OnForce Services Marketplace Index for Q1 2010 Shows Promising Signs for Upcoming Year

BOSTON, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- OnForce, the trusted online services marketplace that matches service buyers with service professionals, released the OnForce Services Marketplace Index (OSMI) for the first quarter of 2010. The OSMI provides a comprehensive analysis of trends in information technology (IT) and consumer electronic (CE) services, based on thousands of service events across the United States and Canada. Key findings show that average work order pricing continued to stabilize for the fourth sequential quarter within the OnForce marketplace. Additionally, as we have seen in recent quarters, companies continue to opt to repair infrastructure in lieu of implementing new technology projects.  

"Several trends from 2009 continue to be at the forefront this year. Organizations of all sizes are still managing their service-related budgets tightly, which is evident as break-fix and warranty work dominated work orders in the OnForce marketplace during the first quarter," said Peter Cannone, CEO of OnForce. "However, with unemployment leveling off, consumer confidence growing, and several industry analysts predicting expansion in various technology areas this year, we are optimistic that 2010 will improve for the services industry in the coming quarters."

While break-fix and warranty service events were dominant in the OnForce marketplace, installation work remained steady and accounted for 32 percent of total work orders, which aligns with Q4 service event results.

"Although installation work saw minimal fluctuation this quarter, we are anticipating this will shift significantly in the coming months. As organizations delayed technology projects last year, there is now pent-up demand to deploy new infrastructure in order to stay competitive," said Cannone.

Other key findings include:

• The top four categories in Q1 2010 in terms of work order volume include:
  • PC Desktop: 29% (increase from 27% of total work order volume in Q4 2009.)
  • TV/Video: 16% (remained relatively flat compared to Q4.)
  • Network: 14% (decrease from 16% of total work order volume in Q4.)
  • Printer: 12% (increase from 9% of total work order volume in Q4.)
• Printer had the largest percentage increase in work order volume for any IT or CE service category.  
• TV/Video had the lowest Hourly Rate Index (HRI) in any category, with an HRI of 0.44.
• South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia were the least expensive states for on-site service in Q1, a shift from Q4 2009 when Oklahoma, Vermont, and South Dakota were the least expensive states.  
• Houston, New York, and Chicago saw the most on-site service volume in Q1 for the sixth quarter in a row.

"In this first quarter, there were some bright spots within the OnForce marketplace. Mostly we have seen several request for proposals, demonstrating that organizations are planning for larger technology implementations towards the latter half of the year," noted Cannone. "We are also expecting Point of Sale (POS) work to increase as retailers are being more proactive and are planning to deploy 'must-have' product refreshes."

The Q1 2010 report is available for download at: http://www.onforce.com/OSMI/q110 .

About OnForce

OnForce is the leading outsourced services network that connects service buyers with thousands of highly skilled service professionals to fulfill on-site work. With more than one million work orders completed, OnForce is the trusted marketplace that enables service buyers to lower service costs, improve service-level agreement compliance, achieve high customer satisfaction, and generate new streams of revenue quickly. The OnForce community is comprised of IT and CE service buyers and service professionals, located across the U.S. and Canada, who specialize in a variety of categories, such as computers, printers, networking, VoIP, Point of Sale, and more. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com.

SOURCE OnForce