Business continuity planning is now easier than ever, one expert has claimed.

Kelly Ostler-Coyle, spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers, explained that advances in technology mean that disaster recovery and business continuity planning is simpler than in the past.

She said that "things being online, being able to back things up on disc and keep them elsewhere [and] having laptops for people to work from home" have all made effective disaster recovery planning less of a hassle.

Ms Ostler-Coyle did warn that things such as remote working does lead to other issues, such as problems with viruses, but added that there are plenty of IT security solutions to this.

Last week, insurance and risk management firm Marsh found that many firms are overconfident about their business continuity plan and should thoroughly test it to ensure that it works as it should.

However, it did state that it is "encouraging" that a growing number of firms are aware of the importance of the issue.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk