Don Peterson, president, chief executive officer, Avaya, predicts an increased interest in tele- communications technology.

Avaya, Don Peterson, president and chief executive officer

In addition to ensuring the safety of all Avaya associates, some of whom are dedicated to customers located in the disaster areas, the immediate impact was to organize an emergency response team and effort to assist customers with their needs. Many Avaya associates are working around the clock to help customers identify locations from which they could begin their own emergency and/or relief efforts and provide them with the communications to do so.

For the longer term, we anticipate seeing increased interest in the communications technologies -such as audio and video con-ferencing-that enable people to collaborate across distances and from remote locations.

As a contact center technology solutions and services provider, we do not anticipate that this segment of our business will be largely impacted. Few customers (if any) maintained large contact centers in the area of the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Stock buyback

Avaya did not launch a stock buyback program, since it was not a step we considered necessary under the circumstances.

Relief efforts

A large contingent of Avaya associates have been focused on disaster relief since early on Sept. 11:

¡¤ Identifying customers' needs and expediting the provisioning, shipment and installation of their immediate communications requirements. In this current environment, work that would normally take weeks has been accomplished in hours and days.

¡¤ Among Avaya associates not working directly with customers, many volunteered on their own to support emergency services or collect donations of material goods for victims, agencies and emergency workers involved in the effort.

¡¤ Avaya has earmarked over $2 million to be contributed to non-profit organizations engaged in relief efforts, including United Way and Red Cross.

Disaster recovery advice

First of all, I think every company should have a crisis plan that includes how they will maintain communications support in the event of a minor or major disaster. This is especially true for companies with contact centers that are a key part of their business. As part of those plans, companies should seriously consider:

¡¤ Redundant communications servers or systems that mirror those utilized by the main contact center and maintained in another location, which can significantly reduce the time needed to re-establish communications.

¡¤ Remote agent support ­ a plan for quickly setting agents up in other offices or from their own home.

¡¤ Network call allocation plans ­ arrangements for redistributing calls to other, unaffected contact centers. This can be handled by contact center technology or by set up through the service provider.

¡¤ Temporary power contingency plans-such as battery backup, uninterruptible power or redundant local long distance carrier links.

Aspect Communications, David Puglia, senior vice president, global marketing

Some of our customers had large operations at the WTC or were impacted in other ways due to the tragic attacks. Like other businesses, we had employees stranded due to business travel and worked hard to get them home.

We immediately reached out to support employees and customers and applied resources as needed. Naturally, we provided contact center product and support resources to customers who were making special efforts at relief projects. The longer-term effects are hard to say at this point.

The combination of the attacks and the general economic climate have made it tougher for most businesses out there.

It is difficult to say at this point how Aspect's contact center business will be affected. However, we do believe that companies are going to take a look at making disaster recovery easier for their
contact center operations.

Disaster recovery advice

We recommend that companies look at mission critical operations across their company and take immediate steps to make sure that disaster recovery will be as smooth as possible. It might mean new patterns and approaches for backing up data and tailored applications so they are easier to restore. It might mean setting up multiple sites for some companies so as to minimize risk. It will vary by business. We are providing customers with specific information about disaster recovery for contact centers.

Cisco Systems, Brett Shockley, vice president, general manager of the Customer Contact Business Unit

We are still evaluating the impact of this attack on our business. As a general policy we don't comment on our business during the quarter. Our focus right now is doing everything possible to meet the needs of our customers as quickly as possible.

Stock buyback

Our board of directors has authorized a buyback of up to $3 billion of stock, over a two-year period. At the end of last quarter, Cisco had $18.5 billion in cash and investments and with this financial strength, we have been contemplating a stock repurchase for some time. We believe the current valuation does not reflect the underlying long term value of the company and that a stock repurchase is the right thing to do for our shareholders. We have tremendous confidence in the financial systems of our country, in our industry and in our market-leading position both today and in the future.

Relief efforts

Cisco wanted to assist key relief and support organizations, so we are honored to partner with several organizations in the New York City and Washington D.C. areas. We're providing a cash contribution of about $6 million to help them provide critical assistance.

Cisco is working with the American Red Cross National Capital Chapter in Washington, D.C., the American Red Cross New York City Chapter, City of New York, YMCA of Greater New York, and the Armed Services YMCA in Washington, D.C. In addition, the Cisco Foundation is matching employee donations to the American Red Cross, and Cisco employees are participating in on-campus blood drives and at their area hospitals and Red Cross chapters.

These organizations, with their skilled personnel and experience, are providing rescue workers and assistance to victims, and we hope our gift can help them make a difference in assisting people affected by the tragedy. In addition, many Cisco employees have made individual contributions on their own.

Disaster recovery advice

We grieve for the victims of this horrible attack and our first priority is helping our employees, customers and communities in dealing with this tragedy.

Kevin Parker is chief financial officer for PeopleSoft.

PeopleSoft, Kevin Parker, chief financial officer

We are in our quiet period and cannot comment. Our data center is located in Pleasanton and was not affected.

Stock buyback

PeopleSoft's stock repurchase program was announced October 17, 2000. The company's board of directors approved a plan to repurchase up to $100 million of the Company's common stock.

Relief efforts

On a case-by-case basis with customers that were affected.

Disaster recovery advice

PeopleSoft mourns the loss of those directly affected by the Sept. 11 tragedy. Becaue People-Soft applications are based purely on the Internet, and therefore have no code on the client, our customers' businesses remained operational. They can access their data in the event of a disaster as long as they have Internet access.

Terry Murphy, president of Rockwell Electronic Commerce, says American Airlines is one of Rockwell's biggest customers.

Rockwell Electronic Commerce, Terry Murphy, president

Our first concern was obviously our employees. Our team quickly identified that everyone was accounted for though we did have one employee on route from the UK to Chicago who we couldn't contact. We received a call early Wednesday morning saying he was fine and safely on the ground in Hamilton, Ontario near Niagara Falls. It took him four more days before he arrived in Chicago.

Next we focused on our customers. American Airlines is one of our biggest customers and they were one of our first priorities. Knowing the situation we knew desperate families and friends would be calling to learn news of loved ones, while pending travelers would be trying to understand what would happen next.

We assigned our resources so that we could ensure that all our customers' systems remained at peak functionality, ready for whatever demands might be placed on them. We asked for an account of our customers to determine who might be experiencing service interruptions. As it stood, a system belonging to a customer in Building #7 at ground zero was destroyed when it collapsed, and two other systems belonging to financial clients in the district had to be abandoned when the area was evacuated.

We felt it was important that we close our offices so our employees could spend time with their loved ones and to share their grief.

As a result we arranged for our remote service teams to take over our service calls. Every one of our technical field operatives remained available to our customers during the crisis. Our customers did not feel any difference in our service capabilities. In many cases, our personnel were on site immediately to monitor and troubleshoot Rockwell Electronic Commerce systems responding to the incredible call traffic spikes major transportation and government agency clients experienced as the day wore on, and then days later as the air travel embargo and other circumstances continued to put pressure on our customer's systems.

So, to assist a variety of our customers in the wake of the attack, we resumed business-as-usual operations quickly-but I can tell you that at every level, Rockwell Electronic Commerce employees responded to the crisis with a spirit and energy that I'm extremely proud of. I know for a fact that many of our customers feel the same way, and appreciate the concern and extra effort our field personnel have provided to them in recent weeks.

We did have some issues with system delivery when the FAA suspended flights but all things considered we were not impacted that much in absolute commercial terms. That is not to say that we, as a company, and as individuals weren't deeply affected emotionally as events unfolded. But, at this point the short-term affects of the attack on our business are quickly fading.

Our contact center is very agile and we have several remote locations so that if the main center is impacted remote sites can take over. We proved on the day of the attack that this type of virtual contact center can really add value to an organization especially if you are supporting mission critical environments like American Airlines and Verizon.

Disaster relief efforts

Both directly for impacted customers and in support of larger relief efforts. We do have customers who will ultimately have to rebuild and replace call center operations lost in the attack, and we are working to help them get back on their feet. Our systems and support personnel are also busy right now assisting customers who are directly involved in relief efforts as well.

Rockwell Electronic Commerce employees, like all Americans, are engaged in the relief effort in some way, offering whatever time, money or other resources they can to help the cause. Our parent company, Rockwell Automation, on behalf of its employees, has also made a significant monetary contribution to the Red Cross's relief fund.

Disaster recovery advice

It is important that companies assess the impact that a down system has on their business especially if it can be for a prolonged period of time i.e. days. Prolonged periods can cost some organizations thousands to millions of dollars in lost revenue. Or in other cases lost customers due to poor customer service.

If your assessment tells you the impact is high then there are several alternatives for organizations that don't necessarily cost the same as having a duplicate site.

You can have remote agents that could take over the calls from anywhere in the world. A smaller backup system could be located somewhere else that the agents could move to or you could even divert your number to an outsource agency that could step in and take the calls on behalf of your company.