Disaster Preparedness For The Unprepared

"Obstacles are those frightening things you see when you take your eyes off your goals." Henry Ford's words may ring true for some risk-averse executives. Of course, Ford probably never had the budget problems facing many executives who work for companies that have chosen not to create formal business-continuity plans. For many companies, it's not a matter of focus but a lack of funds that constitutes the biggest barrier to disaster planning.

But there's no shortage of other issues to blame. These include a lack of planning, a lack of training, time restrictions, and poorly defined procedures, according to 100 business-technology professionals interviewed by InformationWeek Research at sites without business-continuity plans.

Overcoming these obstacles can be difficult. Although companies can be hurt if business operations are botched in an emergency, a third of survey respondents say disaster preparedness is suffering because senior executives haven't backed disaster planning as an initiative.

Despite these hurdles, companies without formal business-continuity plans aren't entirely unprepared. These 100 companies realize the importance of keeping their networks available. Half of the companies surveyed report that although a formal business-continuity plan doesn't exist, procedures pertaining to data and technology recovery are in place.

Recovery of business processes and customer support are less of a priority. Still, approximately a third of companies without business-continuity plans that were surveyed have procedures to re-engage these functions if they encounter operational difficulties.

What obstacles is your company finding in its efforts to prepare for the worst? Let us know.

Helen D'Antoni
Research Manager
[email protected]