Businesses stand to make annual savings of more than £1m by reducing their number of IT providers and combining technologies, a study has suggested.
The survey of 500 CIOs also suggested that giving employees the freedom to work wherever and however they choose would reduce absenteeism by 10%, the equivalent of a £1.7bn boost to the economy.
The research commissioned by Virgin Media Business showed that, on average, UK companies spend £4m on IT in the workplace each year, usually spread over seven different providers.
But by running phone, Internet, video and multimedia over one network the majority of CIOs estimated they could save more than £1m a year.
Three-quarters of them also believed employees would be happier and more productive being able to work remotely or while on the move, using smartphones and tablets to carry out everyday tasks.
This would lead to an average of a 10% drop in absenteeism, they agreed, taking back £1.7bn from the £17bn lost annually through people calling in sick, as estimated by the Confederation of British Industry.
