What do Richmond, VA, Orlando, FL and Irving, TX have in common? All three are among the 25 highest volume cities in the U.S. for IT services, despite not being anywhere near the top 75 in overall population.

Did you know that hourly rates in the VoIP/telephony are more than 50% higher than in the point of sale category? And that networking category is even less expensive per hour than POS?

Find these truths and much, much more in the soon-to-be-released Q1 State of the Industry report. To request a copy, just drop me a comment or send a note with “industry report” in the subject line.

Ever wonder how expensive your town and state are for IT services compared to other areas? Or which cities have the most project volume? How about the hourly rates for VoIP upgrade vs. POS installation vs. printer repair? Curious about how the economic slowdown is affecting the service business within the channel overall?

Sure, you can find some of this info with our MarketView Index. But since we’re curious by nature, we wanted to know more. So we started digging into the vast wonders of our database of real-world work orders… and digging.

Stay tuned for answers to these questions and more with the upcoming release of the IT service sector’s first-ever State of the Industry report. This report will provide never-before-seen details into the current condition of the IT services industry from the entire 1st quarter.

This report will be made available free of charge to any interested VARs, solution providers, OEMS and service firms, as well as industry media and analysts. Release date to be shared shortly, but if you’d like to request a copy, just drop us a comment or shoot us an email with “Industry Report” in the subject line.

As of today (that’s v 4.6.2 for those of you keeping score at home), providers can now include comments when they make a conditional offer to a buyer.

This enables buyers and providers to interact directly, so buyers can better understand the reason(s) behind a conditional offer. Our intent is to help establish greater communication and trust early in the process. Learn more about how this feature works.

We’re pleased to announce the launch of version 4.6 of our platform. This release includes several new features that will make the platform more powerful and easier to use for buyers to find, manage and pay contract IT service pros, and for OnForce providers to manage the work they receive.

Buyer Routing Rules: The routing rules feature enables administrators, managers and staff members to save routing requirements and apply them when routing a work order. This simplifies routing when creating work orders or when using the API. Learn more by contacting your account manager or clicking here.

New WAP Functionality: Conditional offers can now be made through the WAP site, and when rejecting a work order, providers have the ability to request that they do not receive future notifications concerning that work order. For details, check out the related provider help topic.

Renamed and Redesigned Provider Command Center: The Online Office is now the Provider Command Center - and more than just the name has changed. The navigation now resides on the left side of the page, and the look and feel is aligned with the design of the Buyer Command Center. This brings us one step closer to our future vision for a unified Command Center for all OnForce users.

New Provider Command Center Features: New Provider Command Center functionality has been introduced with this release, including:
*Provider Supervisors can now manage multiple technicians through the calendar view.
*The work order search now allows providers to search by work order title.
*The withdrawal amount has been increased from $999 per day to $2500.
*Service through AT&T has been added as an SMS option.

OnForce is excited to announce the launch of version 4.5 of our platform. This release includes features and enhancements that will make the OnForce marketplace easier to use and enable our buyers and providers to gain even greater financial benefit, including:

Buyer Rebate Program: This is a newly created volume-based rewards program that enables buyers to earn rebates of up to 30% off the $11 OnForce access fee when their monthly work order totals hit certain volume thresholds. Based on the volume of work orders routed per calendar month, buyers will receive a portion of their OnForce access fees in the form of credit that is applied to their Buyer Command Center. Learn more about the Buyer Rebate Program.

Canadian Expansion: As we continue to grow our presence in Canada, we want to remind service buyers who need contract IT professionals across Canada that they can now use OnForce to find, manage and pay these service pros. We are actively recruiting more providers and continuing to build our marketplace, but we already have strong coverage in key metro markets like Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal. Check out the Canadian marketplace at www.onforce.ca.

Revised Provider Commission Structure: Over the past year, OnForce has observed a dramatic increase in the number of high-value work orders in the marketplace (eg – micro-staffing engagements, weeklong work orders, etc). In these instances, our providers and buyers alike gave us feedback that the 10% fee was too high a price for providers to fairly incur. In response to this trend and the feedback from the marketplace, OnForce has implemented a revised provider commission model for work orders that are greater than $1,000.

This new commission structure is tiered and based on pre-tax work order price, including parts. It affects only those work orders that close at $1,000 or more. This new structure will be automatically applied to all work orders and providers. Check out the full details of our revised provider commission structure.

Active Work Orders Page: The Active Work Orders page in the Online Office has been updated to enable our providers to better organize and manage their work orders. Work orders are now grouped by status: Routed, Open, Problem, Cancelled, Awaiting Payment and Missed.

This new design also enables a provider’s work orders to be sorted by ID, Date Added, Date Scheduled, Appointment, Scope of Work, Location and Price.