Quality key to compete in world markets, says Awais

DAWN - Islb
2nd July, 2004

ISLAMABAD, July 2: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Friday urged Pakistani companies to enhance quality of their products and services to compete in international markets.

He said this while presiding over a ceremony in which the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) signed agreements with five of the country’s leading software companies to assist them in obtaining the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) certification.

The ceremony was held in the board room of the information technology ministry.

The selection of the five companies was carried out after a rigorous process, with the active assistance of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) and the Computer Society of Pakistan. The selected companies are NetSol Technologies Lahore, Xavor Lahore, Systems Lahore, KalSoft Karachi and Digital Processing Systems Islamabad.

The CMM is the most renowned and globally accepted standard for software products. Achieving this standard gives a company competitive advantage because the CMM is a framework that describes the key elements of an effective process. It provides a foundation for process improvement.

Mr. Leghari said quality had become a slogan in the present day business world and it was time companies improved quality of their products and achieved certifications that could help them compete in the global marketplace.

He expressed his satisfaction over the fact that an increasing number of Pakistan companies were realizing the importance of quality standards and were actively involved in enhancing the quality of their software development processes.

He said the primary reason for launching this project was to promote the importance of standardization and quality consciousness in the local software industry.

He pointed out only one Pakistani software company had achieved CMM level 3 so far and the information technology ministry was keen to assist a maximum number of companies to achieve any level of CMM.

“In this regard, we fully support and back Pakistan Software Export Board,” he said.

Mr. Leghari said his ministry had already approved the second phase of this project in which 15 Pakistani companies would be trained as Licensed CMM Appraisers and another 30 companies would be technically and financially assisted to achieve CMM certification.

“The second phase will be launched form January next year,” he added.

The minister also announced that his ministry would extend financial support to local software companies form PTCL’s Research and Development Fund and in this connection, local companies would be invited to present their products and business plan and the company presenting the best business plan would be offered a support of $5 million for its implementation.