Majority of Canadian executives tell survey that their company has no business continuity plan

A recent Fusepoint/Leger Marketing survey has found that, when it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery, the majority of business executives are ‘asleep at the helm’. In fact, 72 percent of business leaders say that their company does not have a disaster recovery or business continuity plan in place.

Among the scant number of businesses that say they have a disaster recovery or business continuity plan, less than half of those actually have a comprehensive plan in place. In fact, more than one in 10 admit that their disaster plan is simply a phone tree (12 percent) and another 12 percent don’t even know what kind of program they have to deal with a disaster.

“This should be a wake-up call for all boards of directors across the country to empower their company's top executives with the resources required to ensure their business is protected from a disaster,” says George Kerns, president and CEO, Fusepoint Managed Services.”

Biggest threats to the workplace – and what Canadians are worried about:
Business executives consider an IT disaster to be the greatest threat to their organization going forward (46 percent). Regionally, British Columbians are more concerned about natural disasters such as tornados or floods (41 percent), while only 10 percent see terrorist attacks as a threat. Quebecers are far more likely to worry about a fire or burglary (63 percent), while Ontarians fear blackouts most (55 percent).

Are disasters on the rise?
According to business executives, nearly half of all Canadian businesses (44 percent) have been affected by a disaster such as a power outage, IT disaster or terrorist threat. One-in-five business executives (21 percent) say they are more likely to have a disaster hit their workplace than five years ago, compared to only 10 percent who say it is less likely to happen now.

The online survey was conducted for Fusepoint Managed Services by Leger Marketing (the Canadian representative of the Gallup International Association), between September 1st and 11th, 2006, with a representative sample of 520 Canadian senior-level business decision makers, and with 1,001 full-time Canadian employees.

www.fusepoint.com

•Date: 29th Sept 2006• Region: Canadian •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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