'Bouncebackability' low amongst UK small businesses

Few UK small businesses are ready to bounce back if they have a business disruption, even though it would lose them business.

As consumers, four out of five respondents say they would walk off to another supplier if they could not get the goods or services they wanted immediately, according to the first 'Bouncebackability Index' from SunGard Availability Services, business continuity services.

The 'Bouncebackability Index' shows that only a third of managers of SMEs in the UK are taking steps to ensure that their business can continue to operate normally under any circumstances. But as consumers, they are far less understanding when a product or service is unavailable.

As consumers, less than 10 percent of those surveyed would wait for a product to become available at a later date if they found it to be out of stock when visiting a retailer; while more than 80 percent would select another product or go to a different retailer.

Keith Tilley, managing director UK and executive vice president Europe, SunGard Availability Services, said: "It appears to be a case of 'Do as I say, not as I do' for small business managers. They admit to feeling pressure from customers to show their resilience and they clearly expect businesses to be able to provide them with the service or product they are seeking, and will go to a competitor if something is not available. Yet they are doing very little to protect their own business from this type of switching."

Impairment

SMEs within the UK would struggle to resume normal business operations in the event of a business disruption. Forty percent would suffer total or severe impairment to business operations in the event of computer hardware failure; 45 percent would suffer total or severe impairment to business operations following a power cut or a flood; and only 10 percent would suffer no impairment and be able to function as normal in the event of a fire.

Chris Harman, IT Director of Newhall Publications Ltd, an SME sized publisher said: "We realised some time ago that we simply could not afford any downtime within our business. As a small company, the consequences of not being able to deliver a quality service to our customers would be extremely severe and the actual investment is minimal when compared to the damage any downtime would cause to our brand reputation and customer loyalty. Putting a business continuity plan in place has allowed us to better understand the information flow within our business and identify weaknesses and critical business functions that need to be protected."