Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the UK are missing out on insurance deals that would otherwise be available to them if they had a business continuity plan in place. According to a Cloud Direct survey of 558 business and IT decision makers in UK SMBs, 54 percent of respondents were unaware there were insurance benefits to having a business continuity plan. This is despite 68 percent of people saying they already have a business continuity plan in place.

The survey also shows that almost one in every six UK businesses (15 percent) still don’t know what a business continuity plan is, despite 44 percent of businesses having experienced some form of business disruption – human error, IT failure or natural disaster.

According to a joint survey from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba) and the Cabinet Office in 2012, 83 percent of insurers would give a discount or improve terms to a business interruption policy if a business continuity plan were in place.