Mercator brings international quality accreditation to the U.A.E.

Dubai, U.A.E., June 3rd 2009 – Emirates Group-owned business technology provider Mercator has recently become just one of a handful of businesses in the U.A.E. to receive a Level 3 Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).

Mercator is now officially aligned to this respected and aspirational international industry standard, developed by a group of experts from the IT industry, US government and the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University - a federally funded research and development centre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania well known for its work helping organisations improve their software engineering capabilities.

The award of CMMI Level 3 rating – on a scale of one to five levels of maturity - demonstrates to customers and the industry globally how well the organisation’s processes comply with the CMMI model. Capability Maturity Model Integration can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organisation and is being adopted worldwide, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa.

Patrick Naef, President, Mercator, said: “Mercator’s ability to consistently deliver high quality IT projects on time, within agreed budgets and tailored to the needs of our customers is at the heart of our operation. This is an achievement of which every single team member can be proud - passion for quality is a way of life within Mercator. But it does not end there – we as a team have now set CMMI Level 3 as the minimum acceptable benchmark for ourselves and over the months and years to come we will strive to achieve the highest rating - CMMI Level 5.”

QAI (Quality Assurance Institute), a leading global consulting and workforce development organisation addressing Operational Excellence, is a certified partner of Software Engineering Institute and carries out CMMI appraisals across the globe. They led the appraisal team at Mercator as part of this engagement. During the assessment period, over 184 Mercator projects for both the Emirates Group and external customers such as British Airways, Malaysian Airlines, Tunis Air and Air Algerie were assessed against the CMMI Level 3 framework. Additionally, more than 85 Mercator staff members participated in formal interviews during the course of the assessment.

Jay Douglass, Carnegie-Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute Business Development Manager, Europe and Asia, said: “It is rare to see an internal IT organisation achieve CMMI Level 3 and I am impressed to see Mercator’s commitment to quality. They have a complex environment yet both their understanding of the quality framework and their implementation strategy are praiseworthy. Their focus on driving value for their customers is obvious and we look forward to seeing them achieve even higher maturity levels in the future.”

Navyug Mohnot, CEO of QAI added: “As a trusted partner and advisor along the ‘journey’ to achieving this award, we at QAI believe that Mercator demonstrated the rigor, commitment and confidence needed to successfully complete the requirements of CMMI Level 3 maturity rating. We are confident that Mercator will not simply maintain the compliance but will also aim at higher levels of maturity and operational excellence. The commitment and dedication of personnel, together with the investment made by the business speak volumes for both the organisation and its workforce.”