Although business continuity and IT downtime are regarded as key
issues by IT managers, attitudes across Europe contrast sharply,
according to a recent survey.
Synstar polled 600 IT managers in the UK, Benelux, Ireland, France,
Germany and Spain. While UK and Ireland managers rated the
importance of the cost of IT downtime as a great worry, managers on
the continent viewed it as relatively unimportant.
Spain had the highest number of respondents, 58 per cent, who
viewed the cost of IT downtime as unimportant.
One of the reasons that UK and Ireland IT managers were more aware
of the risks could be because of the Turnbull Report - where plcs
have to undertake a risk assessment in the same way as a financial
audit - said George Williams, marketing director at Synstar.
"But there are reports that some plcs are still not complying.
Although they are aware of the risks, they are still not actually
putting in place a business continuity plan," he revealed.
Asked whether it was as important for SMEs to have a business
continuity plan in place, Williams replied: "A lot of SMEs are more
dependent now on their technology, services and processes. And with
the rise of e-commerce, these businesses could not revert back to
the paper model to take orders."