Most South African small to medium-sized companies have little or no business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place. Those that do often assume running backups on their server is all they need to effectively manage the risks their companies are exposed to.
The challenge for the SME market is that managers and owners spend their time focusing on the generation of revenue and keeping their heads above water. Risk management is something done when time and money permit.
Larger concerns are forced to pay attention to risk management because of regulatory pressures. To date, there are no similar pressures on small companies, although this may change with legislation soon to be promulgated.
Forcing the issue and compelling SMEs to focus on risk management via legislation might be a positive move for South African companies. The reality is that smaller companies actually need business continuity strategies more than their enterprise counterparts do.
When large companies suffer a disaster, they usually have the money available to recover and continue operations quickly. SMEs, on the other hand, generally do not have the money to spare and a disaster can easily lead to the ultimate failure of the company.
SMEs are also not well educated about business continuity. Because of their limited spending capacity, large continuity service providers are unlikely to spend the time required to educate them. The result is that SME managers are likely to judge their need for business continuity from a "cost versus immediate return" perspective.
The business continuity industry therefore needs to be more active in highlighting the benefits to small companies. The fact is effective business continuity planning helps large and small companies operate more efficiently and thereby increase their profitability. In the event of the SME being sold, this improved efficiency often ensures a higher purchase price because the buyer can be assured of a well-run organisation.
Business continuity can no longer be seen as something applicable to enterprise companies. Any company that wants to survive an unexpected event needs to understand where it is vulnerable and mitigate those risks through professional, repeatable processes.
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