Plan for contingencies, regardless of costs

Experts in emergency planning say most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are ill-prepared to manage emergencies, reports the Ottawa Business Journal.

Gary Mohr, director of support services for the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness, says: "SMEs are very vulnerable and they are faced with the problems of a lack of money to make plans and the human resources to put them together."

He says contingency planning shouldn`t be seen as a luxury, but as a necessity for all business owners. The centre recommends the development of a business continuity plan that is also regularly tested.

Regulatory compliance has been reduced to third place as a priority driving archiving plans.

The top two priorities are now disaster recovery / business continuity and data growth, the second annual BridgeHead Software Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) Audit shows.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents cite "regulatory compliance", compared to 62% for data growth and 70% for disaster recovery/business continuity, reports Continuity Central.