Study Finds 45 Percent of Businesses Have Invoked BC Plans

Almost half of the companies who have business continuity plans have actually had to put them to use during a real-life crisis, according to a new study released last week. And almost 20 percent still don’t even have BC plans in place.

The international survey by SteelEye Technology and Continuity Central found that 45 percent of organizations they surveyed have needed to invoke their BC plans. Respondents also reported that they have less than 48 hours to correct outages before the downtime becomes a potentially fatal issue for their organizations.

The survey also found that 19 percent of companies have no BC plan in place, citing cost as the main barrier to implementing a plan. However, 40 percent of respondents also said they spend less than $100,000 per year on those plans.

“This research clearly demonstrates that a good business continuity plan is by no stretch reserved for organizations with huge budgets – there are many affordable options,” says Bob Williamson, Vice President for SteelEye Technology. “And when you consider how many organizations actually use their BC plan, and that any company without one could be just a day or two from a ‘fatal issue,’ the real costs for business continuity assurance begin to look miniscule.”

Other findings include:

-73 percent of companies have formalized BC plans in place

-87 percent of those with plans include a remote disaster recovery site

-95 percent of organizations test their BC plans at least once per year

-65 percent of those with BC plans have implemented an automated data replication solution