The VAR Guy

Okay, so the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. But here’s the upshot: FedEx — a major economic bellwether — just delivered horrible financial results, and nearly one-third of CEOs expect to make job cuts over the next few months. But OnForce, the online marketplace for IT service providers, is feeling pretty upbeat about business in North America. Here’s why.

Paul Nadjarian, senior VP of marketing and product at OnForce, notes that managed service providers (MSPs) are using the OnForce marketplace to outsource business to one another. Check MSPmentor for more info on this MSP outsourcing trend.

The VAR Guy, however, would like to focus on two other trends. First, OnForce is now publishing a quarterly “State of the Industry” report — in which the company highlights key IT project trends across the US. Since OnForce can track IT service engagements down to the ZIP code, the company can offer a unique look at IT spending and project trends by region, by technology and so forth.

The report, OnForce says, includes Q1 data and analysis on the following topics:

• Most expensive states for IT projects
• Highest volume states IT service engagements
• Most expensive cities
• Highest volume cities
• Highest volume ZIP codes
• Most expensive IT categories
• Most expensive IT sub-categories

In other words, the report is a cheat sheet of sorts for MSPs and solutions providers who are trying to spot key IT spending trends, set hourly pricing, move into new markets, etc.

It’s a safe bet that OnForce will eventually expand its quarterly report beyond US borders. The company’s Canadian marketplace, still in its infancy, is growing 4X faster than the North American marketplace grew during its infancy, notes Nadjarian. (However, Nadjarian concedes that the 4X figure is adjusted to reflect the fact that the Canadian IT opportunity is roughly one-tenth that of the US opportunity.)

Even if you don’t follow the math (The VAR Guy pretends he does), measuring OnForce’s mood is easy. The company remains upbeat.