Several small businesses are wasting valuable hours in their week trying to solve IT problems, according to new research.

More than one-third of UK firms have at least one IT problem per day, a BT Business study indicates.

Additionally, 33 per cent of respondents say that they waste more than 20 hours a month trying to solve these problems.

"In today's business world, where companies are dependent on IT to run their business, so much of the working day can be wasted if you don't have the right support to prevent and solve problems when systems don't perform properly," said Simon Scott, director BT Business' IT service for small businesses, IT manager.

Some 69 per cent of companies have a dedicated IT support team in-house, the figures reveal.

At the same time, £5,000 per month goes to fix such problems, the data states.

Mr Scott believes that a managed IT service could help small firms avoid devoting so much money and time to IT issues.

BT Business offers such services as broadband, networking and websites for small companies.