Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain are becoming more open to the idea of embracing emerging technology, a recent study has found.

Computing, an online news resource, noted the results of research carried out by CompTIA which found that 65 per cent of SMEs in the UK were regularly monitoring new technology, while 51 per cent of American businesses and 39 per cent of Canadian firms do the same.

European vice-president of CompTIA Matthew Poyiadgi said that British SMEs were much more convinced that technology is necessary for competition.

He continued: "The challenge is identifying which emerging technologies are going to be successful."

"Choosing which horse to back is considerably easier if you have a talented pool of staff providing you with good, up-to-date information."

The research contradicts trends found by Dell Computers, which recorded a 9.84 per cent loss in yesterday's mid-morning trading after announcing a "further softening" in global technology demand, according to the Times.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) 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'