Managers of small businesses in IT are spending too much time on administration when they should be cutting down on costs in such a practice, according to a new survey.

Speaking to over 100 IT directors, Vanson Bourne established that 45 per cent of them are spending up to one-fifth of their time carrying out administrative tasks, while small companies are spending even more - up to 58 per cent of their time.

Alan Smith, the senior vice-president at UC4, the firm which commissioned the research, said that in times of recession, businesses cannot afford to spend as much as one day a week on administration alone, adding that talented IT support workers are needed for much more important things.

He explained: "You wouldn't get the chief executive to sweep the office floor, so why are highly skilled workers being forced to spend so much time on easily automated tasks?"

Earlier this week, the Chartered Management Institute stated that 78 per cent of respondents to a recent poll wanted the government to help them expand the abilities of their workers to increase skills and revenue for themselves and the economy at large.

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.