How Novel-t started
From VTS to GTS (1/10) How Novel-T started – Geneva, 2012
In 2012, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative had a problem. They needed a tracking system for polio vaccination campaigns – something that worked in the field, under real operational conditions. A major GIS software provider had tried. It hadn’t delivered. So they turned to three engineers in Geneva.
Stephane Vouillamoz, Philippe Veltsos, and Patrick Briand had only recently founded Novel-T, and were already deep in public health operations. But they had something more valuable than size or reputation: 30 years of combined experience building information systems at WHO – and a clear-eyed understanding of why tools fail when they leave the office and hit the ground.
They took the project. It would define the company’s direction. That challenge became VTS – the Vaccination Tracking System. Built not from a product roadmap, but from a very specific operational question: how do you geospatially track vaccination campaigns across thousands of field workers, with no guarantee of connectivity, in some of the world’s most complex environments?
GTS – the Geospatial Tracking System – came from the same place. Same founding conviction, deeper capabilities. This series tells that story: 10 posts, 14 years, and the field lessons that shaped both systems.
Geneva, 2012. A phone call. A problem nobody had solved. Let’s start there.
→ Follow Novel-T and stay with the series – Post 2 of the series will be on how VTS helped the polio operations on the ground.
