Only half of UK businesses regard themselves as very well-prepared for an IT systems failure, according to research published this week.

But the British Standards Institution’s (BSI’s) annual survey of FTSE 250 companies also says organisations are changing behaviour when it comes to disaster recovery, with the figure rising from 27 per cent last year.

The BSI Barometer says 45 per cent of UK businesses have comprehensive supply chain failure plans, 41 per cent are fully prepared for business relocation, and 80 per cent of firms would expect to last up to a week before feeling serious detrimental effect of a disruption or disaster.

Some 61 per cent of companies recognise the business benefits of business continuity management (BCM) to reduce risk, satisfy customer requirements, remain competitive and win new business.

‘The FTSE 250 has a market value of more than £260bn, so the scale of the risk and the opportunity is enormous,’ said Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards. ‘While it is encouraging that companies are improving their thinking about continuity management they cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to being fully prepared.’

The BSI has produced a new business continuity management standard, BS25999, to help organisations develop backup plans to improve their disaster recovery processes (Computing, 2 November).

‘The standard is designed to keep businesses going during even the most challenging and unexpected circumstances – protecting staff, preserving reputation and producing a licence to operate,’ said Low.

Retail giant Sainsbury’s is implementing a disaster recovery strategy based on PAS56, the forerunner of BS25999.

‘I don’t believe in luck when it comes to disaster recovery and having a standard in place can help with benchmarking and referring suppliers to the standards that are expected,’ said Steve Mellish, head of business continuity at Sainsbury’s.

Mellish says it is vital that any disaster recovery strategy is ‘business-led in all aspects’.

‘We have a champion at board level and look at property, people and processes, focusing on our core functions,’ he said.

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