IT support executives could be suffering from the newest changes in technology which is resulting in the networks they oversee becoming harder to keep control of, it has been stated.

Vnunet.com's Ian Williams reported the comments made by Steve Shick of Blue Coat Systems, which led a study to find that as much as 40 per cent of business bandwidth was being used for non-work applications and websites.

Furthermore, it was noted that IT support executives would, on average, only be aware of 60 per cent of software on their network.

Mr Shick continued: "The growing use of resource-heavy applications such as software-as-a-service and videoconferencing, combined with the current economic climate, means that businesses need to have a clearer insight into their network than ever before."

Blue Coat Systems specialises in network integration and optimisation and was founded in 1996, providing solutions to over 15,000 customers worldwide.

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.