It is rash for a firm to think that it does not need to put a business continuity plan in place, one expert has claimed.

Writing for Director of Finance online, Anne Low explains that putting a business continuity plan in place is vital for any company.

She said: "A business continuity plan ensures that if a disaster ever occurs, the recovery can commence immediately and that there is the minimum delay before the company can declare business as usual."

Ms Low added that recent incidents such as the London bombings, the fire at the refinery at Buncefield, foot and mouth and last summer's flooding all underline the importance of having such as plan in place.

Doing so means that firms will be better able to deal with events beyond their control, she added.

Last week, a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 58 per cent of UK firms would suffer significant disruption if their IT systems were unavailable for a day.

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