More than nine out of 10 small businesses agree that IT failure is the most serious threat to their bottom line, new research shows.
A new study by AXA has found that 91% of small businesses view IT systems failure as a major risk to their ongoing health and profitability, yet 39% of respondents said they have no contingency plan in place to protect them in the event of such a catastrophe.
“One thing is clear, if your IT systems fail and you aren’t prepared, this is probably the one risk most likely to put you out of business,” said Doug Barnett, risk control strategy manager at AXA.
“Businesses need to consider all the risks they face and prepare a business continuity plan. How you would cope with an IT failure is one of the most important areas to consider. If you plan for it you can cope with it.”
He added that IT concerns have consistently topped AXA’s regular surveys of firms’ biggest fears, with a quarter admitting that systems failure is the most common cause of total business failure.
He urged those firms without contingency plans to consider how long they could afford for their systems to be unavailable, what level of IT support they have access to and is the company’s most important data regularly backed up, stored offsite and available to quickly.
