Less than one in four small to mid-sized enterprises are using any kind of hosted email failover solution or backup email continuity service to minimise email downtime, according to a new research report published today by Connect. Over three-quarters (89%) of companies with under 50 employees surveyed had no way of accessing emails if they suffered from a serious server failure.  The survey also found that “email and internet downtime” was the one of the single biggest headaches for SMEs - only “day to day hassles” and “lack of staff IT knowledge” were bigger problems for SMEs than email downtime.

The survey was conducted by an independent research company on behalf of Connect, and consists of in-depth interviews with IT Managers and Directors at 151 UK companies in a range of industry sectors.

The survey also found that almost half (42%) of the IT managers questioned felt that their company could only cope for a day without access to email before they personally would be threatened the sack

Mark MacGregor, CEO, Connect, comments:
“This research has revealed some alarmingly casual attitudes towards email downtime, with the majority of businesses having no back up systems in place to cope with minor or major problems.  For most companies, losing the ability to send and receive emails, even for relatively short periods, can damage their business performance or reputation.  Email continuity programmes are relatively inexpensive and provide SMEs with peace of mind, even if their systems suffer serious failure.”