OnForce, an American-based online service delivery marketplace for the IT and consumer electronics (CE) markets, wants Canada to be its fastest growing market by next year, its CEO said.
The privately-held company is located in Lexington, MA., and was established five years ago. Peter Cannone, CEO of OnForce, says the Web-based marketplace is designed to connect service professionals who deliver services, to those end-users who require specific services-related jobs to be done.
“We have over 13,000 highly skilled, on-demand service professionals in the U.S. and Canada, who are active and registered on our site,” Cannone said. “The people who use Onforce are VARs (value-added resellers), services companies that range from small to large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), to major retailers, to brokers and buyers who are purchasing services on behalf of (a business).”
With a growing list of service professionals that span across the U.S. and Canada, Cannone says service categories include rollout, installations, repairs, training, as well as onsite support services. Technology-solution areas that can be found through OnForce include: audio, home theatre, security, wiring and cabling, PC desktops and laptops, printers, servers, software and VoIP, as well as many others.
Using the site, customers can search for service professionals in specific solution areas or skills sets and can also facilitate payment through the marketplace. Cannone said partners can even bid on work if customers allow it.
“If a customer finds 10-20 service professionals they like, they can tell them how much they’re willing to pay for that event and the first(partner) to accept that will win the business,” Cannone explained.
There’s no cost to join OnForce because it’s an “open” marketplace, Cannone said. The company makes its money by charging a $15 service fee from the service buyer and also receives 10 per cent of the total fee, that’s collected by the service professional.
The benefits of joining OnForce include better efficiencies and geographic reach across boarders, Cannone added.
“OnForce is a place to help manage costs and to be more competitive in the market by getting better reach,” he said. “Service professionals can offer specialty IT or skills sets to their customers and they can also use this platform on-demand.”
Currently, Cannone says there are between 800-1,000 active service professionals using OnForce in Canada, with plans to grow more.
“We want to make sure we have an optimal amount of service providers in Canada to meet the needs of the buyers,” he said. “We believe in scaling the number as demand goes up. We’re hoping to see Canada become our fastest growing marketplace next year.”
Up next for OnForce, Cannone says the company will further its expansion and partner reach by making a global play into the UK and Germany markets next year.
