Contingency Planning

Large Number Of Southern California Businesses Ready For Disasters, According To Study

June 11, 2009

With California's wildfire season just underway, a study announced today by AT&T reveals that eight in 10 businesses throughout Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego have business continuity plans in place. When AT&T last surveyed Los Angeles in 2007, only two-thirds (64 percent) of the companies surveyed had business continuity plans - today's announcement of the 2009 survey results show that business continuity has become more of a top priority in southern California. For the 2009 survey, 100 information technology executives were surveyed.

In the land of wildfires, earthquakes and mudslides -- all of which have wreaked havoc and proven to be lessons learned for area companies -- one-fourth (25 percent) of executives indicate that their company has invoked its business continuity plan citing power outage at facilities (13 percent), fire (10 percent) and IT failure (9 percent). According to the AT&T study, more than half (52 percent) of these companies have had their business continuity plans fully tested in the past 12 months.

Companies whose IT operations have been impacted by natural or man-made disasters said the biggest lesson learned was the need to plan ahead and have the backup systems in place. Despite decreasing IT budgets, six our of ten (59 percent) of executives responded that their companies are investing in new technologies this year, including software upgrades (13 percent), new computers and phones (11 percent) and new servers (11 percent). The survey also found that one-third (30 percent) of the companies require their suppliers and other vendors to have business continuity plans in place as well.

"Southern California businesses have learned to not only plan ahead and have backup systems in place in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, but also to test these plans regularly to reflect changes in their business," said Robert Pitts, sales vice president, AT&T Business Solutions. "These survey results continue to show that southern California-area businesses are prepared to maintain key processes and recover operations."

According to the study, the majority (72 percent) of southern California executives indicate their companies have prioritized and set target recovery times for each of their key business processes, and three-fourths (75 percent) of the executives surveyed said that their companies have systems in place that enable most employees to work from home or remote locations. More than half (54 percent) also have automated calling systems to reach employees by telephone or cell phone outside of work.

Despite improvements to business continuity planning among Southern California businesses, the majority (72 percent) of executives surveyed are concerned about the increasing use of social networking capabilities and its impact on security threats and slightly more (77 percent) are concerned about the increasing use of mobile networks and devices and their impact on security threats. While executives have these concerns, very few view social networking sites or mobile networks as the biggest security risks.