9/11 had 'no impact' on business continuity plans

Just three per cent of IT managers claim their business continuity strategies have been affected by the events of 11 September.

With the anniversary of the terrorist attacks fast approaching (and the number of security companies using it as a PR opportunity rising rapidly), it's of some solace to discover that Synstar has discovered brand reputation and customer service issues are much bigger drivers of business continuity strategies than anything else.

Fifty-two per cent of the IT managers polled in the survey said that of the factors shaping these strategies, brand and customer service were the most important.

Sixteen per cent cited board commitment to shareholders.

Although brand protection is seen as a key driver, only five per cent of those questioned feel that their business continuity strategies completely protect their company's brand. A further 55 per cent feel their plan protects their brand reputation only to a satisfactory standard.

And there's more bad news: only half of the respondents to the survey either have no awareness of, or never review, processes within their organisation in order to identify points of failure or downtime. Fourteen per cent claim to review their processes on a bi-annual basis.