The SMME sector is the country's fastest-growing industry, contributing more than 40 percent of South Africa's gross domestic product.

Information technology (IT) infrastructure firms should focus on the requirements of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to capitalise on the growing outsourcing opportunities in the small business sector, says research company Frost & Sullivan.
However, Frost & Sullivan said this sector was being overlooked by big telecoms companies, which preferred to outsource services to more established companies.

The research company's industry analyst, Lindsey McDonald, said big firms should outsource business to firms of all sizes, as this would boost the small business sector.

Neotel, the second fixed-line operator, has already committed to procuring some of its services from SMMEs.

Frost & Sullivan found that the South African IT infrastructure outsourcing market earned revenues of between $2.78 billion (R18.2 billion) and $3.5 billion last year. The company estimated that this would reach $5.6 billion in 2012.

McDonald said: "The growing need to focus on core competencies amid rising competition is driving firms to outsource processes that are not in their area of expertise."

McDonald said skills shortages and high bandwidth costs were restraining the growth of the local infrastructure outsourcing market.

Other restraints include poor adherence by service providers to the provisions of service level agreements.

By Thabiso Mochiko http://www.busrep.co.z

What are the most outsourced business services outsourced today? This is the first time anyone has mentioned outsourcing IT jobs. My business utilizes computers to get our work done, so when out network is down we lose the ability to operate. I have an IT department but if I had a less expensive alternative that provided the same results, there is no question I would consider outsourcing my IT department.