96% of businesses may be unable to continue in crises

96% of businesses admit they have not tested or proven they could continue in a crisis

A survey recently conducted by Business Continuity provider Plan-b Limited, has revealed that over 96% of respondents haven’t tested or proven they could continue to operate in a crisis.

“This is worrying stuff” admits Ian Forrester, Plan B’s General Manager. “Our survey found that even though many businesses thought they could meet most of their obligations in a crisis, 96% of them had not tested or proven that they could continue to operate in a crisis in over a year – some never”.

Things like data loss, availability of key systems, continuing to service customers, meeting financial obligations and having a robust IT Security infrastructure were all ranked highly in terms of whether the business had a plan in place. Almost every respondent however admitted that even though they thought they had a plan or process in place, this had not been tested.

“Testing is key” says Ian. “Testing proves that your business planning, systems and infrastructure can continue in a crisis. By testing, you are finding problems, fixing them and creating peace of mind for employees, shareholders and customers. If you never test, you will never know if your business is prepared for a worst case scenario”.

“The fact that most businesses felt they could continue to service their customers, and meet their financial obligations in a crisis yet 96% of them admitted they hadn’t tested or proven this is a worrying analogy” says Ian. “Businesses in NZ need to get serious about Business Continuity. If you think you have a robust plan, ask yourself – has it been tested and is it being tested on a regular basis? If this isn’t happening, your plan simply isn’t robust enough and you’ll need to reassess” says Ian.

ENDS

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