Opinion is divided among companies' IT managers across the Island about whether to buy Bermuda or source their products overseas.

Some preferred to remain loyal to local IT providers, while others were happy to look elsewhere for their items.

Christian Blais, vice-president of IT at Belco, said he was in favour of getting his hardware from the Island because local warranty provisions were honoured, so there was no need to make long distance phone calls abroad for IT support or to send damaged, broken or faulty goods all the way back to where they came from, incurring further costs and taking more time in the process.

"It is all about the serviceability of the local vendor market," he said.

"And you pay a little bit more for that."

He said Belco always sought to purchase locally and did price comparisons with products from Bermuda and overseas, finding that the margins have come down greatly between the two in the past few years.

"We buy hardware and IT systems almost 100 percent locally, but there are some exceptions for stuff that is not available here," he said.

Kevin Lohan, infrastructure manager at Max Capital Group Ltd., said that being based in Bermuda he wanted to buy from IT companies on the Island as much as possible.

"I think that dealing with a local company you get a bit better service compared to an overseas one," he said.

"If you buy from them the onus is on them to make sure they get things right."

But he said ultimately it comes down to price and often buying in Bermuda rather than from overseas worked out less expensive in the long run.

"I recently did a $500,000 project and priced it here and in the States," he said.

"I was surprised it came within about two percent and the US company was higher than the Bermuda company and I ended up buying from the Bermuda company.

"If I can get it within 10 to 15 percent of the US or Europe prices, then I will get it here - it is just the convenience factor.

"But I find things where Bermuda companies may gorge 50 or 80 percent on the product.

"If you perform the due diligence there are certainly good deals and benefits to buying in Bermuda, but being a small place, the width and breadth of what is available, sometimes buying overseas cannot be beaten."

Ken Siggins, IT manager at Conyers Dill & Pearman, said his company purchases from both on the Island and abroad.

"We try to support the local market, but we do buy quite a bit of stuff from CDW, one of the big distributors in the US," he said.

"I think this year we have done pretty well - for the Bermuda office we have sourced 80 percent from the local distributors and 20 percent from overseas, but obviously that changes depending on what we need to buy."