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