For the past decade
warnings about the consequences of not preparing IT systems for
disruption due to floods, fires, terrorists and pandemics have
had little impact on customers.
That is the key implication of the Decade of Living Dangerously
report that has been issued by the Chartered Management Institute
and the Cabinet Office.
The report found that only 38% of companies had plans to deal
with disruption and 33% admitting not testing continuity plans,
numbers that revealed stagnation year on year in changing attitudes
to risk management.
In terms of highlighting the threats IT managers listed
electronic attack first, followed by a disease knocking out the
workforce then severe weather and destruction of mission critical
infrastructure.
Petra Wilton, director of policy and research at the Chartered
Management Institute said that there had been numerous warnings but
companies still had to make more effort to make IT systems
resilient.
"Particularly now, with revenue and cash-flow under pressure,
the last thing any business needs is disruption to their services.
In short, the UK will continue to suffer lost revenue unless
business continuity management is taken seriously from the top, and
throughout organisations," she said.
Bruce Mann, director of the civil contingencies secretariat in
the Cabinet Office, said that it was easy to put off dealing with
risks but "this short sightedness can be extremely costly".
A version of this story originally appeared on
MicroSope.co.uk