The long-held perception that the chief justification for outsourcing IT operations is to save money has been challenged by a survey sponsored by software developer Information Builders, writes Tony Smith.

More UK businesses have used outsourcing to gain access to skills lacking among their IT staff than to save money, claims the survey, conducted by researcher Benchmark Research

Some 44% of companies that have outsourced their IT did so because they suffered a skills shortage, and 29% did so because they had too few employees to handle their IT needs, said the survey, based on interviews with 200 organisations employing over 1,000 people.

By contrast, only 26% of organisations interviewed listed cost-cutting as a motivation for seeking external IT provision. This marks a shift from the late 1980s, when outsourcing was seen as a solution to spiralling corporate IT costs, the survey said.

But according to the research, many of the UK?s biggest companies are now ?pausing for thought? before outsourcing their IT, and some are even bringing outsourced IT functions back into the fold.

Benchmark Research lays the blame for this disillusionment with outsourcing on the perception that many outsourced IT projects have left clients with no control of projects and with disappointing levels of financial savings.