Two giants in their respective fields have shown their faith in outsourcing after striking multi-million-pound deals with other firms to provide their IT support.

Hotel group De Vere has handed control of its IT to CMS, which will now provide technical support and consultancy to the firm's 5,000 staff at 50 hotels and fitness clubs, as well as its 26 management training venues.

In another major deal, international drug giant Novartis has arranged a seven-year deal IT outsourcing contract with BT, reportedly worth GBP 240 million.

While the outgoings may be fairly large, the cost-cutting measure is set to create jobs and boost profits for the telecoms firm.

A Novartis spokesman said that for his company: "Part of the savings can be invested back into the business."

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".