Media
19 May 2010
56% of companies surveyed use specialist BC Planning software tools to manage their BC processes. Continuity Central
During March and April, Continuity Central conducted a survey about the merits of business continuity software versus standard Microsoft Office tools such as
Word and Excel.
The results showed that 56% of the 215 respondents used specialist software/online tools for managing all or part of their BC planning process. From a long list of comments received from survey respondents as to why they use specialist online tools, two main areas appeared, evidenced by the following quotes.
Better and much more effective than using standard Microsoft Office or Lotus applications/packages
- Because it's very difficult to create and maintain BCPs manually or with Office tools.
- Tried to do it using MS Office tools in the past and failed
- Have tried to use MS Office for maintaining BC plans but have always come across problems when tracking changes for audit purposes.
- Have used non-speciality tools (including Lotus Notes - which works even better than MS tools), but speciality tools automate processes better..
- Microsoft Office tools are not adequate when creating and maintaining a plan. I would never attempt BCP without a BCP planning tool.
- No-one can possibly use Office to keep up with planning, only use it now for documentation and training.
- There is no way that I would attempt to maintain and control the amount of information required in a comprehensive BC plan without a relational database tool - specifically a web-based, web-hosted application.
Ease of implementation, maintenance and reporting
- All-in-one, Web-based, easy to use.
- Ease of planning and management reporting.
- Easier to ensure standardization, report on plan progress/data, and track approvals etc; also ensures secure, 24/7 access to plans.
- Much efficient and effective to maintain the plans.
- Faster and easier implementation.
- Because we need a tool which is integrated, automatic and flexible.
- Total value: hosting, unlimited users, support training all in one..
- Easier with specialist planning tool.
An interesting conclusion ....
From comments of businesses that still use standard Office products, the main reason for doing so focused on 'ease of use', yet users of specialist tools found that this was indeed a feature of using online tools developed for this purpose.
With this in mind, ClearView has been developed in a collaborative way with 'real' users so that the screens and processes are clear, logical, intuitive and very much 'user friendly'. We are delighted that client comments support this aspiration. To find out more about ClearView or have an informal demo, please contact us.