A new report from BT found that many UK organisations are pleased with how well their converged networks work when they are outsourced.

Outsourcing is evidently a good option because the study shows that more than 40 per cent of companies were more satisfied with their managed services partners than they were before investing in a converged network. Only six per cent of organisations were less satisfied since adopting convergence.

The main driver for the better satisfaction rate was cost effectiveness, with improved network performance and reliability also cited as factors.

The services most commonly dependent on outsourcing are break-fix maintenance and managed wide area networks (WANs).

"Organisations can benefit from embarking on IP convergence by taking advantage of this unique opportunity to update the way they manage their infrastructure," said Jim Norton, a contributor to the report.

"As convergence is such a defined change, it allows them to draw a line under all of their old processes, configurations and work-styles and approach them in a more efficient and effective way."

The BT report was based on research carried out by market research firm Coleman-Parkes Research, which polled telephone, telecommunications, IT and network managers and directors from 250 organisations.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'