The
floods that hit northern and central England last month will
cost businesses up to £170m in IT insurance claims, it emerged this
week.
Total claims are expected to reach £680m, with IT accounting for
between 20% and 25% of the total costs, said Sheffield Chamber of
Commerce director Stephen Mitchell.
The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters said about 6,800
businesses had claimed some sort of damage cover, with an average
claim of £100,000 each.
"There are definitely lessons to be learnt. Some businesses have
not had adequate business interruption insurance, many did not have
alternative back-up systems to enable them to keep working, and
many more simply did not have contingency plans for this scale of
catastrophe," said Mitchell.
John Sharp, policy and development director at business
continuity resource the Continuity Forum, said small and
medium-sized businesses were "in denial" over
disaster continuity.
"This should be a wake-up call for everybody. One in five small
businesses are affected by disaster, but their attitude towards
risk means they often do not have plans. They say they cannot
afford the time or money to create them, and they often do not
understand the impact a disaster might have," he said.
Simon Briault, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses,
said many companies could not afford continuity plans. "They have
to balance so many things on fairly tight budgets that getting
insurance and business continuity plans are often not top of the
list.
"The floods will certainly concentrate minds, and ideally we
would like all small businesses to consider getting insurance and
plans, but we have to be realistic," he said.
Resources for continuity
planning >>
Disaster recovery planning keeps flooded firms afloat
>>
Plan for the unexpected >>
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk