Small businesses unprepared for a disaster

30 per cent of small firms would take 48 to recover, research says

Small businesses are ill-prepared to recover from a major disaster, according to research published today.

Around 30 per cent of UK businesses with a £1m plus turnover would take over 48 hours to become operational in the event of a disaster, while 38 per cent would take between 24 and 48 hours.

Only 20 per cent would be up and running in a working day, says the survey by IP communications vendor Mitel.

Larger companies, however, with a turnover of over £20m are better prepared with two thirds (66 per cent) estimating that they could resume operations within 24 hours.

Graham Titterington , principal analyst at Ovum, said: ‘It’s easy to get over-excited and say how terrible this is, but a lot of small companies could survive a little while as they are not that dependent on total availability, but it depends on the nature of the business they are in. Revenue that an ecommerce store lost during unavailability would be permanently lost.’

Titterington says the damage from not being operational increases proportionally as time goes on.

‘The second day a company is down costs more than the first day, as customers give up trying,’ he said.

The survey results also show that a third of the companies say they would give staff the day off if they were unable to access the office, and over a quarter (26 per cent) of the senior managers questioned said they would rely on mobile phones to keep their business running.

But Mitel points out networks quickly become jammed in the event of a full-scale disaster.

Graham Bevington, UK managing director at Mitel, says disasters such as the London bombings and the explosion at the Buncefield oil depot ‘sent a shockwave through UK business.’

‘Although business continuity has become a higher priority, it’s clear that the vast proportion of UK firms are ill-prepared to maintain operations if employees are unable to get to work. Ultimately, there is no point in having a plan on paper if it takes days to put into action,’ he said.

Titterington says mobile phones are ‘only of use for internal communication. They are no use for incoming calls if the company switchboard is down.’

‘Companies should have a flexible business continuity plan capable of responding to a variety of scenarios,’ he said.

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