Survey looks at business continuity practices in UK education sector
Just how practical are the policies put in place by our leading universities and colleges to implement? A new survey provides some surprising answers. Real Asset Management plc (RAM), a supplier of software and services to the UK education sector, has released details of a survey it conducted into the preparedness of senior asset managers within education to tackle major disasters. The survey, which was conducted by RAM during May 2006, found that the majority of respondents did not view recent events like Buncefield as raising any concerns about their organisation’s business continuity plans. 87 percent had published a disaster recovery policy and were of the view that all eventualities had been catered for. RAM wanted to understand what these policies covered and if they went far enough to ensure that our leading education establishments would be fully operational as fast and as cost effectively as possible. The evidence it uncovered created certain doubts. Of those with a published policy, nearly two thirds said that they did not have a record of the replacement costs for any of their assets. In fact, as many as 1 in six respondents could not, if disaster struck, provide their insurance companies with a detailed list of what had been destroyed. Other areas of concern that were highlighted by the survey included:- - 20 percent of respondents did not have a simple and effective system for locating and auditing assets. Commenting on the survey, Keith Dolby, RAM’s managing director said, “This has highlighted two very distinct problems. Firstly, the lack of detail held by colleges and universities about the resources they manage and secondly, the way in which this information is gathered and maintained. Both factors would obviously have a huge impact on the success of any recovery plan if it were to be put to the test. “It did not surprise me to find that over 80 percent of respondents use inadequate accounting system modules or spreadsheets to manage their assets,” added Dolby. “Neither of these provide any level of security, traceability, authenticity, validity or connectivity to other business software tools, making them totally impractical, especially in the context of disaster recovery,” he added. “The most encouraging result from the survey for me,” concluded Dolby, “was the number of institutions that did have a policy in place (87 percent). I genuinely did not think that it would be anywhere near as high. The most disappointing result is the apparent lack of confidence in what these policies cover and how little reliance is placed on them for getting establishments back up and running quickly.” Dolby has set out the following recommendations for colleges and universities who want to improve their business continuity and disaster recover policies in light of the findings. He suggests that they:- - Make asset management the cornerstone of any plan – organisations are as much reliant on their teaching and administrative assets as they are on their lecturers and technicians. http://www.realassetmgt.co.uk/
•Date: 9th August 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics |
