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 Over the month from 6th October to 10th November 2005, Continuity Central conducted an online survey which aimed to discover how seriously business continuity managers are taking the issue of a potential influenza pandemic and what measures are being included in business continuity plans. Overall, 221 complete responses were received.
Is it important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans?
Firstly, the survey asked whether respondents believe that it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans. The results gave a very clear answer: ‘yes it is’. Overall, 83.2 percent of respondents said ‘yes, it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans’, with 6.5 percent saying ‘no’ and 9.6 percent ‘not sure’. These results were consistent across all organisation sizes: 82.4 percent of large, 84.7 percent of medium and 83.9 percent of small organisations stated that it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans.
When the sample was analysed by vertical sector, again there was unanimity across most sectors. More than 90 percent of respondents in the banking, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, public, telecoms, transport and utilities sectors said ‘yes’ it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans. However, one sector stood out from the crowd. Only 72.5 percent of responders in the financial services sector think that it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans. 17.7 percent of respondents in this sector are unsure whether it is an issue or not.
Other interesting differences emerged between multinational and single-country organisations:
Multinational (organisations with offices and facilities in more than one country)
Yes it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans: 89.6 percent
No: 5.2 percent
Not sure: 5.2 percent
National (organisations with more than one office and facilities but these are all located in one country)
Yes: 76.6 percent
No: 9.6 percent
Not sure: 13.8 percent
Single site (organisations operating out of just one location in one country)
Yes: 85.2 percent
No: 14.8 percent
Not sure: 0 percent
In a global pandemic no country or region can expect to be immune from its impacts. However, it appears that some organisations may have the misplaced confidence that a pandemic will pass their country by.
Do organisational business continuity plans include preparations for pandemic impacts?
The second main question asked by the survey looked at levels of current preparedness, asking respondents to answer yes, not yet, or no to the statement ‘My organisation's business continuity plans include preparations for pandemic impacts’. Overall, 27.9 percent of respondents replied ‘Yes - we have already considered this issue’; 54 percent stated ‘Not yet - but it will be included in the near future’; and 18.1 percent said ‘No, and there are no plans to include pandemic impacts in the future.’ Interestingly, 43.5 percent of the latter agreed that it is important that pandemic impacts are covered by business continuity plans. This presumably either displays internal resistance against pandemic planning which is out of the control of the business continuity manager, or demonstrates worrying complacency and lack of initiative.
Some differences arise when the responses to this question are broken down by company size. 38 percent of small organisations (less than 100 staff) and 29.9 percent of large organisations (500+ staff) have already included pandemic preparations within business continuity plans, but only 7.1 percent of medium sized organisations (classed as those with between 100 and 499 staff ) have done so. However 78.6 percent of medium organisations stated that pandemic scenarios will be included in BCPs in the near future (large 52.7 percent, small 33 percent). This may indicate that for various reasons business continuity planning processes take longer in medium sized organisations. Possibly they often lack the agility of the small organisation and the resources of the large organisation.
Levels of preparedness varied significantly by sector. The following table shows the number of respondents from various sectors who stated that their organisation's business continuity plans already include preparations for pandemic impacts:
- Public sector : 42 percent
- Computing : 40 percent
- Transport : 33 percent
- Banking : 30 percent
- Financial sector : 26.5 percent
- Healthcare : 20 percent
- Insurance : 17 percent
- Telecoms : 17 percent
- Utilities : 14 percent
COMING NEXT WEEK
The final section of the survey asked respondents who had already included pandemic scenarios in business continuity plans to provide some information on the measures included in the BCP. Many useful responses to this request were received. These are currently being collated and will be published by Continuity Central next week. [NOTE: NOW AVAILABLE HERE]
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•Date: 11th Nov 2005 •Region: World •Type:
Article •Topic: BC statistics
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