Improved disaster notification tools by 2007

Following natural disasters such as the Asian tsunami late last year, governments and businesses are at the forefront of creating improved electronic messaging systems to alert people to possible disasters, Computer World reports.

According to Gartner, by the end of 2007, 75% of global 2 000 companies will have emergency notification systems for employee communication in the event of a crisis.

Mass-messaging technologies can also be used as two-way communication tools to "help build your recovery process", says Gartner analyst Christopher Baum.

American government`s customers are set to benefit from MCI`s expansion of its disaster recovery capabilities, including back-up voice services that will restore incoming communications within minutes, according to a press statement.

In addition, MCI is expanding its business continuity solutions for its fastest growing service, Private IP, to include a comprehensive suite of options, enabling customers to better prepare for unforeseen events.

"MCI works closely with government agencies to provide advice and guidance to help build an effective strategy that ensures their operations run continuously," says Jerry Edgerton, senior VP of MCI government markets.

India`s retail company Pantaloon has decided to use IT as a strategic tool to achieve its ambitious growth plans, Express Computer reports.

Among other future plans the company aims to deploy an ERP system, set up a B2B portal, install a disaster recovery site and implement VOIP.

"We realised early that IT would play a critical role in our organisation`s productivity and hence we crafted a roadmap to ensure that our information infrastructure would scale up as required to support our business growth," says Pantaloon`s Chinar Deshpande.

Business continuity plans and emergency plans are not a priority for Ohio businesses, despite major power failures two years ago that cost business and industry hundreds of millions of dollars and resulted in many business closures, Dayton Daily News reports.

Planners recommend testing and updating business continuity preparations every six months to a year, yet only 38% of the Ohio companies surveyed said they have updated their plans and just 26% had tested them within six months

The survey revealed 28% of Ohio`s companies have emergency plans in place but have not tested them to determine whether they work.