When The VAR Guy’s phone rang Thursday night, a rather upbeat voice was on the other line. “This is going to be our year,” crowed Maria Battaglia, senior VP of marketing at OnForce, an online marketplace for contract service professionals. Why was Battaglia so upbeat about OnForce and its partner community? The answer involves the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Consider the following scenario: Cisco Systems, Netgear and other networking companies launched a plethora of home entertainment devices at CES. Fast forward a few months, and The VAR Guy expects thousands of consumers to seek installation and configuration help for all of those “intuitive” network devices.
That’s where OnForce enters the picture. Designed as an eBay of sorts for VARs, service providers and contract professionals, the OnForce marketplace allows solutions providers to bid on projects across the US and Canada.
OnForce Heads for Home
When the OnForce marketplace in January 2008 expanded from corporate IT to consumer electronics, The VAR Guy was skeptical. Do North American homes — armed with millions of Web 2.0 savvy teenagers — really need on-site IT support?
Apparently, yes. Despite the withering economy, demand for on-site consumer electronics support remained strong through at least 3Q 2008, reports OnForce.
And now, corporate IT vendors are training their partners for the consumer market. Cisco, for instance, has launched the Cisco Consumer Channel Network (Cisco CCN) to help:
“resellers that cater to customers in the home and small office/home office (SOHO) market space.”
Where is this all heading? It’s easy to imagine a day when Cisco’s CCN partners leverage the OnForce marketplace to outsource consumer electronics engagements to one another.
Challenges Remain
Still, The VAR Guy doesn’t want to suggest online IT marketplaces are recession proof.
No doubt, the demand side (VARs seeking new business engagements) for OnForce will remain strong. But the supply side (VARs and customers willing to outsource IT projects) could face challenges as businesses and consumers sort out their IT priorities amid the recession.
Nevertheless, Battaglia and OnForce CEO Peter Cannone liked what they saw at CES: Hundreds of new, IP-enabled consumer devices poised to enter the market. Soon, consumers will be calling for help with all of those devices. Battaglia expects the OnForce service pros to answer those calls.
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Tags: | CES | Consumer Electronics Show | Maria Battaglia | OnForce | OnForce Marketplace | online marketplace | Peter Cannone
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