Firms with disaster recovery plans in place need to make sure that their staff are fully aware of them or implementing them could be a waste of time, it has been claimed.

According to an article in Computerworld, not educating employees can have a devastating effect on a firm.

John Linse, disaster recovery expert, told the publication: "The people side of disaster recovery planning is often overlooked. There's almost this 'shoot, ready, aim' kind of approach."

The report tells of one firm which did not have an effective disaster recovery plan in place and, when it suffered a power outage, it was left to a security guard to take the decision to send 1,300 staff home.

According to the website, the situation lasted two days and cost the firm almost £750,000.

Last week, the government warned UK firms that they are over reliant on the internet and need to plan for the possibility of a prolonged outage.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service - http://www.totalrecall.co.uk – for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster