A UK health and social care recruitment agency has implemented a new business continuity system to ensure its payroll systems function in an emergency.

Computerweekly.co.uk reports that the HCL group decided to speed up its disaster recovery planning following the discovery of two car bombs in central London last summer.

Speaking to the website, the firms IT manager explained that the new system will plug a major gap in its business continuity strategy.

The firm has a turnover of £140 million a year and, following a number of recent takeovers, runs 27 different payroll systems.

It has now setup call re-routing systems to ensure that all inbound timesheet faxes can be redirected immediately if the worst happens.

Last week, accountancy firm Deloitte announced it has launched an online business continuity system.

According to the firm, the system will allow firms to compare their disaster recovery plans with those of their peers.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk