AT&T Survey Finds That Disaster Preparedness Is Serious Business in Houston

Lessons Learned From 2005 Hurricane Season Make Houston Businesses Among Most Prepared in Nation

Houston, Texas, May 29, 2007

Results of a survey of Houston businesses announced today by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) indicate that more Houston companies are embracing best practices for disaster preparedness and are ready for the upcoming hurricane season. The survey of 100 local information technology (IT) executives found that Houston businesses lead other major cities in several critical factors that contribute to business continuity and disaster preparedness.

Houston was one of 10 U.S. cities surveyed for the AT&T 2007 Business Continuity Study. Others included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis/Nashville, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York and San Francisco. The study found that Houston leads the nation in the following:

  • Houston had the highest percentage of respondents who said business continuity planning is a priority (80 percent).
  • Houston (tied with New York) had the highest percentage of respondents whose companies have a business continuity plan (78 percent).
  • Houston (tied with Atlanta) had the highest percentage of respondents reporting that they had updated their business continuity plan within the past 12 months (62 percent).
  • Houston had the highest percentage of respondents who said they implement protective actions when the government issues an alert for an impending disaster (58 percent).

The last time AT&T conducted such a survey of Houston area IT executives was in 2005, before that year's devastating hurricane season that ravaged much of the Gulf Coast. That year's survey found that only 66 percent considered business continuity a priority (14 points lower than today), 71 percent had a business continuity plan (seven points lower than today) and 53 percent reported updating their plan within the previous 12 months (nine points lower than today).

"The survey clearly shows that during the past two years, Houston businesses have evaluated what they can do to better protect their employees and their operations, and they have taken action," said Rick Duran, sales center vice president for AT&T Global Business Services in southern Texas. "The terrible storms of 2005 taught us the importance of being prepared, and Houston businesses are doing their part by setting a high bar for other major U.S. cities."

The AT&T 2007 Business Continuity Study ranked the 10 cities that were surveyed based on responses to three components: business continuity plan, actions taken on plan and cyber security. Houston was ranked second out of 10, behind only New York:

  1. New York
  2. Houston
  3. San Francisco
  4. Boston
  5. Memphis/Nashville
  6. Atlanta
  7. Chicago
  8. Los Angeles
  9. Minneapolis/St. Paul
  10. Cleveland

AT&T recommends that every business develop a business continuity plan, test and update the plan at least annually, educate employees, establish redundant servers and backup sites to protect continuous operations and have processes in place to take action when federal or state government issues an alert.

In addition to preparing for natural disasters, many Houston companies are planning ahead for man-made calamities. More than three out of four respondents (78 percent) said that cyber security is part of their company's overall business continuity plan.

"In today's workplace, a disruption in essential network infrastructures can easily lead to the collapse of vital business processes," said Duran. "Incorporating cyber security in conjunction with the regular testing and updating of a plan will go a long way toward securing a company's ongoing business operations."

Upon hearing a list of 10 possible cyber security threats, Houston respondents most frequently mentioned viruses and worms as perceived threats (72 percent), followed by "hackers" (44 percent). To counteract the threat, about two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) have adopted corporate security policies. Sixty-three percent provide cyber security education for employees.

Nationally, 1,000 executives from companies with at least $10 million in annual revenue were interviewed for the AT&T 2007 Business Continuity Study.

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