| European differences in business continuity management revealed
The results showed that, as a whole, businesses in the European Community are reasonably well prepared, with 80 percent of all respondents stating they had a business continuity plan in place. However, when the results were analysed by country noticeable differences became evident. While 96 percent of UK and Swedish respondents said they had a plan in place, closely followed by Germany (84 percent) and Italy (76 percent), France lagged behind with less than half of French companies questioned (48 percent) saying they had a business continuity plan. Upping the stakes to the board Overall, a third (31 percent) of respondents across Europe said that a board member was now responsible for business continuity. However, only four percent of French respondents said that a board member had this responsibility, with the bulk of the burden remaining with the IT or business continuity manager. The results also show that Swedish boards take business continuity most seriously as 68 percent of those questioned said that a board member was now responsible, followed by Germany (48 percent) and the UK (36 percent). The top reason across all countries for the board taking an interest in business continuity was the realisation that they relied heavily on IT to remain in business. This was followed by customers starting to ask for evidence of business continuity programmes, which was compounded by increased industry regulation. However, only France (12 percent), the UK (10 percent) and Italy (6 percent) cited September 11th or the threat of terrorism as a factor that made the board put business continuity on the priority list. Business fears If you were worried that your system may go down due to hardware failure wouldn't you do your best to stop it? Apparently not, as it appears that more than a quarter of respondents across Europe (28 percent) don't have their biggest fear covered by a business continuity plan. Once again the French still have a lot of catching up to do with only 39 percent of them saying the disaster they feared most was covered by a plan. Sweden again took the lead with 96 percent having it covered, followed by the UK (92 percent) and Germany (89 percent). "While the results show some disparity in how we approach business continuity, it's good news for the industry as a whole. This issue is becoming a priority for top management in all countries as they realise that to maintain information availability is a vital element to ensure business success," said Keith Tilley, UK managing director, SunGard Availability Services. "Taken at face value, the results show some countries are further ahead in the game than others but this may also be because of their understanding of the term 'business continuity'. Looking at the statistics it would appear that Sweden is most advanced in its approach, recognising business continuity as a business-wide issue, whereas France and Italy seem to apply the term more frequently to IT systems recovery than to business-wide processes. It's interesting to see that Germany and the UK seem to be sitting on the fence - seeing business continuity as a combination of ensuring the continuance of business and the old disaster recovery approach," Tilley concluded.
•Date:
18th February 2004 •Region: UK/W.Europe •Type:
Article •Topic:
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