DUBAI, U.A.E, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- IT Division (Mercator) Appraised at CMMI(R) Level 3 by QAI

The Emirates Group's (http://www.ekgroup.com) vision of being a global leading
provider of Business Technology and IT Solutions, received a major boost when
its IT division (Mercator) was assessed at CMMI(R) Level 3, the internationally
recognized standard for assessing software development practices, by the
Software Engineering Institute (SEI) ( http://www.sei.cmu.edu) of the Carnegie
Mellon University, USA and QAI (http://www.qaiglobal.com), SEI's transition
partners globally.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive,
Emirates Airline and Group, accepted the citation for CMMI(R) Level 3 on behalf
of Mercator from Jay Douglas, SEI Business Development Manager, Europe and South
Asia and Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI, at Terminal 1, Dubai International Airport.

The CMMI(R) model has been extensively adopted globally by the likes of
Accenture, Infosys and CSC amidst many others as an international standard.
Nearly a thousand software organizations adopt the CMMI(R) framework annually.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive,
Emirates Airline and Group, said: This is an important milestone reached by
Mercator in its journey of continuous improvement and drive for delivering high
quality business solutions to the industry.

Patrick Naef, President, Mercator commented: It is an achievement which every
member of Mercator feels proud of and as a team we have now set CMMI(R) Level 3
as the minimum acceptable benchmark for ourselves.

Commenting on the journey, Navyug Mohnot, CEO of QAI, said, As a trusted partner
and advisor on the journey, we at QAI believe that Emirates has demonstrated the
rigor, commitment, and confidence to successfully complete the requirements of
CMMI(R) L3 maturity rating.

Jay Douglass, SEI Business Development Manager Europe Asia, said: It is rare to
see internal IT organisations achieve CMMI(R) Level 3, and I am impressed to see
Mercator's commitment to quality.

About QAI:

QAI is a leading global consulting and workforce development organization
addressing 'Operational Excellence' in IT, BPO and Knowledge intensive service
organizations.

QAI Global Services, the consulting division of QAI, addresses the space of
Operational Excellence which includes the areas of Process Management, Quality
Management, Innovation Management, Project Management, IT Service Management and
others.

QAI is currently servicing over 200 clients in 30 countries and our regional
bases are located in US, India, UK, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada.

Tom Ticknor tticknor@qaiworldwide.org +407-363-1111

SOURCE: QAI

Tom Ticknor, tticknor@qaiworldwide.org, +407-363-1111