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Accreditations
- Microsoft Certified Partner
- Investors in People
- ISO 9001 Certified
News and Information
2010
Beer O'Clock
Just up the road from the CherSoft offices is the venue for the Great British Northern Beer Festival. Four stages, 28 bands, 12,000 visitors and 220 real ales, all served through handpulls, making this Festival the biggest hand pulled Festival in the world. It is quite an event. We like the odd drop of beer so we couldn’t resist getting involved. The company sponsored a barrel and we all spent a pleasant evening checking out one or two (or maybe more) of the brews on offer.
Trip to Egersund
Simon Salter (Chief Executive) and members of the CherSoft team were in Egersund, Norway this week visiting Jeppesen as the team look to broaden partnerships with commercial hydrographical companies. CherSoft originally met Egil Aarstad of Jeppesen in South Africa at Hydro 09 and they have been working together closely to identify new business development areas.
Simon was very happy with the visit, saying “The two companies are very complementary with solutions for the global hydrographic community and this should enable a very close working relationship for the future. We are especially focussed on our tidal products and solutions that are already gaining a wide audience in Europe”
Egersund is situated in a beautiful part of the world about one hour’s drive south from Stavanger. Frozen lakes, snow covered roads and rock strewn hills were all brilliantly lit by the arctic sun which, although bright, managed to impart no warmth at all. However it did provide a fantastic backdrop for our meeting with Jeppesen and we spent the whole day at their well appointed (and warm) offices which look out over the fjord. Many thanks to the Jeppesen team whose hospitality and interest certainly shone throughout the day.
2009
Bond Party
This year’s CherSoft annual party had a James Bond theme. This meant that the Directors could carry guns and everyone got to drink an authentic Vesper made with genuine Lillet
* If you need more information on the sophisticated range of CherSoft cocktails please contact bar_tender@chersoft.co.uk.
CherSoft visits the Port of London Authority
A team from CherSoft visited the Port of London Authority (PLA). The PLA is responsible for ensuring navigational safety along the Tidal Thames, promoting use of the River and safeguarding the environment. The day included a visit to the impressive control centre at Gravesend.
Visit to Hydro09
CherSoft attended the Hydro9 conference and exhibition in Cape Town. As well as meeting with many other company representatives Simon and Steve also presented a paper on Active Data.
Admiralty Information Overlay support implemented as part of Henry 5,2,0,388
The is the first navigation system to display Admiralty Information Overlays (AIO) fully and will be used by UKHO in developing and finalising the AIO product.
See the release notes.
Simply Messing About In Boats
CherSoft staff don't spend all their time in the office.
Admiralty Digital Publications 2010 upgrade delivered to the UKHO
The Admiralty Digital Publications (ADP) 2010 upgrade was delivered to the UK Hydrographic Office. This upgrade incorporates several new enhancements and improvements. ADP 2010 will go on general release at the beginning of 2010.
16 Henry navigation systems supplied to the Netherlands Maritime Force
CherSoft delivers UKHO ARCS production report
A CherSoft consultancy team studying a replacement for the current UK Hydrographic Office ARCS production system delivered their report today.
Henry gains Search and Rescue facilities
Henry 5,2,0,296 now has the ability to generate Search and Rescue patterns. See the release notes.
New and improved POLAR delivered
We delivered an upgrade to the POLAR marine data management system at the UK Hydrographic Office. This adds functionality in several key areas and improves usability.
Henry 5,2,0,150 released
Henry now supports Shape files. See the release notes.
CherSoft welcomes two new members of staff
After looking for nearly a year (we're picky), we have successfully recruited two excellent software developers who bring valued new skills to the team.
2008
Feliz Navidad
We had a Mexican theme to the annual party this year. This featured, amongst other things, margaritas and some very good food (with chillies in).
CherSoft become Microsoft Gold Partners
Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft.
Henry chosen for NATO ‘Bold Master 08’ exercise
CherSoft have supplied a custom version of Henry specially created to meet the exercise requirements. Participating nations are France, Germany, Norway, Canada, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Turkey and The United States; in all, 132 participants from 11 countries and the NSC will be augmented by 3 persons during this period.
Henry supplied to Danish Navy Squadron MCM-Staff
Row, row, row your boat
CherSoft supply Olly Hicks with navigation and other marine software for his attempt at rowing around the world.
Software engineers are all at sea
We chartered the Thames sailing barge SB May for the weekend to provide a training program for CherSoft employees. The unlikely juxtaposition of state-of-the-art navigation systems with rope and canvas worked remarkably well. We also enjoyed the last good weekend of summer.
CherSoft partner with Caris to develop TdB
CARIS, a leading developer of geomatics software, announces that it has been awarded a contract by the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM) to deliver a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) to access its hydrographic information. CherSoft as a subcontractor will supply a tide database as part of the solution.
Further increases in ENCXTM sales
Recent new clients include Marine Sonic, the University of Bremen and the MAritime University of Szczecin.
2007
Gruesome murder solved by CherSoft employees
This year the CherSoft Christmas party focussed on a murder mystery. Oddly enough the murderer turned out to be one of the directors.
Dramatic office revamp
We have finished refurbishing the CherSoft Office just in time for Christmas. While there was nothing really wrong with the previous office layout it was all a bit boring, a little claustrophobic and lacked natural light. The layout now uses three newly installed light pipes which focus on a central area set out with a variety of plants. To make the best use of this splash of sunlight and greenery we have replaced all the standard partitions with glass. Now the office has a much more open and airy feel to it.
Henry chosen for NATO “Bold Master 07” exercise
CherSoft have supplied a custom version of Henry specially created to meet the exercise requirements. The objectives for the exercise are:
- Exercise NCAGS personnel operating in a multinational environment
- Enhance cooperation between NATO and shipping authorities
- Exercise NCAGS procedures within the MCC staff
- Exercise information exchange throughout the NCAGS Organisation
- Exercise the Allied Worldwide Navigational Information System (AWNIS)
- Evaluate of NCAGS procedures in particular Accompaniment
CherSoft delivers online ENC updating capability to UK Hydrographic Office
Delivery of the ENC Online Update Service (EOUS) and Admiralty Update Service (AUS) host and client to the UK Hydrographic Office. A cornerstone of the UK Hydrographic Office’s digital delivery program this system provides mariners with the ability to download ENC charts and updates either directly or via email.
CherSoft survives disastrous Rotherham floods
In 2007, widespread flooding hit the Sheffield and Rotherham area. Our main office was inaccessible for three days and power was cut off. Floodwater was literally within inches of the main door but fortunately none got in. Other businesses in the area were far less fortunate and the total cost to the area was substantial. Because of the distributed nature of CherSoft and the way that home-working is encouraged we were able to provide uninterrupted support to all our customers.
ENCXTM sales are up.
ENCXTM is the CherSoft chart kernel. It is performance technology designed to be easily integrated and deployed. Recently ENCXTM has been chosen by Memorial University, Raven Industries and Intelisea.
2006
CherSoft's annual Christmas Party
This year the Christmas Party featured a large chocolate fountain.
Hydro 06 - 'Beyond ENC' Paper Presentation
The International Hydrographic Conference – Hydro 06 – was held in Antwerp (Belgium) November 6-9, 2006 (www.hydro06.com). The main theme of the conference was "Evolutions in Hydrography". About 35 papers were presented covering advancements in Charting, Sea Floor Mapping, Multibeam, Positioning and related issues. CherSoft were represented by Simon Salter who presented a paper entitled 'Beyond ENC'. This paper discusses some contemporary issues with ENC data and display systems. It identifies several areas where experience has exposed deficiencies in the use of ENC. It then goes on to suggest several ways of improving cartographic data handling in the marine environment.The full text of the paper is here.
Henry chosen for NATO “Bold Master” exercise
CherSoft have supplied a custom version of Henry specially created to meet the exercise requirements. The aim is to exercise and evaluate NCAGS and AWNIS procedures in accordance with current doctrine in a multinational environment.
CherSoft delivers new POLAR system to the UK Hydrographic office
POLAR (Production Of Lights and Radio Signals) is a sophisticated multi-user database for managing marine data. It implements a robust work-flow model with full audit and change records. Notices to Mariners are generated automatically.
Henry chosen by Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is an integral part of Britain's naval forces, comprising a corps of some 3,250 men and women who train in peacetime to enable the Royal Navy to meet its operational commitments in times of stretch, crisis, tension and war.
Henry gains NZ Mariner chart support
NZMariner is the official New Zealand raster chart folio.
Henry gains DNC support
The Digital Nautical Chart® is produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and is an unclassified, vector-based digital database containing maritime significant features essential for safe marine navigation.
2005
HENRY now available for download
CherSoft are pleased to announce a new freely available edition of Henry. This edition of Henry can be used to view demonstration ARCS charts and our World Vector Shoreline. There is no time limit and you can freely create and distribute all overlays. Its only limitations are that S57 and ARCS data cannot be installed. However when you decide to purchase Henry you will receive a dongle which will allow you to install commercial charts. No new Henry software needs to be installed.
Download and evaluate our high performance marine navigation and charting application here
ENCX SDK Launch
CherSoft is proud to annouce the launch of their ENCX software development kit (SDK). ENCX allows software developers to add chart displays to their products.
Although ENCX is a new product it leans on CherSoft's long (eleven year) experience in marine chart display. It fully supports commercial S-57/ENC vector charts and UKHO ARCS and Maptech raster charts. There is also some support for drawing on chart surfaces (overlays).
ENCX is free to download, evaluate and develop against. OEMs only pay after they have made a sale. Though powerful, we think the library is easy to use and as such OEMs will not need to paid support or training courses.
For more information see www.encx.com
New Contract Award from UKHO
CherSoft are pleased to announce an important new contract with the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office.
We have been selected to implement a new workflow system to support the UKHO's production of Admiralty List of Radio Signals (Volume 6) and List of Lights data.
Using our high performance chart display system, the UKHO will be able to view, input and amend data in both these important datasets with massively increased ease, flexibility and control.
CherSoft is particularly pleased once again to have been selected to support one of the world's leading producers of marine data, and to have won the contract in competitive tender against a field including global corporations.
We believe this reflects considerable faith in our ability to provide efficient solutions to challenging problems and builds on our experience delivering a number of projects to the UKHO, including Admiralty TotalTide and Admiralty List of Lights applications.
CherSoft Director Simon Salter says:
"This is very exciting for us. We had already developed significant expertise with this data through our work on several generations of the Digital List of Lights, EasyTide and TotalTide applications. Integrating backwards to support the data production was a natural step. This project is using our chart display system to control the data production process, which is a good example of its power and flexibility. We're now working very hard to make sure we get it right - but our track record speaks for itself there."
Henry, the navigation system that forms the underlying technology for the project is also making progress in its own right and has been sold to thousands of customers in various forms - including the UKHO. There have been recent sales to the Mediterranean Shipping Company, and plans to launch a chart display kernel for software developers are well-advanced.
ISO 9001:2000 TickIT Certification
CherSoft have just been undergone an audit by SIRA to ensure continued compliance with the ISO9001:2000 standard. The audit was a success and CherSoft's accreditation was renewed without any non-conformancies (major or minor).
2004
Rotherham Business Awards
CherSoft have been recognised as one of the leading local companies at the inaugural Rotherham Business Awards held at Hellaby Hall Hotel. Simon Salter received the runners-up commendation in the 'Success Through People Award' from the chief executive of Rotherham Chamber, John Lewis.
New Office
CherSoft have moved into their new office at The Point on the Bradmarsh Industrial Estate in Rotherham. Although this office is quite close to the previous premises it is a considerable improvement in working conditions. The brand new office is spacious, has full climate control, extensive natural lighting and all the features expected from a state of the art business facility.
EasyTide Shortlisted for Government Award
EasyTide, the on-line tidal prediction service that was developed for the UKHO by CherSoft, was short listed for the 'Best government e-service' award at 'theForum' awards held at the Paddington Hilton on the 29th July 2004.
Launch of the BP Shipping Marine Distance Tables
CherSoft were invited to attend the launch of the BP Shipping Marine Distance Tables by AtoBviaC plc at the Barbican in London. This marked the public unveiling of a major project to create an electronic version of the BP Shipping Distance Tables. A team of Master Mariners using CherSoft navigation software are currently creating the tables. Already nearly 1000 of the world's most frequently covered ports are included in the tables. CherSoft software was chosen by AtoBviaC in the face of considerable competition. John Howe of AtoBviaC said, "The CherSoft navigation system is easy to work with, fast and accurate". He went on to say that CherSoft's enthusiasm, expertise and flexibility made them an outstanding company to work with.