OnForce, the online community exchange of IT professional services, is
celebrating the milestone of facilitating its 1 millionth job order in its
five-year history.
The job order that put OnForce over the 1 million mark actually occurred
several weeks ago. OnForce, which connects buyers of IT services with solution
providers able to perform jobs, says the celebration is more about the
accomplishment of its community.
“Our community did a million jobs, and we’re thrilled that we were the
engine that powered a million jobs getting done,” says Maria Battaglia,
OnForce’s senior vice president of marketing.
In a statement released by OnForce, CEO
Peter Cannone said, “This accomplishment demonstrates the success and high
satisfaction rate our service buyers have experienced with finding top quality
service technicians, who have the breadth of industry certifications they need
within the OnForce marketplace. We are proud of all the service
technicians and buyers who have helped us reach this goal and we believe that
our cost savings model and broad geographic footprint will further accelerate
the adoption of our marketplace in the future.”
OnForce was founded on the concept of solution providers trading excess
labor capacity in an open market. Buyers—solution providers needing skilled
workers—place bids on the OnForce exchange for providers—solution providers
with capacity. The exchange makes connections in several mainstream domains in
business-class technologies and consumer-level electronics. More than 13,000
providers in the United States
and Canada
participate in the OnForce exchange.
Critics of OnForce say the service commoditizes professional services by
artificially driving down labor costs through the open exchange. OnForce says
the million-ticket milestone dispels such criticisms and serves as reflection
of the value buyers and providers gain from the service. Battaglia says OnForce
continues to attract more buyers and providers, and an increasing number of
enterprises and large VARs are using the service to augment their capabilities.
