LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS TEAM UP TO SAVE FLORIDIANS FROM COSTLY HURRICANES AND OTHER
POTENTIAL DISASTERS
The Miami Herald features preparedness guide in the Business Monday section
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – On July 24, The University of Miami, Telefónica
USA and Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Florida will distribute four convenient first-ever emergency preparedness guides
for businesses through The Miami Herald’s Business Monday Section. Content provided by Telefónica and the University of Miami’s Information Technology Executive Institute,
will help safeguard valuable business’s data, employees, assets and communications.
The remaining three installments will run in The Miami Herald on July 31st, August 7th,
and August 14th.
Having a business preparedness plan provides a structured, well-thought
out response to disasters and makes clients and employees feel more secure.
It’s essential to have a plan in place providing detailed steps to be
taken before, during and after any such emergency. These informative guides will
feature four essential contingency plan components addressing data and information,
people, buildings and assets, and internal communications.
“South Florida residents want local businesses to prepare,” says M Lewis Temares, Dean
of the College of Engineering and Vice President for Information Technology at the University of Miami.
“We all need businesses to be well-organized and up and running quickly, so we can receive essential
supplies and can get back to work as soon as possible.”
Everyone has heard the phrase, “location, location, location.” When planning for emergency preparedness, it’s all about “people, people, people.” People make the difference – whether it’s to execute a plan to secure and maintain organizational operations before, during and after a storm, or to ensure rapid decision-making. Businesses need to take care of people first.
According to Pete Pizarro, CEO of Telefónica’s US Subsidiary “without a doubt, the communication of a Business Preparedness Plan to all personnel is as critical as having one to begin with. Along with our partner, University of Miami Information Technology Executive Institute, we ensure that the clients we assist with Disaster Preparedness understand the importance of executing on that – just as we do for our own organizations.”
“Any business owner or executive should be considering the support of a third-party entity to store and secure critical data and information to protect against any business continuity threat, especially in areas where there is a predictable threat such as hurricanes. ”, says George Foyo, President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida.
“When businesses are healthy after a hurricane, the community recovers more quickly,” says Bryan Norcross, WFOR/CBS4News Storm Specialist. WFOR/CBS4 news is a valuable partner in this effort to prepare South Florida for hurricane season.
After two unprecedented years of intense hurricanes, UM and Telefónica teamed up to provide Business Continuity strategies that ensures operations and critical business processes persist despite unforeseen events. The b-SureSM services portfolio includes a comprehensive set of consulting and infrastructure components for Business Continuity Planning from which a customer can choose according to its needs and developmental stage. On the consulting side the portfolio includes Continuity Planning, Compliance Auditing, Implementation Methodologies, and Training. On the infrastructure side the portfolio includes Platform Replication, System Replication, Remote Back-Up, and Workgroup Recovery. Telfonica prevents against data loss through its hurricane resistant category-5 facility located in Miami, Florida.
To see the guide following publication in The Miami Herald’s Business Monday section,” visit www.MiamiHerald.com and click on Special Publications. Layout and design for the guide were provided by The Miami Herald.
# # #About Telefonica USA, Inc.
Telefonica USA, Inc. based in Miami, Florida, is a leading provider of global corporate communications and managed data center and IT services. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Telefonica Group ,currently the world’s third largest integrated telecommunications company in terms of market capitalization, and the worlds leading operator in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets with more than 186 million customers worldwide. Telefónica’s Business Continuity Resource Center in Miami offers South Florida companies world-class workgroup recovery solutions at its category-5 data center facility. For more information visit: www.us.telefonica.com
About The University of Miami ITEx
The University of Miami's Information Technology Executive Institute (UM/ITEx) is a center of excellence in executive management, with content and resources for CIOs and other C-level executives, their direct reports, and aspiring leaders. By drawing on decades of practical CIO and executive experience, ITEx provides individually tailored solutions to clients through the combination of professional development coursework and customer-site research, combined with the latest academic knowledge of IT management systems and theoretical concepts. ITEx is the sister Institute to the NGJ Information Systems Institute, a 20-year-old training center within the University of Miami Information Technology division, which has been recognized with numerous awards and in various industry-wide publications as a leader in IT management and best practices. For more information visit: www.miami.edu/itex
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is a leader in Florida's health industry. BCBSF and its subsidiaries serve more than 8.3 million people. Since 1944, the company has been dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all those it serves by offering an array of choices. BCBSF is a not-for-profit, policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., BCBSF is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For more information visit: www.bcbsfl.com
Telefonica Media Contact:
Maxim Weitzman
mweitzman@us.telefonica.com
305-925-5249
UM/ITEx Media Contact:
Annie Reisewitz
a.reisewitz@miami.edu
305-284-1601>
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Media Contact:
Rick Curran
rick.curran@bcbsfl.com
904-905-3408