In fact, WFM Motors IT and telecommunications manager Philip Smith said the arguments for and against outsourcing have gone on for many years.

"It works for non-core and non-customer focused areas of IT; for example, I wouldn't outsource the helpdesk," Smith said.

"If something is a key differentiator you want to keep it yourself to maintain a leading edge; I wouldn't want anything that is customer sensitive to be in the hands of someone else."

Stanley Chapman, the MIS manager of agricultural distribution company AGCO Australia, doesn't outsource at all.

"We have a very specialized type of business and a small team of five people dedicated to Windows, systems security and our dealer system. I think we are a low-cost group and it would be an enormous task having to teach an outsourcer how the business operates," he said.