SOLUTIONS specialist Waterstons is urging companies in the North-East to implement business continuity plans, in the wake of the recent floods across England.

The Durham company said firms needed to be more proactive and plan ahead in order to reduce the risks if a disaster occurs.

It is estimated that one in four companies are affected annually by extreme weather and 80 per cent of businesses affected by a major incident either fail to reopen or close within 18 months.

But floods are not the only threat that companies need to consider. Power-related incidents account for 26 per cent of business insurance claims and IT-related issues continue to dominate, with 78 per cent of firms reporting an online attack.

Waterstons business continuity expert Paul Wilson said: "Of course there is no way to predict when threats will turn into a full-blown disaster, but you can be proactive, reduce the risk and put in place contingency plans to help your business continue to operate and fully recover from a disaster.

"It is estimated that up to 70 per cent of the time it takes a business to recover is 'think time'.

"If you have already done the thinking before the disaster occurs, the impact on your business will be significantly reduced."

The first step in business continuity management is to assess the risks to a business and take steps to mitigate them.

Mr Wilson said: "These risks are not just IT-related, but extend to include the entire business - often businesses have only one person capable of carrying out a business-critical task, they might be storing highly-flammable goods in the middle of a warehouse or simply keeping a large quantity of paper-based records.

"The idea of this exercise is to identify all these risks and then reduce the threats, for example through training, moving flammable goods or introducing an electronic file storage system."

Business continuity plans keep a business running in the event of a disaster, whereas disaster recovery plans get the business back to its original state after the event.

"Business continuity management is essential for any business," said Mr Wilson.

"It is a proactive and long-term approach to ensuring that your business is resilient to disaster.

"Without it, the consequences can be disastrous."