A ceremony held here on Friday for signing of agreements by Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) with five of country's leading software companies to assist them in obtaining the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) certification.
Addressing on the occasion Federal Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari urged the Pakistani companies to enhance quality of their products and services in order to compete in international markets.
"Quality has become a slogan in present age and it is a time our companies should improve quality and standards of their products and achieved certifications that could help them compete in the tough and aggressive global market place," he said.
He said the primary reason for launching this project was to promote the importance of standardisation and quality consciousness in the local software industry besides enhancing their export potential.
The minister pointed out only one Pakistani software company had achieved CMM level-3 so far and his ministry was keen to assist a maximum number of companies to achieve any level of CMM.
"We fully support and back Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) in this regard," he said.
Awais Leghari informed that 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 Pakistani companies would be technically and financially assisted to achieve CMM certification. The second phase would be launched from January next year.
He also announced that his ministry would extend financial support to local software companies from PTCL's Research and Development Fund.
He said in this connection local companies would be invited to present their products and business plan, adding, the company presenting the best business plan would be offered financial support for its implementation.
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 Computer Society of Pakistan.
The companies that were finally picked up for signing of agreements include NetSol Technologies Lahore, Xavor Lahore, Systems Lahore, KalSoft Karachi and Digital Processing Systems Islamabad.
CMM is the most renowned and globally accepted standard for software products.
Achieving this standard give a company competitive advantage because the CMM is a framework that describes the key elements of an effective process. It also provides a foundation for process improvement.
PSEB a subsidiary of the Ministry of Information Technology, has already supported over 120 software companies in becoming ISO certified, and in the current phase, five software companies are being provided assistance in order to be assessed at CMM level-5 as part of Rs 40 million project to assist the Pakistani software industry in moving towards a culture of quality improvement.
Another project is also underway to ensure that the CMM certification becomes as widespread as the ISO certification in the Pakistani market place.