`Get continuity’ SMBs told

This year’s replacement of winter with a serious attempt to turn the UK into a lake has had its impact on the fortunes of many businesses, and in particular the SMB community. According to a recent survey by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) the economic costs to SMEs as a result of the floods on the UK’s small businesses are set to exceed £830m.

This figure could certainly have been lower if more SMBs had invested in business continuity services and tools. This, at least, is the view of business continuity, hosting, Cloud, and managed IT services provider, Phoenix.

The recent storms and flooding demonstrate that business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are essential practices for all businesses no matter how big or small and should not be shied away from, according to Mike Osborne, managing director of Business Continuity at Phoenix.  As this is the last day of Business Continuity Awareness Week, he suggests industry practitioners should now be proactive in demonstrating the capabilities of BC & DR services, and believes that recent events will act as a wake-up call within the SME community to embrace services on offer.

“It is clear from the FSB research, as well as our own findings, which has seen our customer base for Cloud DR services grow within the past year by 104 percent, that continuity of service must be at the forefront for all businesses and that very much includes the SME community,” Osborne said. “Currently the mindset amongst SMEs when it comes to BC and DR services is generally a lack of preparedness, with an insufficient structure often in place to cope with disasters. Considering that SMEs account for the majority of UK firms, this mindset needs to change, especially when you consider the economic burdens left upon us by the recent floods.

“Overall, the key message we need to spread to SMEs is to use this experience as a catalyst to understand the realities of disaster recovery and investigate the options that are now readily available and affordable for them as to how risk can be managed. BC and DR services are now available at a cost that does not exclude the SME. They take the complexity out of trying to understand where to get started with a BC plan, including all the elements needed for a credible and successful recovery.

“Unfortunately, it usually takes something dramatic as the recent flooding to grab people’s attention. But it does make it harder for all organisations to ignore the issues and we hope that BC Awareness Week will act as a catalyst to get people thinking about how they can protect their business by moving from a recovery to resilience mind-frame.”