Wipro, the Bangalore-based IT services provider, is planning to integrate all its quality achievements under the 'Wipro Way' -- a system that was envisaged by founder chairman Azim Premji about nine months back.
This will help the company take all its quality initiatives to the next level by unifying them under a single platform.
"Since we handle a large mass of people, quality has always been our prime focus. Now we are moving ahead in a unified way, where all the quality measures including CMM, ISO, Six Sigma, Lean Management, CMMI will be integrated with the 'Wipro Way'. This will work as a powerful and structured system to evaluate the company's quality initiatives on a regular basis," said Sambuddha Deb, chief quality officer, Wipro.
Meeting high standards
Wipro has been a pioneer in the Indian IT arena in emulating and getting appraisals under various quality standards. Wipro was also the first Indian company to practice Six Sigma and the first organisation in the world to achieve the people capability maturity model, Level 5.
In May 2002, it became the first company to get appraisals under the CMMI Level 5 version 1.1, awarded by the software engineering institute under the Carnegie Mellon University. In December 2006, Wipro shifted to CMMI Level 5 version 1.2, the latest in the industry.
"We found that there is a problem unless we shifted to the newer versions. This also helped us to ensure that the new people added every year remain consistent in their productivity and quality," added Deb.
Integrating acquisitions
Wipro, which has been aggressively acquiring global firms and continuously adding staff, both for its offshore and onsite operations, is also working on a strategy to make the new people and centres follow the single system, which will become a standard for the company in the future.
"We are defining the new system owing to our experience and thrust on some of the best practices in the world. This is a continuous process and will take years to come out with a structured system," he added. Wipro has a team of 220, who oversee the proper implementation of various quality norms by the company.