LOCAL technology firms could benefit from an increasing trend for businesses to outsource their IT. A study by trade magazine Computer Weekly, based on a survey of more than 65,000 public and private sector organisations, named outsourcing as the fastest growing area of IT in the UK.

It forecast spending in this area would rise by 27% this year, which was more than three times the predicted annual growth for the technology sector as a whole.

Business IT consultant Roy Herring, the head of outsourcing services for local firm XKO, said the Channel Islands were showing a similar trend.

This was driven largely by the increasing complexity of modern systems and the speed with which technology was advancing.

‘Maintaining in-house expertise to support modern systems, in terms of recruiting, retaining and equipping staff with increasingly specialised skills, has become more and more costly,’ he said.

‘It is far easier for service providers to maintain this breadth of expertise and for organisations to tap into this by outsourcing some or all of their IT functions.

‘It is also much more flexible, with the ability to increase or decrease resources according to demand and no need to recruit, train and manage large in-house teams.’

Mr Herring said XKO recently expanded its outsourcing team, having won a number of new contacts.

These range from project work and the provision of specific services, such as technical support and help-desk facilities, to management of clients’ entire IT infrastructure.

Investec Channel Islands has fully outsourced. Director Stephen Henry said that there were tangible benefits for the local banking and trust operations and enabled in-house staff to focus on strategic issues.

‘We can maintain on-site knowledge and expertise without all the difficulties of recruiting and retaining trained staff.

‘We also have access to a much broader skills base than we could otherwise have, because although we still have only two IT support staff here at any time, they can draw on the experience of the whole XKO Group,’ he said.

Mr Herring said the extent to which organisations outsourced depended on specific requirements.

‘It is all about partnership, with the service providers listening to the needs of businesses and offering them the skills and expertise to help them meet their goals,’ he said.