An NHS trust in Wales has teamed up with Esteem Systems to develop its computer network and information management systems, it has been reported.

The Hywel Dda Trust has achieved annual cost and power consumption savings estimated at £40,000 since working with the company on its IT services, the ITPro website said.

It added the information management system on the computer network will be able to adapt to any future developments.

Paul Solloway, information management and technology services manager at the Carmarthenshire division of Hywel Dda NHS Trust, commented that the system "gives us a base for all our data storage requirements and is now replicated at our Llanelli site", ITPro reported.

He said it is a "totally scalable system which can be added to at little capital cost in the future", it added.

The Information Commissioner's Office last week encouraged public sector organisations to apply for a "prestigious" European award which recognises effective data protection policies and is aimed at increasing awareness of best practice in the field of data protection.

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.