This blog post first appeared on Sungard Availability Services' website.
When it comes to avoiding the potential profit losses and pitfalls associated with natural disasters, power outages, cyberattacks, or other unforeseen disturbances, you cannot afford to be ill-prepared.
According to a Censuswide survey of 500 C-Suite respondents in U.S. companies with 500+ employees, 78% feel their customers are more likely to seek out a new supplier if they experience IT downtime, while nearly 79% believe a data breach will bring about the same result.
And it doesn't stop there.
Part of being prepared also means making sure that companies within your supply chain are taking the same measures. Per the survey, 81% of respondents agree that their customers will turn to a new supplier if part of their supply chain suffers operational downtime.
Companies are only as strong as their weakest link. So it makes sense that over 80% of respondents expect their customers to look to a new supplier if they don't have a disaster recovery (DR) plan in place.
It's your responsibility to check that these organizations have DR and business continuity plans in place, that those plans are tested regularly and that they've been properly communicated to their employees.
You might be ready for a disruption, but if members of your supply chain can't say the same, your DR plan will be as effective as a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off.
