IT outsourcing can be a solution for businesses who want more flexibility than using contractors allows, research shows.

A report by Morse shows 71 per cent of UK firms have previously used temporary staff to address skills shortages, but 52.5 per cent say they are paying too much for these services.

Mike Devlin, a director at the company, claims using this model to employ staff can help fill gaps quickly but prevents businesses from responding to problems rapidly.

He states: “Flexible resourcing can be an attractive proposition for many businesses as they can turn on and off resources when required rather than committing to a costly contractor for a set amount of time.”

Mr Devlin calls for companies to allocate a flexible resourcing budget, to allow cost-effective use of skills resources through IT outsourcing.

Recently, the India Times predicted that businesses would increasingly use IT outsourcing as a result of analysing their cost structures.