The opportunities presented to big IT companies during the recession will be great in number, according to a market expert.

Regional senior vice president at Oracle Ian Smith made his assertions on the current state of the technology sector to delegates attending the Intellect Annual Regent Conference 2009.

He stated that the companies in the best position are those who anticipated the recession and as such made the adjustments to cost levels early in the transition, adding that many will be able to seize the opportunity to take over rivals.

Mr Smith continued: "The fact is that those who have been lean all along will probably win both in terms of the ability to acquire and market growth.

"There are opportunities, lots of opportunities and now is the time for boldness and there certainly are people being bold."

Millennium Gloucester Hotel hosted the event on February 10th, focusing on the annual overview of market expectations for the immediate future.

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