US survey shows many small businesses are complacent when it comes to disaster preparedness

A new survey has found substantial complacency amongst US small businesses when it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Conducted by TNS NFO and commissioned by Office Depot, a leading global provider of office products and services, the survey found that the majority (57 percent) of responding small business owners and decision-makers are not worried about the impact a disaster can have on their business.

Additional findings reveal that:

* 71 percent of small business employees work at a company that does not have a disaster preparedness plan;

* Two-thirds (64 percent) of those companies without a plan contend "we don't need it;" and

* One in five businesses (18 percent) do not back up business data at all. Just over half (52 percent) claim to burn important files on a removable media device (e.g. DVD-R, CD-R discs, tapes, removable disk drives, external hard drives, etc.) in order to keep data secure, while only 11 percent keep copies of this data at an off-site location.

Office Depot has developed a free downloadable brochure entitled ‘Expecting the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness Strategies for Small Business’ – this is available at www.officedepot.com/getprepared

•Date: 24th May 2007 • Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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