April 24, 2002—IT services company, CMG, conducted a survey of UK businesses and found that less than one in ten (9%) have reviewed their disaster recovery plans since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. One hundred IT decision-makers (IT directors, IT managers, heads of IT) from companies with more than 500 employees were surveyed. Respondents were from finance, government, transport, logistics, commerce and energy sectors.
The increased threat of terrorism has prompted a rise in teleworking, but has failed to spur firms into examining their disaster recovery plans. Corporate IT departments favor mobile and home working spend over on-site security investments.
The survey, which was carried out by ICM Research, showed that concerns about terrorism have encouraged 27% of companies to invest more in mobile devices and solutions to enable employees to work from home.
Remote working initiatives have included rolling out company mobile phones (85%), laptops (74%) and PDAs (31%) as well as mobile sales and service applications (31%) and portals (9%).
“Nobody wants to think about the impact of a terrorist attack on their organization, but they can at least be prepared for the worst. Having the ability to work from a remote location is a step in the right direction. But its no good unless overall business continuity plans are also in place,” said Geoff Neville, chairman at CMG UK.
“Our research found that more than a third (37%) of IT decision-makers have never had any training in risk management or disaster recovery planning. This may be why it doesnt sit high enough on the IT agenda. Unfortunately, its an area that most businesses cant really continue to neglect.”
