UK businesses are wasting over 20 hours a month solving IT problems, spending around £5000 a year trying to fix them, research from BT has found.
A third of companies suffer from technology malfunctions every day, it said, while two thirds say they have problems at least once a week.
"The survey showed that 69% of companies have a dedicated in-house IT support team yet are still spending more than £5,000 a month fixing IT problems," it said.
The issue is seriously affecting the productivity of many small firms, with 33% of companies reporting that they spend up to 20 hours a month looking for a solution. More than half of respondents said that slow computers were their most frustrating problem, with a quarter reporting lost email a regular problem.
"In today's business world, small businesses depend on reliable IT infrastructure and systems to compete and thrive, whether it is communicating with clients, managing suppliers or delivering services for customers," said BT.
"The always-on demand for e-mail, the internet, computer applications, and critical areas such as managing customer data and thinking about business continuity can become extremely costly when IT problems arise."
