Zero Outage

"We discussed how we can prevent business- and life-critical ICT failures across industries with a zero-defect strategy"

says Ferri Abolhassan, Managing Director of T-Systems.

"Today, the existence of almost all companies depends on reliable information and communications technology. And only the highest level of quality sets innovations such as the self-driving car or medical interventions by robots in motion.

But successful collaboration on these solutions can only work if there is a common quality standard and not everyone is cooking their own soup."

That's why T-Systems wants to establish an association this year that will define and monitor a global industry standard for quality. Abolhassan and his team have already won the first major partners from the ICT industry.

The new association is to commit to the zero-defect principle and develop common rules for quality management:

• According to which specifications are fail-safe products developed?
• What is the maturity level for new components in critical systems?
• And what response times to disruptions do members commit to?

T-Systems' zero defect principle serves as a blueprint for this. Abolhassan launched the Zero Outage quality program in 2011. There is no such thing as IT completely free of incidents, but with clear standards for processes, technical platforms and personnel, the program reduces the risk of failure to a minimum (99.999 percent availability).

And if an incident does occur, a 24/7 manager-on-duty service ensures that systems are quickly restored. Abolhassan:

"Zero Outage has not only earned us the TÜV Rheinland seal of approval, but also the highest level of customer satisfaction in our company's history.

If we standardize this quality approach, customers worldwide will benefit from zero outage in the future. And we create the prerequisite for secure digitization of the industry."