Chennai : COME year 2001, and `best efforts' need not be the best quality one can expect of electronic services. Satyam Infoway Limited (Sify) is funding an initiative in developing measurable quality standards for e-commerce and remote services in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.The quality standards, to be called `ESCM' (Electronic Service Capability Model), are expected to come into practice early next year, according to Mr R Ramaraj, managing director & CEO of Satyam Infoway. He, however, refused to divulge the extent of Sify's funding for the initiative, but said that the company's contribution was both in cash and kind.
The ESCM certification will be the SEI-CMM (Software EngineeringInstitute - capability maturity model) equivalent for the electronic services' industry.
These quality standards will help the industry benchmark its performance, said Mr Ramaraj. Also, it will help to grow the market for electronic services and create big opportunities for IT enabled services, he said.ESCM will not only be applicable to the Indian industry, but to electronic services' industry worldwide as there are no quality standards currently for electronic services internationally. That would mean big money for Sify, even if one is counting the revenues that would come from certification charges/royalty alone. But Sify is yet to decide on the revenue-sharing model and the amount to be charged for certification.
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