Channel Insider and OnForce, the world’s largest marketplace for IT professionals, have entered into a strategic partnership to share and develop market intelligence and research tools for the IT channel community.

The two companies will collaborate on co-branded research reports and other tools aimed at providing IT solution and service providers, as well as vendors, with granular and actionable market intelligence. Channel Insider’s Web site will host an access module to OnForce’s groundbreaking MarketView Index, a detailed, real-time listing of service pricing in 13 technology categories.

“The partnership between Channel Insider and OnForce will give solution providers deeper insight into services pricings on the regional level and will lead to greater market intelligence that will help solution providers accelerate their business,” said Lawrence M. Walsh, vice president and group publisher of Channel Insider. 

Launched in 2007, the MarketView Index is a free tool that provides a real-time picture of the IT services landscape. It enables users to see a state-by-state and category-by-category view of vital statistics such as service professional coverage, most recent pricing trends and median time for work-order acceptance in the OnForce network. The MarketView Index is a direct reflection of demand for technology services and provides insight into existing and future local IT market conditions.

“OnForce has become the industry standard for finding contract IT professionals and, based upon the volume of service work transacted daily in our marketplace, we have unique visibility into trends that are shaping the industry,” said Matt Johnston, vice president of marketing for OnForce. “We look forward to further engaging with the channel through this alliance with Channel Insider to provide data that will help VARs and solution providers grow their business profitably in all economic climates.”