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Firms are not making full use of their staff's IT skills, it has been claimed.

ITPro.co.uk reports the results of a new survey conducted by FileMaker which found that 82 per cent of school leavers are confident about their business IT skills.

However, despite the fact that people leave school familiar with a variety of software packages not all firms make use of them.

According to the study 85 per cent of respondents know how to use PowerPoint but only 39 per cent do so as part of their working life.

Similary 88 per cent of people are aware of how to use spreadsheet software but only 62 per cent make use of it while at work.

Last week analysts Gartner warned that firms should modernise their IT equipment and software now or face problems in future.

One element of IT firms might want to look at improving is business continuity and disaster recovery planning, which can be vital in avoiding data loss.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service - http://www.totalrecall.co.uk – for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.