Move over, Geek Squad. Here comes iYogi, a managed service provider of sorts that specializes in remote consumer and small business PC support. More than 70,000 users now pay an annual subscription for iYogi’s remote support services. But the story doesn’t end there.
iYogi’s business pitch is pretty basic:
“Online computer support is simple. You give us the green-light to connect to your computer remotely and we will fix your PC while you kick back and relax.”
Hmmm. Eager to learn more, The VAR Guy traded email with Vishal Dhar, president and head of marketing at iYogi. Here’s a sampling of the conversation.
The VAR Guy: Industry buzz suggests you’re growing and hiring. True?
Dhar: iYogi has been growing very rapidly to support high demand for our support services and an innovative delivery model. We currently have 850 employees, which is up from 650 just three months ago and 450 a year ago. In addition, as part of our unique global service delivery strategy and to support growing North American demand, we are rapidly recruiting and training additional US-based support staff to enhance our current base of 150 employees here.
The VAR Guy: So, are you looking to fill positions in North America?
Dhar: We are aggressively recruiting North American service personnel to support our high demand here and our overall global support strategy. That involves the training and hiring of hundreds of individuals here as well as teaming with other personnel networks and resources.
The VAR Guy: You acquired Clean Machine Inc. earlier this year. What triggered the deal?
Dhar: We announced the acquisition of Clean Machine Inc, a provider of remotely administered PC security and performance management services, in May of this year. Clean Machine was a natural fit as part of iYogi’s global delivery support model, and has helped further extend our market reach and support infrastructure in high growth regions. We expect to leverage the strong leadership, customer base, and remote support expertise that Clean Machine
brings to the table.
The Bottom Line
iYogi sounds like a virtual Geek Squad for small businesses and consumers. At $139.99 a year for unlimited PC support, iYogi seems to have set an aggressive price to troubleshoot consumers’ PCs, printers, MP3 players and applications.
The big questions: Can iYogi scale its business in a profitable way? Are small businesses looking for this type of consumer-designed virtual helpdesk support? The VAR Guy is all ears.
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And like all so-called “remote support” services, what do they do when the machine won’t even boot?
Many, possibly most, PC repair issues require on-site support. That’s a reality these services gloss over.
And $140 for “unlimited” PC support? Please. That’s as realistic – even if they are in India – as “unlimited” bandwidth and disk space for $10/month from your ISP.
Remote support has its uses, IF it’s backed up by techs who can go on site as needed.
Richard Steven Hack: The VAR Guy respects your healthy dose of skepticism. Our resident blogger will watch closely as iYogi continues to build its business.
We looked at partnering with iYogi about a year ago. They’re well run and well funded, and have a decent remote support & management solution. Clearly their growth indicates that some folks find it appealing.
My guess though is that they are most appealing to micro-businesses, those with fewer than 5 computers and perhaps only 1. Those tend to be the clients with the tightest budgets, and the ones most prone to “DIY” solutions (for better or worse).
I don’t see them getting much traction in the more mainstream small business space, where things like relationship-building, on-site support, and the ability to go beyond just repair and maintenance into things like recommending and supporting “enhanced technologies” (VoIP, electronic document managemnet, SaaS solutions, Search Engine Marketing, etc) become important.
That’s why I think the future belongs to a company that can offer global support and economies of scale with local owners building relationships and providing the on-site solutions. (Not that I’m at all biased in this – since that’s what my company does).
Chip Reaves, Computer Troubleshooters
Chip: Thanks for the deeper information. Generally speaking, it sounds like iYogi has considerable momentum in the consumer market. And The VAR Guy’s best guess is that iYogi plans to potentially offer some more localized support in North America. But your points about local solutions providers working closely with local business owners are well taken.
We offer services from as low as about $1 a day.
Not all you can eat just patching and full antivirus support. AVAST Bitdefender Viper(not that we will ever deploy that again) AVG. That model will work in a fully proactive environment where key services are monitored and fixed before the customer even knows what has happened. We are developing our own scripts to suplement the short commings of our platform of choice.
Things like restarting services that are hogging resources before it becomes an issue.
Companies we deal with would loath services like above if they have no onsite support. We aim to gain high quality customers that are able to look after simple issues like plugging in a usb. Relationships are important!! We have about 4 techs for a group of sites all being onsite techs or in the workshop for major repairs.
I dont know about anyone else but I would hate some random looking after my PC at work.
We offer cheep services compared to others but you have to trade off if people require those services. The less they use them the better so you have time to manage them automaticaly via new scripts to automate tasks.
The point of small businesses requiring a more comprehensive support relationship is well-taken. iYogi has its place in the consumer market where most local computer consulting companies’ hourly rates are simply too expensive for home computer support. Most small businesses–even if they have only one or two computers–want a technology partner, the so-called “trusted advisor”, that not only answers his or her cell phone at all hours, but understands their business in a strategic sense and can offer solutions that have demonstrable return on investment. iYogi, and others, can have the low-end of the IT support market, but will struggle mightily with even the smallest of businesses for this reason.