Smaller companies have been increasing their spending on IT solutions in recent months, a new survey reveals.

According to research conducted by Access Markets International (AMI), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK have invested some GBP 6.07 billion in IT services over the past year.

This figure covering SME spend for computing, software, networking support and other IT services was equivalent to an eight per cent rise on the figures recorded for the previous year.

Jacqueline Atkinson, an AMI analyst, explained: "In a way, this is not surprising, as companies need to support business operations and manage their IT infrastructures with an ever-increasing range of IT products and services."

However, she added that the growth in spending is also due to the expanding sphere of IT services, particularly in the area of IT security, storage and networking.

The AMI report highlighted that the everyday running of IT systems can eat up a significant proportion of SME budgets, along with software development and integration of new IT services.