Terms and Conditions

1. Who you are contracting with

Two companies stand behind what you are reading, and which one you deal with depends on what you are doing.

• Nova Technology and Business Solutions, Al Aqeeq - Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — the company that publishes Nova HRM and contracts with customers in the Gulf Cooperation Council states.
• Sierra Technology and Business Solutions — the entity in Pakistan through which this website is registered and operated, and which contracts with customers in Pakistan.

In these terms “we”, “us” and “our” mean whichever of those two entities you are dealing with, and “you” means the person or company using this website or the platform. Where it matters which entity is meant — principally for tax and for governing law — the clause says so explicitly.

2. Accepting these terms

Using this website means you accept the terms on this page. If you do not accept them, please stop using the site.

Using the Nova HRM platform is different: it is governed by the written subscription agreement or order form signed between your company and us. Where that agreement and this page disagree, the signed agreement wins. This page fills the gaps it does not address, and governs the website on its own.

In Pakistan, the Electronic Transactions Ordinance 2002 gives electronic records and signatures the same standing as paper ones, so an order form accepted by email or through a signing service is as binding as one signed in ink.

3. Your licence to use Nova HRM

On a current subscription we grant your company a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use Nova HRM for its own internal business, for the number of employees and the modules the order form records, for as long as the subscription runs.

We license the software. We do not sell it, and nothing in these terms transfers ownership of it.

You may not, and may not permit anyone else to: resell, sublicense, rent or run the platform as a service for a third party without our written agreement; copy, decompile, reverse-engineer or attempt to derive its source code, except to the extent that applicable law says such a restriction is unenforceable; remove or obscure any proprietary notice; or use it to build a competing product.

Each customer runs in its own tenant. Attempting to reach another tenant's data is a breach of these terms and, in Pakistan, an offence under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.

4. Accounts, access and security

Your company controls who holds a login. You are responsible for keeping credentials confidential and for what is done under them, and you should tell us promptly at business@stcc-bs.com if you believe an account has been compromised.

Nova HRM records an append-only audit trail of changes made in the platform. That trail exists so a company can answer “who changed this, and when”. It is a record of the account that acted, and we do not use it to monitor individuals on your behalf.

Administrative rights inside your company are yours to grant and withdraw. We do not alter your users, roles or permissions except on your instruction, or where we must in order to provide support you have asked for.

5. Fees, invoicing and tax

Fees, the billing period and the number of employees covered are set out in your order form, and the published package prices are on the pricing page. Where an order form and the website disagree about price, the order form governs.

Unless the order form says otherwise, invoices are payable within thirty days of issue. We may suspend access to an account that remains unpaid after written reminder — see section 11.

Amounts are exclusive of tax unless stated. Value added tax is added at the rate in force in the jurisdiction of supply: in Saudi Arabia that is the standard VAT rate administered by ZATCA, and in Pakistan sales tax on services is levied provincially, so the applicable rate depends on the province. Where your company is required by law to withhold tax on a payment to us, you should deduct it, remit it and send us the withholding certificate.

Renewal is for the same period as the term that is ending, at the price then current, unless either side gives notice as described in the Refund and Cancellation Policy.

6. Your data, and who is responsible for it

This is the clause most worth reading, because the platform holds employee records.

Your company is the controller of the personal data it puts into Nova HRM. You decide what is collected, why, who may see it and how long it is kept, and you are responsible for having a lawful basis for it and for telling your employees what you are doing. We are a processor. We act on your documented instructions, we do not use your employees' data for our own purposes, and we never sell it.

We keep each customer's data in its own tenant, we restrict our staff's access to what a support request actually requires, and we apply the security measures described in your agreement. No system is perfectly secure and we do not claim otherwise.

In Saudi Arabia, the Personal Data Protection Law (Royal Decree M/19 of 2021, as amended) applies to personal data processed there and is administered by SDAIA. Pakistan has no comprehensive data protection statute in force at the date above — successive Personal Data Protection Bills have been under consideration — so processing in Pakistan is governed by the contract between us, by the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 where it bites, and by any sector rules that apply to your business. We will not claim compliance with a law that has not been enacted.

On termination we make your data available for export for the period your agreement specifies, and delete it afterwards. Say so in writing if you need a different arrangement.

How this website handles the far smaller amount of data it touches is set out in the Privacy Policy.

7. Acceptable use

Do not use this website or Nova HRM to break the law, to infringe somebody's rights, or to store or transmit malware. Do not probe, scan or attempt to breach the service, place unreasonable load on it, scrape it systematically, or attempt to access an account or a tenant that is not yours.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, please report it to business@stcc-bs.com rather than publishing it. We will not pursue a researcher who reports a genuine finding in good faith and gives us a reasonable chance to fix it.

8. Availability, support and changes

We aim to keep Nova HRM available continuously, and any service level we have committed to is in your agreement rather than on this page. Planned maintenance is notified in advance where we reasonably can.

We develop the product continuously. We may add, change or retire features. Where a change would materially reduce a capability your company relies on, we will give reasonable notice.

This website is provided as it is. We may change or withdraw any part of it at any time, and we do not guarantee it will always be available or free of error.

9. Intellectual property

Nova HRM, this website, and everything in them that we created — the software, the interface, the text, the guides, the illustrations, the logo and the name — belong to Nova Technology and Business Solutions or to its licensors, and are protected by copyright and trade mark law.

You may read, print and share pages from this site for your own business use, with the source attributed. You may not republish our guides as your own, or use our name or logo to suggest a relationship we have not agreed to.

Your data stays yours. Nothing here gives us ownership of what your company puts into the platform.

If you send us feedback or a suggestion, we may act on it and build it, without owing you anything for it. That is not a claim over anything else you own.

10. Confidentiality

Each side may learn things about the other that are not public — pricing, configuration, security arrangements, business plans. Each side agrees to use that only for the purpose it was shared for, to protect it as carefully as its own confidential information, and to disclose it only to people who need it and are under a similar duty.

This does not cover information that is already public through no fault of the recipient, that was already known, that is independently developed, or that must be disclosed by law or by a court — and in that last case the recipient will tell the other side first, where it is lawful to do so.

11. Warranties and what we do not promise

We warrant that we will provide Nova HRM with reasonable skill and care, and that we have the right to license it to you.

Beyond that, and to the fullest extent the law allows, the website and the platform are provided as is. We do not warrant that they will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that they will meet a requirement we have not agreed to in writing.

We do not warrant that any calculation produced by the platform satisfies your statutory obligations. Nova HRM implements the GOSI, GPSSA, QPEN, EOBI, provident fund and income-tax rules as we understand them, and we maintain them — but rates and rules change, your circumstances are yours, and the filing is made in your company's name. Check your figures. The Disclaimer says more, and it is not boilerplate.

12. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited — including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that, and to the fullest extent the law allows: neither side is liable to the other for loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business or goodwill, or for any indirect or consequential loss; and each side's total liability arising out of or in connection with the agreement in any twelve-month period is limited to the fees paid or payable by your company for the platform in that period.

For this website, used free of charge and without a subscription, our liability for anything arising from your use of it is limited to the fullest extent the law allows.

13. Suspension and termination

Either side may end a subscription as the order form provides; the Refund and Cancellation Policy sets out notice, cancellation and what happens to money already paid.

We may suspend or terminate access immediately where an account is materially overdue after written reminder, where continuing would breach the law, or where use threatens the security or stability of the service for other customers. We will tell you why, and we will restore access once the cause is resolved.

On termination your licence ends, and the clauses that are meant to outlive it — data return and deletion, confidentiality, intellectual property, liability and governing law — continue to apply.

14. Governing law and disputes

There are two answers here, because there are two entities.

• This website — including these terms as they apply to browsing the site, the advertising it carries and the demo request form — is operated from Pakistan and is governed by the laws of Pakistan. Disputes about it are subject to the competent courts of Pakistan.
• The Nova HRM subscription is governed by the law of the entity your company contracted with. For customers contracting with Nova Technology and Business Solutions, that is the law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the competent courts of Riyadh have exclusive jurisdiction. For customers contracting with Sierra Technology and Business Solutions, it is the laws of Pakistan and the competent courts of Pakistan.

Where your order form names a governing law or a forum, that clause prevails over this one for the subscription.

Before either side starts proceedings, please raise the matter with us at business@stcc-bs.com. Most disputes are a misunderstanding about scope or an invoice, and are quicker to settle than to litigate.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update this page as the product and the law change. The date at the top is the date of the current version, and it is the version that applies from the moment it is published.

Where a change materially affects a subscribing customer's rights, we will give notice by email to the account contact rather than relying on you to re-read the page.

16. How to reach us

Questions about these terms, or about which entity you are contracting with:

• Email business@stcc-bs.com
• Telephone +966 55-218-1994 (Saudi Arabia) or +923-36-528-1952 (Pakistan)
• Post: Nova Technology and Business Solutions, Al Aqeeq - Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia