A recent poll sponsored by managed IT services firm Fusepoint shows that while 75% of business executives in Canada feel personally responsible for their company’s disaster preparedness, 72% admit to having no business continuity plan According to Fusepoint, when it comes to threats posed by hackers, terrorists, or even from natural disasters like blackouts and ice storms, “the majority of business execs are asleep at the helm.” The company said that only one-in-four of Canada’s full-time workforce (28%) is very confident in their company’s ability to handle a disaster if one were to hit tomorrow.
Among the scant number of businesses that say they have a disaster recovery plan, less than half of those actually have a full-blown plan in place, Fusepoint noted. In fact, more than one in ten admit their disaster plan is a phone tree (12%) and another 12% don’t even know what kind of program they have to deal with a disaster.
“This should be a wake-up call for all boards of directors across the country to empower their company’s top executives with the resources required to ensure their business is protected from a disaster,” said Fusepoint president and CEO, George Kerns. “With the rise in terrorist threats and natural disasters including a potential outbreak of the avian flu, Canadian companies simply cannot afford to lag behind in disaster preparedness.”
According to business executives, nearly half of all Canadian businesses (44%) have been affected by a disaster such as a power outage, IT disaster or terrorist threat. One-in-five (21%) say the chance of disaster hitting their workplace now is greater than it was five years ago.
