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| The Socially Responsible Business of TechnoLogica |
| | TechnoLogica does business that is socially responsible. The Management of the Company recognizes social benefit as a touchstone of every action TechnoLogica undertakes. As a company that is dedicated to innovation, TechnoLogica considers social issues as providing challenges and opportunities.
Business ethics makes an integral part of TechnoLogica's corporate culture, because if the Company wants to be sought after as a valuable technological partner in the projects of its partners, its name must stand for a guarantee of high technological level and exceptional business ethics. The business of TechnoLogica as a technological partner requires that the Company be easily accepted by the other players in the field of information technologies. That is why TechnoLogica should have an impeccable reputation for being a highly ethical firm that works professionally, transparently and devotedly with its competitors, clients and projects. The Business Ethics Certificate was awarded to TechnoLogica personally by Prince Charles in the year of 2003.
| | Young People and Education Benefit Projects |
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TechnoLogica traditionally supports and consistently accomplishes the idea for close cooperation between business and the academic circles. At TechnoLogica we realize the necessity for the business to contribute to the quality education and professional fulfillment of the young people in Bulgaria.
TechnoLogica has long years of experience in cooperating with the academic circles. Yet in 1993 the first summer internship of students from the American University took place thanks to the initiative of TechnoLogica. The company has made donations to almost all universities of Bulgaria and aims at being a catalyst for a stable cooperation between business and education.
TechnoLogica participates actively in the Business Master Classes organized by BBLF with lecturers in the Information Technologies and Human Resources modules.
The latest program of the company for the benefit of young people and education is being developed at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) of the Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski”. The program consists of several projects related not only to the students but also to their professors.
At the TechnoLogica Education Centre for Professionals we regularly organize workshops for students from the Master’s Programs at the FMI. It is already a tradition that certified practicing professors train the faculty professors and system administrators in the newest technologies free of charge. This is done in order to facilitate the process of implementing new technologies and also to provide resources for it. Following this trend a specialized free of charge training in Microsoft starts from academic year 2006/2007. This training is a part of the approved academic curriculum and is lead by certified professionals from TechnoLogica. TechnoLogica regularly accepts trainees from the faculty who get the opportunity to continue working at the company on full time employment agreements after the completion of their internship programs.
In 2006 TechnoLogica announced a contest for “The Lecturer in a Subject in the Information Systems Field Best Aappraised by the Students” with a prize fund amounting to 5 000 leva. As a company specialized mainly in information systems development, by means of this annual award TechnoLogica expresses its gratitude and respect to the professors who have contributed to teaching the students useful knowledge that could later on be used in their practical work. Through direct voting on the FMI web site the students chose the three lecturers with the greatest contribution to their professional growth as IT specialists.
A challenge to the young software specialists is also the contest called “Wings for Your Ideas” which aims at looking for new and original ideas for software products, instrumental tools and technologies. The company will invest in the best ideas and will facilitate their actual implementation in all aspects and all the projects that have participated in the contest shall be published on a special web site and popularized among the companies in the IT sector. The authors of the ideas preserve their copyright over those ideas and all additional conditions for their implementation will be organized in the form of a contract.
TechnoLogica was the first to respond to the charity campaign for an elevator for students with disabilities in the FMI building and donated 10% of the needed 100 000 leva. By doing so TechnoLogica hoped to give a good example of charity activities in the IT sector and also expected that the kids with disabilities will receive an equal start for education and professional fulfillment, just like their healthy peers. At the end of 2006 the gathered amount comprised 50% of the sum necessary for building the elevator. | | “Engineering Education – Solid and Working” |
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The “Engineering Education – Solid and Working” program started at the end of 2003 as a model for bringing business and education closer and it develops successfully and gives good results for the students as well as for the production enterprises. Even then the initiators of the program forecasted the strong demand for engineers which already is a proven fact. The program started with the donation of a software with a trade price amounting to 2.5 million dollars – an act of support by the American corporation, software producer, SolidWorks. It encompasses six universities and numerous Bulgarian industrial enterprises, the donation thus being only a part of the initiative. The goals of the program are improving the quality of the engineering education, increasing the interest towards it and stimulating the joint practical developments of the universities and the enterprises. Thus, simultaneously will increase the competitiveness of the Bulgarian companies and the opportunity for successful professional fulfillment of such specialist will arise. DiTra, the CAD/CAM center of TechnoLogica and official representative of Solid Works for Bulgaria and Macedonia, made an installation of the donated software, trained the lecturers and supplied studying materials. In April 2006 was published the new SolidWorks textbook – “SolidWorks – User’s Book. Functionality, Examples, Guidelines”. It is sold on preferential prices to students. The industrial enterprises actively participate in the initiative by means of offering guest lecturers, workplaces and practical help.
Within the bounds of the initiative are carried out university days, seminars, job fairs, master classes as well as the student contest for working with SolidWorks. The student contest takes place in two categories - for best project done with SolidWorks as well as for speed, skillfulness and ability to work with the software. The contest finals take place at the annual meeting of the friends of SolidWorks where young engineers can demonstrate their abilities in front of potential employers. The winners receive the annual TechnoLogica scholarship. Almost all finalists from the contest find good jobs at prestigious Bulgarian companies. That was the main objective of TechnoLogica and the American software producer SolidWorks – to fill in the gap in the education of engineers and to establish a lasting connection and engagement between employers and students.
In the year 2006 another producer of software joined the program – Delcam, who offered licenses of the CAM system FeatureCam to the technical universities in Sofia, Varna, Rouse and Gabrovo. DiTra in its turn taught the professors how to work with the software.
DiTra, as an official representative of SolidWorks for Bulgaria and Macedonia, annually maintains the working capacity of the installed software and right now the universities work with the latest actual version.
As a result of the work and desire of all the participants in the program, the students at three different faculties of the Technical University in Sofia, as well as the Technical Universities in Varna, Rouse and Gabrovo and the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv study and work with SolidWorks and SolidCAM, just like their colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the year 2006 DiTra opened a Laboratory for Assistance of Innovative Processes in Industry which has at its disposal the latest software tools. It is equipped with a high class machine for rapid prototyping of Stratasys and a 3D scanner. Apart from the advantage to the Bulgarian companies, the functioning of that laboratory is also related to the next big step in the “Engineering Education – Solid and Working” program and more precisely, its turning into a model for other similar laboratories at the Technical Universities in Bulgaria. Still in 2007 the University of Rousse “Angel Kanchev” became the first academic institution with a similar laboratory. Thus, the first step to the goal was made – for the Bulgarian Technical Universities to be promoters of the latest technologies and centers for their pilot application in the industry, as well as for the scientific potential of universities to meet the necessities and projects of the industrial enterprises. That is a meeting which could bring many benefits to both parties.
| | Carting for Emploees |
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The main resource in the software branch is the human capital. A spirit of innovation is one of the important criteria in the selection of personnel at TechnoLogica. The firm has created an atmosphere of creativity and it is a given that everyone working here is willing to be a professional and an innovator, and that these qualities must be stimulated. One very important quality that TechnoLogica is proud of is free communication. The management is not only open to innovative and daring ideas by everyone about anything, but it is also proactive in the process of conceiving of and formulating the ideas of its employees.
At TechnoLogica, 15% of each employee's working time is dedicated to research and training. Most often it is used for collecting information about new technologies, and for analysis of their potential and applicability. Given the speed at which the field of information technologies has been developing, these require special attention and sufficient resources for up-to-date introductory training. Appreciating the importance of high-quality training, in 1995 TechnoLogica created the first certified training centre for IT professionals in Bulgaria. Professionals there are educated on the basis of specifically designed training programs and backed up by the financial support of the world's software leaders, who certified all the tutors teaching in the programs. The facilitated access to teaching materials on new technologies provides an opportunity for constant and consistent learning on the part of the trainees. Internal training courses have also been developed on issues regarding the latest technologies and the technological tools owned by the company. These courses are modified for clients and also as an element of the technological transfer offered to them by TechnoLogica.
What is of utmost importance to TechnoLogica is to work for the formation and development of professionals on an international level. TechnoLogica helps its young employees develop as valuable professionals through arranging for the sponsorship of their certification courses by the leading IT corporations. All employees receive financial support when they marry or have a child. It is a common practice that interest–free loans are provided to employees for the purchase of real estate property.
| | Community Benefit Projects |
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In 2007 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the National Polytechnic Museum TechnoLogica financed entirely the building of a new web site representing the activity and development of the museum and its branches. Following its strategy for supporting the Bulgarian cultural institutions, TechnoLogica also supported the National Polytechnic Museum in staging the “The Bulgarian Trace in Science” exhibition, prepared by the museum. So that the less popular facts from the Bulgarian scientific development, contained in the exhibition, could reach wider audience, TechnoLogica shall donate copies from “The Bulgarian Trace in Science” to different governmental and academic institutions.
Through the financial aid granted by the company the new and revised edition of the book of Prof. Isaak Passi “Motives of Human Behavior” appeared on the book market at the end of 2006.
Still in 1993, TechnoLogica, absolutely free of charge, for the first time in Eastern Europe used multimedia kiosks for new quality service for the visitors of a public forum, namely the Technological Fair in Plovdiv. The kiosks were equipped with touch-sensitive screens, and provided information about the exhibiting firms, the location of their stands, the exhibition town and the sightseeing places in Plovdiv responding to visitor-entered criteria. TechnoLogica provided for free a similar kiosk to the National Historical Museum, so that children can search by themselves for the information they are interested in and get used to working with a computer. TechnoLogica also created the first compact disc presenting Bulgaria's historical and cultural heritage.
The multimedia presentation of the Bulgarian Army, provided by TechnoLogica at the celebration for NATO's headquarters in Mons, Belgium 30th anniversary called for a new look at Bulgaria. The CD, enhanced with a presentation of the Atlantic movement in Bulgaria, was the official present of the Bulgarian delegation for NATO's 50th anniversary in Washington DC. The project received high acclaim from the Pact's Management.
TechnoLogica stimulates and promotes new modern methods of presenting Bulgaria and Bulgarian institutions to the world. The firm has created pro bono a number of websites for the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the first website of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, to list but a few.
By donating software (HeRMeS) needed for building a database and releasing an Internet portal for potential employers, as well as for the supply and demand of human resources among the retired military, TechnoLogica referred to the problem of military retirees' social adaptation. The project aims to establish connections with HR managers, services assisting former military in their adaptation, and with training organizations. A project with a similar objective featured the launching of a new interactive forum in the web-site of the Employment Agency, which contains profiles of job seekers, registered in all employment bureaus in the country. The company developed that forum at a symbolic price with the sole aim to demonstrate the capacities of technologies and their use for the public.
On the eve of year 2000, the Company decided to donate the sources it had spared for equipping a gym for its employees to the “Dara” Christian National Mercy Association in Stara Zagora for supporting parentless children.
Throughout 2006 the employees of TechnoLogica gathered clothes, toys and necessities and donated them to the children from the Medico-Social Care Centre in the town of Pernik. Apart from that all employees offered certain sums from their salaries and to every lev given by an employee the company added three more. The money was used for the purchase of new kitchen furniture for the Care Centre.
During the Christmas and New Year holidays the team of TechnoLogica once again made a donation to the kids from the Care Center which was again multiplied by three. In 2007 the gathered amount will be used for the renovation of the sanitary premises at the Center. One of the kids prepared a Christmas card which TechnoLogica sent to all its clients and partners donating part of its circulation also to the needs of the Care Center.
Another charitable project in which TechnoLogica got involved was initiated by BAIT (The Bulgarian Association for Information Technologies) and the “Charity Doer” Foundation. The project is called “In the web” and the aim is to equip with computers and Internet connection the greatest possible number of centers for bringing up and educating parentless children. TechnoLogica participated in the campaign with a donation of color display monitors. At present around 350 kids have access to modern information technologies and make use of the vast amount of information offered in the Internet. Thanks to this stimulus more kids from the 8th to the 12th grade were motivated to make more efforts and act responsibly towards their duties.
TechnoLogica actively participates in the work of six non-governmental organizations (BBLF being one of them) and invests significant resources in them - approximately 1.3% of its annual turnover and two man/months per year for supporting their activities.
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© TechnoLogica 2007-2010 |
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