Chikka Asia goes for CMMI level 5

Chikka Asia Inc., creator of the popular Internet-to-mobile text messaging application Chikka Messenger, announced that it is now being assessed at Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) maturity level 5 of Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI).

Maturity Level 5 is the highest standard of quality in the information technology industry.

SEI-authorized ECCInternational, which is conducting the assessment, further confirmed that Chikka is the only wholly Filipino-owned company to be appraised at this level.

Chikka will also be the first among wireless applications services providers (WASPs) worldwide to be assessed at CMMI 5, with the assessment expected to be completed this month.

"We have services which are now live in operation by over 30 telecoms operators in 11 countries. Higher and higher standards of quality are required by Chikka Asia today as we are now truly a global headquarters whose standard policies and processes are adhered to by licensees and operational offices servicing telecom partners all over the world," said Chito Bustamante, Chikka chief operating officer.

Last February, the company received ISO certifications for IT, information security and quality management, becoming the first Filipino IT company to obtain the triple certifications.

"We owe high levels of service quality to our telco customers and partners through whose networks our services, in turn, become available to hundreds of millions of cellular phone subscribers, thus the quest for CMMI 5," Bustamante said.

CMMI 5 is the internationally recognized model to which organizations such as Intel, Nokia, JP Morgan, and the NASA compare their own processes.

This model was born in the federally funded SEI established at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Manila-based Chikka is a pioneer in wireless application services development. Currently present in 11 countries with services live in over 30 international telecoms carriers, it is the Philippines’ leading "exporter" of mobile messaging-based applications.

The company’s flagship service, Chikka Messenger, has over 20 million users, and is the most widely used and viewed electronic property by Filipinos worldwide, next to e-mail itself.

Chikka and its affiliates adhere to the new global standards for Information Security Management Systems (BS7799) and IT Services Management Systems (BS15000).

Chikka also revalidated the ISO 9001:2000 standard for Quality Management Systems first obtained in 2002.