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Be prepared!

Written by Paula Devine | 06 Jun 2013

Close to 100 Bedfordshire and Luton businesses completed a survey during Business Continuity Awareness Week this March about how prepared they are if disaster strikes. In a prize draw that accompanied the survey Bedfordshire business Kidatu Ltd won an iPad Mini and a free session with experts from the Bedfordshire and Luton Local Resilience Forum (BLLRF) to develop its Business Continuity Plan.

Kidatu Ltd, based in Silsoe, is a teleconferencing company providing a wide range of secure teleconferencing services to businesses and charities around the world. They are one of only four companies approved by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service to deliver the specialist service of Court hearings by telephone, saving costs and travel, allowing legal proceedings to take place securely via teleconferencing.


Kidatu Director Helen Roberts, said “It’s vital for companies take precautions in case of unexpected interruptions such as power cuts, adverse weather or fire. Only this week we were reviewing the business continuity kit we would take with us if we’re ever evacuated from our office. One of our apprentices, Sarah, suggested that we should add an iPad to the kit as a further method of accessing our systems remotely, and now we’ve won an iPad Mini! We’re pleased we entered the survey and are looking forward to further developing our plans.”


“It’s of concern to me that many companies, especially in Luton, seem unprepared for a disaster like fire or theft,” said Area Commander Tony Rogers, of the Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Tony, who heads BLLRF’s Business Continuity Awareness Working Group went on: “One in five Bedfordshire businesses could face a major disruption but two thirds don’t have a plan to get them back in business. We know half of businesses affected by a major incident without a recovery plan go bankrupt within the following year. This could be a major blow to the local economy, local employment and local services.

“It’s good to see Kidatu taking Business Continuity Management (BCM) seriously, its about planning a business’s return to normality as quickly and painlessly as possible if there is a major disruption. It makes good business sense - if you suffer a disaster your competitors could take your customers and your business. Local business people owe it to their staff, their customers and their community to start thinking about what they would do if disaster struck."

Find out more by listening to BLLRF’s PodCast about Business Continuity, just go to https://www.bllrf.org.uk/content/?area_id=5

Topics: Bedfordshire, Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, Luton

Paula Devine

Written by Paula Devine

Paula is Head of Membership and Global Services at Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce.

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