Back up IT systems or face penalty

Contractors are setting themselves up for unnecessary penalty payments from clients for the late delivery of contracts because they are not backing up their IT systems.
Neil Morrison, London managing partner for cost consultant Davis Langdon, claims that an increasing number of contractors are not putting in place contingency plans as they adopt expensive IT systems into their businesses.
"Many construction firms don't realise that work could stop for hours if IT systems go down. In the worst case scenario, important work could be lost,"
he said.
"IT systems can pose a big risk as clients will not allow a delay to a project caused by a system going down. Firms must be sure that they have plans in place and the right insurance to cover such a scenario."
Morrison added that despite an increasing interest in IT, construction was still spending between six to 10 times less than manufacturing. And industry was setting itself up with huge and unnecessary training issues by having so many project collaboration systems in place.
Morrison believes too many providers and suppliers are fighting for the same space. "There are currently around eight extranet providers with at least 20 other different but still similar systems being adopted by contractors and consultants," he said. "This leads to a huge training resource problem as staff that move between companies find they have to receive hours of training to get used to the new systems."