Over recent years, we have acquired expertise in human resources tools and products. Last year, we decided to transform our own applicant tracking system into a full human resources suite; entitled Talexio. The solution includes payroll, performance management and training. This means we now have a new team fully focused on building this product and we have been making great progress.

We already have several customers live on the platform and we are very excited to be releasing new features every week. We are also in testing a number of machine learning modules that will increase efficiency for the users. These will be launched in November 2019.

The Preeo team is made up of engineers who are truly passionate about software development. A significant amount of our time is spent on code reviews, which is one of the many ways we ensure that the code behind our software is as healthy as can be.

“The Preeo team is made up of engineers who are truly passionate about software development. A significant amount of our time is spent on code reviews, which is one of the many ways we ensure that the code behind our software is as healthy as can be.”

Some software companies are renowned for getting stuck with maintaining legacy software but Preeo is constantly pushing itself to the boundaries; exploring new technology and making sure that the tools we build and work on are always fresh and robust.

Our business analysts and project managers are skilled engineers and problem solvers who understand the troubles our clients would meet, as well as their requirements. As a result of this, we are able to suggest effective solutions to the issues our clients might have, and we have a clear vision of what we would like to achieve, even before we start writing the code.

The software industry tends to suffer from executives taking shortcuts or being driven by purely short term goals. However, we at Preeo believe that we must talk about the actual problems of our clients in order to solve them. We are developers, and we like getting our hands dirty. We believe that we must always ensure that our coding is pristine, and then the products we develop will speak for themselves.

As a group of people who are also running a business, we understand financials. We can see that small companies, nowadays, often struggle as salaries have rightfully skyrocketed, and these businesses cannot maintain software developers, who want perks and benefits. Nevertheless, we have experienced that great developers want to be constantly challenged, learn on the job and be empowered to create amazing software. These all provided in Preeo’s nice working environment.

At Preeo we have been able to achieve a lot for our clients with a small team of ten engineers. Our plan is to maintain steady yet conservative growth as we ensure we get the best talent we can to complement our existing team. In the short term, we have a number of products in the pipeline; internal projects and several external for our clients. As we build a dedicated team for Talexio, we want to continue ensuring the success of each project which has been crucial in establishing our reputation.

In the long term would like to be in a position of financial independence to enable us to do good with technology and building software that solves human needs.

The post Preeo creates essential HR software to facilitate payroll, boost efficiency first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The EGM stressed that no effort should be spared to ensure that the safety of people in their homes, and their quality of life, are the topmost priority of all involved in the construction industry, including the respective regulators.

The EGM also reiterated the profession’s full commitment to ensure public safety and urged the government to enter into discussions with the Kamra, as the sole and legal representative of the profession, rather than depend on advisors or entities which may not be adequately familiar with the technical and engineering aspects of the construction process.

The EGM was called after the walls of three buildings collapsed in the past two months in Malta near construction sites, forcing the government to temporarily halt demolition and excavation works. After consulting architects, the chamber also issued a preliminary position prior to the EGM.

“The time is long overdue for the government to properly address in a holistic manner, the problems besetting the construction industry, and not through a piecemeal approach,” the Kamra stresses after the EGM. “Hastily drafted and ill-thought revisions to a Legal Notice will not serve to ensure public safety, but rather serves only to confuse the various roles and responsibilities on construction sites. In particular, the EGM emphasised that under Malta’s Civil Code there are only two figures responsible for construction work, namely the Perit and the Contractor,” the statement notes.

“Consequently, the role of a site manager, as conceived in the Legal Notice, could only be assumed to be within the contractor’s setup, since the Contractor was obliged at law to understand and follow the instructions issued by the perit [Maltese word for architect], and be sufficiently knowledgeable to understand the significance of such instructions,” the press statement adds.

Taking responsibility

During the EGM, architects reaffirmed their commitment to take full responsibility for the tasks that were within their remit. They, however, demanded that the Maltese government “stops dragging its feet, and immediately takes the necessary steps to ensure that the framework which allows periti [architects] to ensure public safety is in place and effective.”

After the EGM, the association representing Maltese architects has come forward with the following demands:

• adoption of the amendments to the Periti Act, that the Kamra tal-Periti has been insisting on for the last 12 years, be approved, in full consultation with the Kamra;
• that the government enters into immediate discussions with the Kamra, on the Building and Construction Regulation Framework it has proposed, and to agree on its implementation within a reasonable timeframe;
• that, even before the setting up of the Building and Construction Authority, a proposal which the Kamra has supported since its inception, the government immediately provides the Building Regulation Office with all the necessary financial, human, and technical resources it requires to deal with its workload;
• and finally, that the government implements the obligations of the regulator as far as concerns the certification of all building products, both produced locally or imported, as required by the Laws of Malta since 2011.

Furthermore, the chamber says that any Legal Notice should, rather than contain technical detail that is better placed in building regulations, include provisions that empower the architect to suspend works, and lodge a report with the Building Regulations Office, without having to relinquish their commission, if the contractor or developer refuse to comply with the architect’s instructions on matters relating to structural integrity, the press statement adds.

Finally, the architects demand a clear separation between planning application and permitting processes, and the processes by which building and construction are notified, regulated and monitored. “Nearly five years have been wasted as a result of the misguided advice given to the government that the two processes should be brought together under the remit of the Planning Authority,” the press statement by the Kamra underscores.

The Maltese government halted all demolition and excavation works in the country on 13 June 2019, as an emergency action in view of the recent spate of structural collapses which occurred adjacent to construction sites. The Council of the Kamra tal-Periti considered this measure necessary, due to the potential risks to public safety. Therefore, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that new regulations would be published regarding excavation and demolition works, in order to address a number of issues.

The post Architects urge gov’t to enter discussions in light of public safety first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“The purpose of the meeting is to update its members on the developments that have occurred over the past few weeks, the progress made on its public consultation document A Modern Building and Construction Regulation Framework for Malta following its publication in May, closing talks held over recent months with government about the updated Periti Act, and to consult on the draft regulations to be published on Monday by government following the temporary suspension of demolition and excavation works,” the press statement says.

At the same time, the Kamra tal-Periti says it is in talks with various industry stakeholders about its reform proposals. The consultation meeting with the Malta Developers Association (MDA) originally scheduled for the end of the month has been moved to an earlier date of 18 June. “The Kamra tal-Periti and the MDA have reached an understanding that in this critical juncture for the industry, it is important to converge towards a common position for the good of the country. Further meetings are also scheduled to take place with the Chamber of Engineers, the Chamber of Commerce, and the BICC,” the press statement says.

The Kamra tal-Periti tags these times as a “crucial moment” for the industry, urging players to come together and seek convergence, while the “the Kamra will continue to take a leading role in ensuring that this takes place”.

In the light of the happenings of the past few weeks, the Kamra says that “the issues we are facing are complex, and the fast pace of the industry is stretching resources beyond capacity, yet none of this justifies the relaxation of standards and lack of diligence,” according to a press statement.

Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on 13 June that all excavation and demolition works must stop until new construction site regulations come into force by the end of the month. Fines for those ignoring the halt are expected to jump from €2,000 to €50,000. This comes after the walls of standing buildings collapsed nearby construction sites during excavation and demolition works.

The post Kamra tal-Periti calls for extraordinary general meeting first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“Our goal is to build an open blockchain infrastructure platform from which tech communities and developers can better serve commercial applications,” says Walter Komarek, Co-founder of YAO Network. “The approach creates triple-win outcomes,” Mr Komarek adds.

As the company sees it, the demand from different blockchain players continues to grow, yet certain weaknesses pertaining to the performance of fundamental technology, commercial applications, and supporting infrastructure for communities still exist. YAO Network is convinced that current issues with performance, scalability, security, and privacy hinder the development of blockchain technology.

“The scarcity of development toolkits and learning platforms prevent wider and deeper penetration of the tech. Moreover, developers often lack knowledge of traditional industries. These create challenges in exporting a community’s technology and building a functional ecosystem,” the press statement says.

The BaaS technology enables clients to use cloud infrastructure to create, host, and utilise own blockchain solutions, as well as enables organisations to deploy supplier services to create and access decentralised applications (dApps).

YAO Network is based on the design concept of BaaS 3.0. Through a “blameless governance system” and “incentive mechanism”, the network aims to continuously nurture new blockchain projects, as well as, build a platform of multiple blockchain networks that integrate cloud and decentralised computing, according to the developers of the network.

“YAO Network is a next-generation public infrastructure platform. It works as an ecosystem entry, computation hub, and service market for blockchain communities,” says Mr Komarek. “YAO will connect enterprises, developers, communities, and industry upstream and downstream participants to provide a full range of blockchain services,” he adds.

YAO Network was founded in January 2019 by a team of developers and technologists. The Malta-based venture is led by Co-founder Walter Komarek, the CEO of Angel Investment, and former founder of Forbestelecom.

The firm’s institutional partners include Amazon Web Services, Ethereum, Huobi, George Mason University, and Columbia University, among others.

The post YAO Network to launch open blockchain infrastructure platform first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The group is planning to invest in the construction of offices and hotels, teaming up with local market players, “after the due diligence of various assets is completed,” the press statement says.

“We expect two new projects in Ukraine this year and are entering the fifth market outside of Germany, Poland, Spain, and Malta. This will contribute to the further growth and development of the country,” said Sven von der Heyden, the head of the group.

Von der Heyden Group has been present in the European real estate market since 1989 in four areas: investment in real estate, development, the international hotel group IBB Hotel Collection, as well as alternative investments.


The post Developer Von der Heyden Group eyes Ukrainian market first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.