UK businesses getting better at business continuity

Investment in business continuity is meaning that UK businesses are increasingly prepared for disruption or disaster, according to BSI British Standards’s annual Business Barometer survey.

The 2007 survey of FTSE 250 companies found that:

* 81 percent would expect to last up to one week before feeling serious detrimental effects following disruption or disaster [1];

* Almost two thirds (63 percent) are very well prepared for serious IT failure;

* Half are fully prepared for a forced office relocation;

* 47 percent are fully prepared for a comprehensive supply chain failure;

* 71 percent recognise the importance of business continuity management in staying competitive and winning new business in the future. This is a 10 percent increase on 2006’s Business Barometer.

Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards, said: “The scale of risk and opportunity in the FTSE 250 are enormous and these organizations are recognizing that business continuity management has to be at the heart of their operations. It’s also crucial for smaller organizations and those in other sectors to look seriously at how they would cope in the event of a disaster.”

Events of the last year have prompted many businesses to reconsider their approach to business continuity management:

* 42 percent reviewed their approach to BCM following the London and Glasgow terror alerts in June 2007;

* 34 percent reviewed their approach to BCM following the widespread flooding throughout summer 2007.

Despite an increase in overall preparedness on last year, the Business Barometer shows that more businesses would be affected by disruption or disaster more quickly than in 2006. 58 percent said that their business would be seriously affected in under a day, compared with 46 percent in 2006.

Standards save businesses
Those companies already implementing British or international standards as a matter of course were found to be better prepared, with 56 percent saying that their business would be very well prepared for failure in the supply chain, compared with 47 percent overall.

Additionally, 62 percent of businesses, compared with 46 percent in 2006, are required by customers to show that they have effective business continuity measure in place. 72 percent now ask all or some of their own suppliers to do the same.

•Date: 20th Nov 2007• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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