Chikka bags CMMI Level 5 certification

Chikka Asia Inc., creator of the popular Internet-to-mobile text messaging application Chikka Messenger, announced that it has achieved certification for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 of Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI).

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

Chikka Asia’s assessment for CMMI Level 5 was conducted by SEI-authorized ECC International, which also confirmed that Chikka is the first applications developer in the mobile messaging applications development space worldwide to achieve the prestigious CMMI Level 5 certification.

"The Level 5 certification is more than anything else an assurance for ourselves, that we are able to sustain both the frenetic pace of our product innovation and our rapid expansion. While products like Chikka Messenger are universal in terms of their utility, they are constantly adapted to different market conditions," said Chito Bustamante, Chikka chief operating officer.

The company stepped up its international rollout beginning 2005 and now has products live via the networks of telecommunications companies in the United States, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Several Latin American carriers are also now testing connectivity to Chikka.

"The company itself is continually being reinvented. From our original vision of powering communities, we are now immersed in other areas that cover the entire mobile space including content, corporate solutions and commerce. There are also new initiatives for basic peer-to-peer communications," Bustamante added.

"To be the first among applications developers for the mobile messaging space worldwide to be certified for CMMI Level 5 is a complete ‘side-effect’ of what we do, and that is to pioneer and innovate in products from where consumers derive a high and universal utility. Many of our innovations we have patented. All our ISO and CMMI certifications also assure us that we are able to guard these," he added.

CMMI is the internationally recognized quality certification that organizations such as Intel and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) compare their own processes to.

This model was born in the federally funded Software Engineering Institute (SEI) established at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Currently present in 11 countries with services live over 30 international telcos, Chikka is the Philippines’ leading "exporter" of mobile messaging-based applications.

The company’s flagship service, Chikka Messenger, has close to 30 million users, and is the most widely used and viewed electronic properties 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.