand in Brazil, specifically for the Verification and Validation integration and systems and service supply.

The Technology Park in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, was the venue chosen to present Critical expertise to some of the most relevant players in Brazil's Aerospace Industry. Paulo Guedes, Business Development Manager for Aeronautics and Nuno Silva, Principal Engineer for Dependability & Safety were the keynote speakers to share their thoughts on ISVV and RAMS.

While ISVV (Independent software verification and validation) aims to give answer to two basic questions "Are you building the product right?" and "Are you building the right product?", RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) aims to demonstrate that the system meets the dependability and safety requirements and to improve the system requirements and design such that the final solution delivers enhanced dependability and safety.

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Can internal R&D on Defence and Security enhance Technological Exports?

Business environment and innovation incentives in the United Kingdom continue to attract several European IT small and medium enterprises, which use this nation as a platform to grow in Northern European markets and globally. As you could expect, many European companies with growth ambitions already conduct business in the UK. With such a competitive environment, companies that wish to enter this market have to present themselves with a right mix of cultural adequate and differentiating strategies and aggressive management.

In the case of the Portuguese IT companies, challenges are not different. A visible pattern on other countries' companies is that they possess a strong national business component which has allowed them to create a set of skills developed on domestic markets. In the Portuguese case this capacity is limited given the difference in scale. This is even more obvious when we talk about Defence & Security appliances.

United Kingdom has the World's second biggest Defence budget and is one of the main accesses for the biggest Defence market: North America. Can Portuguese IT companies walk this path?

Common knowledge tells us that it is not the internal investment dimension, but the criteria used in its application, that influences excellence making. A careful management in procurement programs together with Innovation and Technological Development in Defence and Security is crucial to reach this goal. These activities can play a major role in risk mitigating and requirements development, resulting in more efficient procurement.

After successful case studies in the domestic market, penetration in foreign markets depends on companies' boldness. An example of this commitment is Critical Software, by demonstrating its skills to the British MoD on the scope of the Maritime safety autonomous systems development, in collaboration with Atlas Elektronik UK, following up on previous works developed for the Portuguese Navy.

Strategies such as this will have very positive impact in the Portuguese economy, enabling high added-value exports.

Nuno Almeida, Critical's Business Development Director for Aerospace, Defence and Transport.

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Herschel / Planck: yet another success story...

In early 2007, Critical was approached by Thales Alenia Space (at the time Alcatel Alenia Spacio) to assist them with some testing activities for the Herschel-Planck satellite O/B software. Deadlines were very aggressive and manpower with enough stamina was needed to overcome all difficulties and meet these deadlines. In the end, the project turned out to last almost one year and a half, coming to an end last May.

During that time, several elements of the team were dethatched to Finland where they faced temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius in a freezing winter and above 26 degrees Celsius in a hot firing summer, to work closely with the development team. Critical team's effort was crucial to the success of the project, being able to maintain the quality standards that the company is known for, even in such a harsh environment.

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Critical sponsors "Mestrado em Engenharia de Serviços e Gestão"

Following up on Critical's strategy to be close to knowledge centres, the company has proudly agreed to become partners with FEUP (Faculty of Engineering from University of Porto) for the promotion of its new Masters on Services Engineering and Management (MESG - Mestrado em Engenharia de Serviços e Gestão)

Bearing in mind that Services currently account for more than 60% of the western world production and employment, this Master hopes to meet the expectations of young graduates that wish to make a career in this sector. MESG aims to develop skills to conceive, design, implement and operate systems for technology-based services providing.

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Critical participates in SpaceOps 2008

Under the claim "Protecting the Earth, Exploring the Universe", SpaceOps 2008 took place in Heidelberg, Germany, from 12th to 16th May. The event, which was organized by ESA and EUMETSAT in association with the AIAA, offered an intensive week of presentations (oral and poster) to all participants. The SpaceOps 2008 Technical Program Committee, composed of experts from the major space agencies in the world (including ESA, EUMETSAT, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, etc.) prepared an ambitious program focused on today's achievements in space operations and outlining trends in the operations of future missions.

Bruno Carvalho, Business Development Manager for Space represented Critical Software and was one of spokespersons, presenting a paper under the topic "Spacecraft Systems Software: Data Management and Interfaces".

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Critical participates in itSMF Portugal annual conference

The IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) is an independent and internationally-recognised forum for IT Service Management professionals worldwide. This non-profit organisation provides an accessible network of industry experts, information sources and events to help address IT service management issues and help achieve the delivery of high quality, consistent IT service internally and externally through the adoption of "best practice".

itSMF Portugal's 2008 annual conference was held last 28th May in Lisbon under the theme "Convergence". The conference covered the various practices that currently support IT Services management, presented ongoing projects and examined the connection between current practices. Filipe Freitas, Critical Software's Business Development Manager represented the company and was amongst this conference's keynote speakers.

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Critical joins ITS Portugal

ITS Portugal is part of the several ITS associations that have been established in many countries in order to support the increasingly rapid deployment of intelligent transport systems and services (ITS). Bearing this in mind and due to the growing importance of the transport market and the huge potential still to be unveiled, Critical Software made the decision of becoming a member of this non-profit association which will coordinate activities on a national scale.

ITS Portugal aims to promote the development, usage and diffusion of technological advanced solutions for transports, with the ultimate purpose of improving service quality, economy, efficiency and safety in transports, while supporting people and merchandise sustainable mobility and geographically scattered markets access, either by air, land or sea.

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About Critical Software SA
Critical Software is an international company that provides solutions, services and technologies for mission and business critical information systems. The company was founded in 1998, is headquartered in Coimbra and has offices in Lisbon and Oporto (Portugal), San Jose (US) and subsidiaries in Southampton (UK) and Bucharest (Romania). Critical Software supports customers across several markets including Aerospace, Defence, Manufacturing, Telecom & Media, Government & Finance and Energy. Customers include Siemens, NASA, Soporcel, ESA, Vodafone, Eumetsat, EADS, Astrium, ChevronTexaco, Deutsch Telekom, AgustaWestland, among many others renowned in Europe and the US. The company operates a quality system certified to CMMI® Level3, ISO 9001:2000 Tick-IT, ISO 15504, AQAP 2120 and EN9100.

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