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DFW Companies Among Nation's Most Prepared to Face Disaster

Posted on: Thursday, 23 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

DALLAS, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Dallas-Fort Worth business community is the nation's second most prepared to face a natural or man-made disaster, according to a survey by the Partnership for Public Warning and AT&T . The vast majority of DFW area companies have developed business continuity plans, with more than half regularly updating and testing them.

The study found that nearly 80 percent of DFW companies have a written plan, a far greater percentage than New York and Washington, D.C. DFW is second only to South Florida, which frequently faces hurricane threats.

Most importantly, the study found that DFW companies are the most responsive following disasters. Thirty-five percent -- the highest in the nation -- report that they developed or improved their plans after a disaster. Not surprisingly, 70 percent of all D/FW companies cite business continuity as a priority.

"Dallas companies are moving into a leadership position," said Phil Johnson, AT&T regional sales vice president. "They understand the importance of having a sound plan to protect critical business assets and functions during a disaster, as well as to help get working again afterwards."

The i2 Story

DFW businesses lacking a sufficient plan or having no plan at all should consider modeling business continuity practices after i2. i2, based in Farmers Branch, is a leading provider of closed-loop supply chain management solutions. .

Surku Sinnadurai, i2 chief information officer and his team have developed a plan designed to protect vital business processes by establishing backup networks, alternative work sites and procedures to maintain customer and employee communications.

"Every business is vulnerable and at risk financially due to lost sales or delayed information," said Sinnadurai. "By having a plan and a network provider like AT&T in place, we believe that we have the ability to serve customers around the world during times of certain business interruptions."

Recently, AT&T completed a network transformation project for i2, which includes network disaster recovery and business continuity safeguards. For example, i2 contracted AT&T to install a secondary business continuity 'last mile' wireless link to its corporate headquarters to protect against any in- ground cable cut failures.

More DFW survey results

The report, "Disaster Planning in the Private Sector: A Post 9/11 Look at the State of Business Continuity in the U.S.," surveyed 1,000 executives with responsibility for their organization's business continuity planning from 10 major metropolitan areas, including DFW. More information on the report and an executive summary are available at http://www.att.com/presskit/business_continuity/

The study found that:

* 65 percent of DFW companies have established redundant servers

and/or backup sites, with nearly 10 percent planning to do so in the

next six months.

* 80 percent of all DFW companies have system firewalls, intrusion

detection, hacker protection and/or password authentication; an

additional 10 percent are planning to by the end of the year.

* 30 percent are using a communications networking provider for help

in deploying business continuity solutions, with another 10 percent

planning to do so in the next six months.

"Business continuity is a process of information gathering and analysis that results in an integrated strategy plan to respond to an unplanned interruption to the business," said Ken Allen, executive director of Virginia- based Partnership for Public Warning. "DFW executives seem to understand business continuity planning better than most of the country."

About AT&T

For more than 125 years, AT&T has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.

About The Partnership For Public Warning

The Partnership for Public Warning is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership established to save the lives and property of people at risk from natural disasters, accidents and terrorism by improving the nation's alert and warning capabilities. By providing an objective, consensus-based forum where all interested stakeholders -- public and private -- are working together to develop processes, standards, systems and strategies right people are ensured to have the right information at the right time.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991018/ATT )

Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991018/ATT AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

AT&T

CONTACT: Scott Anderson of AT&T, +1-972-778-4444, orscottanderson@att.com

Web site: http://www.att.com/

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