Barbara:
We found several benchmarking reports and statistical reports regarding business continuity during the revision of Emergency Management for Records and Information Programs, 2nd Edition.  The following two findings we used in the book include the resources:

(1) According to Gartner Research, a 20-year survey of Fortune 500 crisis readiness by the University of Southern California’s Center for Crisis Management demonstrated two troubling conclusions: (1) the incidence of intentional damage to corporate assets has risen markedly during the past 10 years, and (2) between 75 and 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies are not prepared to manage a new type of crisis.2
The study explored the importance of business continuity plans with any additional requirements that companies have regarding the plans, especially as it relates to emerging technologies. Most IT executives expressed concerns about the increased usage of social networking capabilities and mobile networks/ devices and their potential impact on security threats.*
*[Kristen Noakes-Fry and Trude Diamond, "Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning and Management: Technology Overview," Gartner, Inc. (11 July 2003): 2.]
(2) A 2010 national Business Continuity Study by AT&T included 530 IT executives in five U.S. metropolitan/ regional areas that responded to an online survey.   The key findings of the study include:
●Business continuity planning was seen as a priority by three out of four (76%) IT executives; half (50%) indicated that it had been a priority for their businesses; and one-fourth (26%) indicated that it had become a priority in recent years because of natural disasters, security, and terrorist threats.
●Eight out of ten (83%) executives indicated that their companies had a business continuity plan; one out of two (12%) indicated that their companies did not have a plan; and 5% did not know whether a plan was in place.
●A majority (54%) had fully tested their business continuity plans in the past year; almost one-fifth (17%) last fully tested their plans more than a year ago; and 6% indicated that their plans had never been fully tested.
●Nationally, six out of ten (62%) companies implemented specific protective actions when the federal or state government issued an alert for an impending disaster.
●Three out of four (72%) executives indicated that their company had prioritized and set target recovery times for each key business process.
●Nationally, three out of ten (29%) companies had ever invoked their business continuity plan.
●Nationally, power outages at facilities or extreme weather were the primary reasons for invoking business continuity plans; U.S. Gulf Coast companies were significantly more likely to invoke their plans for extreme weather.3
3[2010 AT&T Business Continuity Study, U.S. National Results (2010). 7 May 2011
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=17839#statelinks and http://www.att.com/common/about_us/files/business_continuity/BusinessContinuity_2010_Summary.pdf.]

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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