Businesses, including SMEs, could save money by outsourcing their IT infrastructure, a new report says.Findings published by Info-Tech Research Group, a global IT research organisation, show that businesses can save an average of 27 per cent if they outsource their IT infrastructure to specialists.IT outsourcing traditionally covers four key areas, and the research shows that some offer more savings than others. The best results are achieved by outsourcing IT infrastructure. The report also found that outsourcing application development could save 20 per cent, while outsourcing application support or help desk services saved 16 and 13 per cent respectively."Every enterprise should evaluate their infrastructure, both server and network, for an outsourcing fit. It has the highest average return, low variability of success and few risks," explained Jennifer Colasanti, a research consultant with the company.Outsourcing can be particularly beneficial to SMEs as it allows them to use similar systems as their larger competitors. Ms Colasanti explained, saying: "In these instances benefit drivers like access to more expertise, repurposing of employees and the reduction of management overhead and internal training bring greater benefit to the business than cost savings alone."Elsewhere, ihotdesk.com reports that many SMEs have expressed difficulties in using the new Microsoft operating system, Vista. A small retail firm told the publication that when they tried to load software on to Vista, it "failed to load properly".© Adfero Ltd