HOUSTON, Texas – September 1, 2005 – Blanchard Systems announces that, despite the tragedy and difficult conditions created by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the company is completely operational and continues to serve all of its customers nationwide. Blanchard Systems headquarters are located at 650 Poydras Street, about four blocks from New Orleans' emergency shelter at the Louisiana Superdome. Due to the storm and the mandatory evacuation of the area, all Blanchard Systems home office personnel left New Orleans prior to the hurricane for safer locations. However, as part of its forward-thinking disaster recovery planning, Blanchard Systems co-located its servers to a secure datacenter powered by diesel generators within the same building as Blanchard's headquarters before the storm struck. As a result of this advance planning, the company's critical servers have been able to continue functioning without city-supplied electricity. The company's datacenter continues to provide access to email and remote connectivity, so that Blanchard can fulfill its support responsibilities with no effect to its customers. The systems that are running as of today are all of the company's infrastructure, including its database that supports tech access, Blanchard's website, the company's email system, and all of the company's demo servers running Dalim Software applications. Because of the likelihood that infrastructure services in New Orleans may continue without operation for an indeterminate amount of time, Blanchard has already replicated its critical servers and phone lines to safe locations outside New Orleans—in Houston, TX. The systems will either automatically fail-over if the main system runs out of fuel, or Blanchard may just decide to move everything to the Houston server. The company will temporarily relocate Blanchard Systems employees—who will be provided temporary housing—to Houston, TX. A furnished office has been secured, utilities are installed, and new computers have been purchased. The BSIweb technical support server has already been moved and is operational; the company is capable of fulfilling its support responsibilities with no effect to customers. Blanchard's service team continues to travel to customer sites with no delay in activity. Blanchard asks customers to use the [email protected] address for all support requests. The company has also set up temporary phone lines. Those who need immediate assistance can call: 713.980.3940. “Needless to say, it has been a difficult week, both personally and professionally for all of us at Blanchard Systems. We appreciate our customers' understanding during this emergency, and offer our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has sent email messages of concerns and best wishes,” comments Charles Blanchard, Blanchard Systems CEO. “I will continue to update everyone via email of the status of our office and notify everyone when we might be able to return to New Orleans. However, it is very gratifying that we can conduct business virtually—it really doesn't matter where we are physically located. We are continuing to provide complete, uninterrupted service to our customers. We expect to maintain, a ‘business as usual' attitude for those who rely on us on a daily basis. We all hope to see everyone next week at Print 05.”