IT departments will disappear within five years as IT outsourcing is set to dominate the industry, it has been claimed.

Speaking to Computerweekly.com, Charles Black, chief executive officer of Nasstar, explained that firms are wasting time and money because they manage their IT systems onsite.

He told the website: "The IT industry is in the middle of an industrial transformation, which is ending the need for IT staff who install and support traditional on-premises desktop computers."

Mr Black added that staff working in this area will have to adapt in order to help their firm achieve a competitive advantage, rather than being retained by the company to deliver services which can be provided by outsourcers.

Yesterday ITPro.co.uk reported that retailer JD Sports is to outsource its IT operations.

According to the website the firm says it will save a total of GBP 2 million by doing so and has already run a successful pilot of the scheme.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.