company

Corporate Standard

Local Capability Development and Content

We are pleased to have 80 % of our workforce conformed by citizens of the countries we operate in, 50% of it works in Leadership positions, including our local directors who also happens to be local shareholders. Our development plan for 2005 will ensure 90% of local staff delivering and managing projects in the countries we operate in. By 2007 all offices will be 100% managed by local staff.

The previous facts represent a glance of our local content interest in our company. Part of the schemes we have in place in order to encourage high local content in our business included:

•  We have certification agreements established with the local univertisties.

•  We met The Venezuelan Ambassador in Trinidad and Tobago to open our enterprise agenda to new opportunities in Trinidad in order to foster service trade amongst Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela as well as to other CARICOM nations.

•  We have established technical support agreement with local established IT suppliers to support our common customers. References provided upon request.

This would not be complete if we did not have plans to develop our employees' skills. Therefore the following items demonstrate our proactively in this interest.

•  S4B has submitted an application to the TATT (Telcom Authority of Trinidad & Tobago) to become a service provider of Internet, Voice, and Data International Access in country.

•  We have established an agreement with West Indies University- Institute of Business, St. Augustine (UWI-IOB) in collaboration with PM Solutions, the PMI, and the Project Management College through the Centre for Professional Development (CDP) to develop and certify our consultants on best in class Project Management practices. Our resources will be graduating as “Associate Certificate in Project Management “

•  Having S4B locations and partnerships in countries such as: Venezuela (Caracas office), Trinidad and Tobago (POS office), Colombia (partnership), USA (Houston Office), Argentina (Partnership); our local resources work in a multicultural and multilingual environment which allows them to, learn other languages such as Spanish, English, French and Portuguese, share international professional experiences both transferring or receiving it.

•  At the moment, 95% of the S4B staff speaks at least 2 languages while over 50% is fluent in 3 or 4 different languages.

•  S4B plans to invest over US$2.0 million within the next 5 year period to develop a potential regional hub in Trinidad able to serve not only local clients but the Americas and Caribbean as a region.

Sustainable Development

We address sustainable development by enabling the following initiatives:

Job Opportunities

We utilize local workforce to operate in every country where we have offices. These professionals have already been hired and with various skill sets to run the business according to our skill matrix guidelines.

Job Enrichment

Our work methodology will also enable individuals to expand their professional knowledge in various areas (for example project management and consulting technique), they will have the opportunity to be formally trained and certified by recognized in-country Project Management schools such as the University of the West Indies as well as with international organizations such as PMI. We provide our customers with Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) displaying progress of local professional development, training and certification. Local professionals will also have the opportunity to be coached by senior Project Managers as well as to be exposed and assigned to projects with international clients.

Good Corporate Citizen

Our company is very conscious and truly engaged with the principles of national context and sustainable development.

Safety, Healthand Environmental (SHE) Compliance

As part of our SHE compliance standards we developed a project tracking system that includes a module for SHE compliance checklist, control and reporting.

The current system in use is via the Project Managers. He/She reviews and assures the sponsor of the project prior initiation that the following procedures are followed: work permits, PPE checklist, safety checklist, risk assessment/mitigation, change control, incident management, emergency plans, etc. Weekly progress status of the system is scheduled and employees are required to provide input and improvements to the system. Lessons learned and best SHE practices are often used to feed and improve system.

These procedures derived form these standards include, hazard's identification. In a job that involves hazards (confined spaces, electrical, lifting weight, and working in heights) the team goes through a tabletop exercise to discuss, prevent and put measures in place. We supply PPE depending on nature of job. Default supply is made up of hard hats, industrial boots (protection), gloves and protective lenses. The team is clear about their specific responsibility to perform the job so that there is no lack of activity coordination. Written documents are produced and finally reviewed and filed for future reference.

All our employees are required to attend training and to be familiar with HSSE policies right after they are hired and prior to being assigned to our customers. SHE compliance is a condition of employment and explained as such to employees.

It is everyone's responsibility to conduct safety meetings and to notify unsafe acts in the office or on the customer's premises. Team leaders need to assure our customers and board of directors that safety behavior is always maintained.

Who we are

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The S4b Factor