www.criticalsoftware.com


A small Portuguese company is a world leader in the development of software for critical information systems. Just four years of existence was enough to place Critical Software on the international stage. Already by 1998, NASA showed great interest in Xception, a technology developed by the Portuguese company, which was aimed at a highly specialised market niche: the testing and certification of software used in extremely critical systems, where a software failure might entail disastrous consequences. After signing their contract with the North American Space Agency, Critical caught the eye of other economic giants of the aerospace sector, and the company is already developing projects with the European Space Agency (ESA) EUMETSAT, ESO, Astrium SAS, EADS, Terma AB, and the Alcatel Space Industries. 

This technology, however, is extremely useful not only for the aerospace sector. The next step, and chief objective, is to make this software available for applications in sectors such as telecommunications, the automotive and medical equipment, where reliability requirements are equally high.

But the growth of Critical Software, which alone is enough to classify the company as a true "fast company", doesn't end here. Critical also acts in the development of information systems and solutions for companies in a wide variety of sectors. Common to all is the high standard of quality of software engineering and the ability to incorporate innovative characteristics into the solutions, which offer their clients the competitive edge. With regard to the quality of software, the company has adopted extremely demanding international development norms and standards, thus assuring top quality and on-time and on-budget projects and solutions - a mark of distinction. The ongoing improvement of the Software Development Process (SDP) according to the norms ISO 12207 and ISO 15504 will carry the company to level 3 in maturity.

Critical Software was born in 1998, created by three engineers from Coimbra. The founding partners, with doctorates in areas such as tolerance to failures, parallel computing and quality in computer networks, laid the foundations for technological company that today has about 50 qualified employees, mainly software engineers. 

Initially strongly inclined towards innovation and technologies, Critical has meanwhile specialised its structure and become market-oriented, applying its innovative capacities and software engineering qualities to solving companies' specific problems. From that moment on the telephone just didn't stop ringing. 

In its customer portfolio, Critical numbers great industrial companies such as Soporcel, Papel do Prado (Pulp & Paper), Revigrés and Fapricela; in the area of telecommunications Siemens, VCS Gmbh. Angola Telecom, and Telecom Moçambique, among others. The fact that they work in state-of-the-art technology at international level gives Critical an enviable competitive advantage in these sectors, as well as in more traditional sectors, which are less demanding in terms of reliability, such as business and e-business solutions.

Critical Software is therefore yet another successful example of the new economy: with accelerated growth since 1998, in 2001 critical reached a business volume of around 1.7 M€, and in 2002 will reach an estimated 3M€. 

The capacity this company shows when it comes to innovation in technological terms is evidence of its dynamism, and those in charge don't hide their ambition to break into new hi-tech areas and conquer new markets. For this same reason, João Carreira emphasizes the need of keeping a close relationship between the company and international research centres, which when combined with a good knowledge of the market would allow the identification of new areas for business and to stay a step ahead of the competition.

Proving this point is Critical's involvement in the European project DBENCH (Dependability Benchmarking), whose objective is the development of standards for critical systems reliability. "Besides R&D we are responsible for bringing the results of this project into the market" reveals the company's CEO.

Recently, the company has entered another area known as High Performance Computing. This is also a project of great dimension, especially at international level. In fact, in João Carreira's words, "licences of our communications middleware have already been sold a little all over the world". There are many other projects up his sleeve, but for the time being they remain a well-kept secret.

Critical Software is a company with global ambitions. The fact that from the very first minute it invested in the USA and Europe gave the company an attitude that is completely different to most Portuguese companies. It is for this reason that Critical is already breaking into other markets; the recent contracts with ESA confirm Critical as one of the most powerful names of this new wave of companies. So as to be able to respond successfully to its worldwide ambitions, the company has already strengthened its subsidiary company in Silicon Valley, California - Critical Software Limited.

CRITICAL SOFTWARE, L.da
Instituto Pedro Nunes
R. Pedro Nunes
3030-199 Coimbra
Tel: (+351) 239 700945
Fax: (+351) 239 700905
www.criticalsoftware.com