A recent study by an American communications firm has found call centres to lack adequate disaster recovery protocols, with many unable to maintain business in the event of an emergency.

Empirix, in partnership with DMG Consulting, questioned nearly 200 call centres from around the world to see which had systems in place for disaster recovery, as well as assessing such factors as application verification and technological infrastructure.

Amongst its findings, it noted that only 36.7 per cent of those interviewed had confidence that they could handle a business disruption without affecting their customers.

Furthermore, only 4.7 per cent stated that they did regular testing to make sure back-up systems were in place - a move, Empirex said - left 95.3 per cent of companies open to "complete meltdown".

It added: "Incredibly, 20 per cent of contact centres responding do not even have a disaster recovery plan."

Symantec today warned Indian companies that they were far behind their European and American counterparts in terms of disaster recovery and needed to catch up to compete.

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.connect.co.uk/services/online_backup – for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster