Small and medium-sized companies in the UK are failing to make best use of
their IT and telecoms resources for remote and mobile working, voice over IP and
business continuity, according to a new report.
Britain's small companies have not made business continuity a foundation of
the business, opting instead for rudimentary business recovery plans as an
afterthought, the report concludes.
"I am surprised to see just how many SMEs still only use on-site back-up for
their data. This is true for 68 per cent of respondents," said Dominic List,
managing director of
Comtact,
the firm behind the survey.
Comtact is a provider of hosted IT and telecoms solutions, so is naturally
pushing hosting as a means to ensure robust business continuity as well as
boosting efficiency from technologies like VoIP and mobile working.
The survey covered senior decision makers, mostly managing or financial
directors, in 200 businesses in the south east of England with 50 to 100
employees.
VoIP was one area where small businesses are missing a trick, according to
the report. Only 15 per cent are using VoIP for all or part of their
telecommunications, but many are using
Skype.
"Most companies recognise Skype as a consumer product that offers very little
business functionality," said report author Simon Knockton.
"However, it is encouraging to see that 52 per cent of respondents are
considering VoIP deployment over the next six months."
Some 87 per cent of respondents can access email or files while outside their
office, mostly using a virtual private network, but said that this diminished
their access.
The Comtact report suggested that a hosted system would provide full access.
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