From left: Mervyn Eyre, president and chief executive officer of Fujitsu Caribbean; Nadine Newsome, director of Information and Technology at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management; Dyon Woolcock, director of Fiscal Services Ltd. Software Engineering Division and also of the Jamaica Computer Society; and Michael duQuesnay, CEO of the Central Information Technology Office (CITO), chat during yesterday's press launch of the upcoming CITO Regional Conference at the PCJ Auditorium, New Kingston. The conference, scheduled to begin on May 9, will focus on using information and communications technology in disaster preparedness and recovery. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
JAMAICAN BUSINESSES are being urged to improve their information communication technology (ICT) readiness for natural disasters ahead of a regional three-day conference on the issue beginning in May at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston.
Michael duQuesnay, chief executive officer of the Central Information Technology Office (CITO), the Government body organising the event, said yesterday that he knew of only two companies with properly-prepared contingency plans. He was speaking during the press launch held at the Petroleum Corpora-tion of Jamaica (PCJ) headquarters on Trafalgar Road, New Kingston
Mr. duQuesnay told The Gleaner that Government had recently founded a remote ICT site as back up to handle its revenue systems and that, as far he knew, no other Government agencies or businesses had done likewise. He said Jamaica's ICT preparedness as a country was awful when compared with the very best.
JOIN-UP EFFORT
"We haven't even started the discussion. That's a major, major implementation of public/private sector join-up effort," he added.
He said an example of best practice was that which followed the terrorist bombings in London, England last year. The British government had arranged with cellular providers for only those handsets carried by emergency services within a specific radius of the bomb blasts to be allowed to make calls. This was to prevent emergency services from being unable to connect as a result of a network overwhelmed with civilian calls.
Chief executive officers will be addressed on the first day of the conference and senior and middle managers on the second. IT managers will be addressed on the third. They will be addressed by professionals experienced in disaster preparedness and response including one expert who has on-the-ground experience responding to September 11, the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane season starts in June and ends in November.
AREAS FOR DISCUSSION AT THE CONFERENCE:
i) Establishing an understanding in business of the role of ICT in disaster preparedness and management.
ii) How to plan and respond to certain scenarios.
iii) How to rebuild and resume business after a disaster.
