Novasoft: Innovation for life

About 1,200 school children in Durban will begin learning with this educational tool specifically tailored to their curriculum.

La plataforma educativa myAgora+, de Novaschool by Novasoft, comenzará a utilizarse en 12 colegios públicos de Kuazulunatal en Durban (Sudáfrica) a partir del próximo 15 de enero para algo más de 1.200 alumnos. El proyecto es un piloto, avalado por el gobierno de Sudáfrica, que puede verse ampliado en función de su  comportamiento en las aulas pero que supone un paso gigantesco en la introducción de este modelo de enseñanza interactiva en este país.

Inicialmente, serán los escolares de 7º y 8º grado los que comenzarán a utilizar la plataforma, en las asignaturas de Ciencias y Matemáticas, con contenidos digitales en inglés expresamente diseñados para ellos y adaptados a su curriculum.

Los docentes que comenzarán a implantar esta iniciativa han trabajado codo con codo con profesionales de Novaschool para poner en marcha el proyecto, realizando distintos worskshop a lo largo del pasado año. La última de estas reuniones, la del lanzamiento final del proyecto, la tendrán a través de internet los próximos días 7, 8 y 9 de enero.

La utilización de la plataforma myAgora+ en estos centros de Sudáfrica llega tras un acuerdo firmado entre Novaschool Sudáfrica y tres compañías locales, African Access, Dyna Tech y Subcosol.

The Novasoft company has participated in an application for an Iberoeka grant for a mobile mammography unit for the state of Oaxaca. This new facility will reinforce the campaign against breast cancer in the southeast of the Republic.

On Friday, state authorities inaugurated this mobile unit with the presence of Novasoft.

The company provides coverage completely free of charge to business establishments and the public in the main commercial zone. A network of seven wifi antennas are sufficient to ensure a very high quality service

Businesses, the hostelry sector and above all, the general public, have already benefited from the wifi network which has been operating free of charge in the entire Open Air Business District of Merida, one of the main economic arteries of the city.

This project was developed by Wiwave, a subsidiary of the Novasoft group. It has grown out of an initial venture which began covering just a few businesses and then expanded to provide broadband internet access free of charge to all who wish to connect in this area.

The correct operation of the project, which provides a very high quality connection has required the deployment of seven wifi antennas, placed at strategic points in the area, offering coverage to ten streets that make up the Open Business District of the city.

The project includes the development of specific software tools for the Comprehensive Service Centre of the State Government of Puebla and involves an investment of more than $ 1.5 million.

The Novasoft group has been selected in Mexico for a major project for Puebla, one of the largest and most populous states. This will require the development of specific tools and applications for the field of Electronic Government.

The agreement, reached last week between Novasoft and the Secretary for Administration of the State Government of Puebla, states that Novasoft will be in charge of the design and implementation of e-government solutions for the Centre for Integrated Services (CIS) of the State of Puebla, and that the project will be divided into five distinct modules: CIS North Puebla, CIS South Puebla , CIS Executive, CIS Web and CIS Telephony. The total investment is over 1.5 million dollars.

Novasoft, which has extensive experience in the field of eGovernment has had a subsidiary incorporated in Mexico and an office in the State of Puebla since July this year. It has already become part of one of the suppliers of Information Technology Services and Communications within the state administration. This represents an important recognition of its expertise in this field.

The state of Puebla, which has a population of over 6 million, is making significant efforts to bring the administration closer to its citizens, thereby increasing transparency through new technologies. This improves the quality of life and by facilitating administrative procedures, achieves greater efficiency and effectiveness in this area.

The project ensures that all agencies under the regional administration have the resources to deal with various contingencies that may arise in technology, such as changing environments, operating systems or the development of tools.

The Novasoft company, in joint venture with Telvent, has renewed its participation in the management of the project known as CDR (Support Centre or Centre for ICT Applications Continuity of the Government of Andalusia) for another year. The service helps ensure business continuity of all agencies under the Regional Government in a rapidly and greatly changing environment.

Thus, the project uses a unique model that offers these bodies a state of the art infrastructure and a knowledge base able to cope with contingencies or change management needs in the technological environment, in operating systems, or simply improving everyday tools to provide a better service.

The implemented model is very flexible and adjusts to the requirements of each organization, which may choose the service level agreement that best suits their needs. The Support Centre has developed a Service Catalogue in order to meet these requirements, which are systematized and described, thus detailing both the technical and contract conditions.

The range of services aims to replicate on-line both information to which the "clients" (mainly ministries and other public bodies) need ready access. and that dedicated to allowing continuous operation of critical functions.

This new contract, which validates the good work done to date, is a renewal of a service that was contracted to start in 2010, and since then has been renewed periodically.

The recent opening of a new Novasoft office in Lima, capital of Peru, strengthens the company's presence in the Americas, completing the list of countries like Mexico, Panama, Chile and Brazil, which also have their own headquarters.

For the time being these openings complete the first phase of international expansion of Novasoft in South America. The company also has an international market presence in South Africa and Morocco seeking clients and attractive projects that compensate for weakness in our home market, especially in the field of Information Technology and Communications.

So far, the structure of each of these sites is composed of a team of one or two people who analyze each local market commercially and evaluate opportunities for Novasoft to obtain contracts. In several of these countries, such as Chile and Panama, projects have already been signed, thus requiring company professionals to move to these sites to provide their expertise in the startup or development phases.

Specifically, we have made significant progress to get a contract from the Municipality of Panama (municipal government of Panama City) for a value of $ 302,000, and two more contracts in Chile, for the Ministry of Education and the Presidency of the Government for a total value of $ 1,130,000, which will be billed in different years. In other countries there is also a significant portfolio of projects pending, which will expand with the implantation of Novasoft in the American market.

Among our clients in the capital are such well known names as RENFE, RTVE, Patrimonio Nacional (National Heritage Department), National Museum of the Prado, IFEMA, the National Medicines Agency and the City of Madrid.

In just a few months Novasoft has found success in the Province of Madrid in which it had previously had little presence. Steady growth in our commercial work and the addition of large firms to the ranks of our customers is helping to raise our profile in this market, where competition is very high, given that the main firms in this sector are based in the capital of Spain.

We already have fifteen current projects totaling a turnover of more than EUR 2.4 million, plus a staff of about 30 people linked to these projects, most of whom are based in the customers' own facilities.

Among the customers we have added to our portfolio in Madrid are such well known names as Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE), RENFE, Patrimonio Nacional (which administers and manages all assets that the Crown has ceded to the State), the National Agency for Medicines, the Prado Museum, the Madrid Exhibition Centre (IFEMA), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Canal de Isabel II and the City Council of Madrid. The trust of these customers endorses the quality of the proposals submitted by Novasoft and serves as a unique recommendation in a market that is increasingly throwing up new possibilities.

In fact, in anticipation of continued growth in this market , Novasoft has moved its facilities to new larger offices, taking advantage of the current favourable conditions in the property market. The new company headquarters in Madrid is in the Paseo de la Castellana, in an environment surrounded by businesses and public administration buildings. It accommodates a total of 12 operational positions, a management office and a boardroom.

The director and poet present in the headquarters of the Manuel Álcantara Foundation the film which will compete in the Documenta Madrid 20011 international festival. The film, which sees the debut of Novasoft in audiovisual production shows Manuel Álcantara up close, “a person far from his public character and which only his children, grandchildren and closest friends can see”

“When a clear mind like Manuel Álcantara´s reaches into its memory anybody can enter fully in its world, and there is where the magic of the documentary is found” which is no other thing but “submerging yourself in a reality and choosing how to tell it in the best way possible”. This is how the director Manuel Jiménez defines ‘El pésimo actor mexicano’, an approach to the figure of Manuel Álcantara, poet and columnist, in the form of a feature-length documentary which will be premiered in the eighth edition of the Documenta Madrid 2011 International Festival and which has been presented today by both the director and the star in the headquarters of the foundation named after the Málaga author.

According to Jiménez the film, with which Novasoft debuts as an audiovisual producer, shows Manuel Álcantara up close, “a person far from his public character and which only his children, grandchildren and closest friends can see”, but at the same time tells a universal story of a person who independently of everything he has achieved during his career and aside from the character he has created, reflects with tremendous clarity on various everyday questions up to the point that the documentary itself “is a deep reflection on what living( and not life) means for Manuel Álcantara”.

‘El pésimo actor mexicano’ is the third work as a director of Manuel Jiménez and the third title (after ‘La aldea perdida’ y ‘Hombres de sal’) which he manages to place amongst the most relevant on a national scale which are shown in the annual meeting in Madrid. It is also the first title that Novasoft launches as an audiovisual producer, a year and a half after entrusting the management of the Audiovisual area to Jiménez.The managing director of Novasoft, Francisco Barrionuevo, who attended the film´s presentation has highlighted the work carried out by all the team in order to achieve this result and is confident that in the future other companies and institutions can follow in the same direction and support the making of documentaries, a genre that is more and more in demand in a society that is keen to know and understand “the different realities that surround us”. Barrionuevo is pleased that Novasoft´s first work in this area has Manuel Álcantara as a main figure as he considers him to be “a master, teacher and a friend” above all and a figure that does not need to be vindicated but does “need to be cared for on a daily basis” so that “we do not forget who we are and all the talent we have surrounding us”.

The film, which moves away from Manuel Jiménez´s previous Works, maintains an “argumental” relationship and goes further in the exploration of risky narrative language, seeing as “it is not as theatrical” as the two previous Works. In any case, the work evokes many images which “without the need of showing them, appear by themselves” and includes many surprises such as unpublished anecdotes of times when journalism “was human” or the only tune that appears in the film, a poem by Álcantara put to music and sung by the flamenco singer, Maite Martín.

The Documenta Madrid 2011 international festivals holds its eighth edition from the 6th to the 15th of May and will show a total of 60 films from 26 different countries, chosen from more than 1100 candidates. Jiménez´s film will compete against the winners of two Goya awards, Santiago Zannou (‘El truco del manco’) who will present ‘La puerta de no retorno’, and Lucina Gil (‘El hombre feliz’) who will premiere ‘Los amores difíciles’ in the competition. The Málaga director, however, already knows what it is to win this festival because his first work, ‘La aldea perdida’ won the highest award in the feature-length category in 2007 and two years later repeated this success by winning second prize with ‘Hombres de sal’.

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