OnForce, the eBay-like marketplace for IT services and individual providers, launched another new component to its marketplace platform on June 7.
Called PowerMatch, the component is designed to help refine the search for service providers. Customers can select several categories that fit the work they need done and the system then offers a ranked list of providers. Providers are ranked on a scale of 1 to 100 on how good a match they are for all those categories. Paul Nadjarian, senior vice president of marketing, compared the technology to that of online dating service eHarmony.
"Before you could just select one category," said Nadjarian. "Now you can select many. For example, 'Hardware' plus 'Cabling and wiring.' It's taking a system and putting it at a whole new level of precision into it."
Criteria for matching the customer to provider include: proximity to the location on the service event, degree of fit between the provider's skills and the specified tasks, brands of technology involved in the task, and provider experience with the type of specialized work.
The new component of the system is available for free to OnForce users.
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