onforce

In some ways, OnForce is a barometer for the health of the IT channel. The company’s online marketplace allows roughly 13,000 VARs and onsite service technicians to quickly outsource work to one another across North America. Overall, prices within the OnFOrce marketplace stabilized for the second consecutive quarter, according to the Q3 OSMI report, which was released Oct. 21. Also of note: Cannone says October 2009 services engagements are up about 20 percent so far, compared to September 2009 services engagements.

OnForce’s perspectives — coupled with promising earnings results from IBM and other high-tech titans — suggest that the IT industry has bottomed out and technology spending is starting to improve, albeit slowly.

Still, Cannone is careful not to hype a potential recovery. He notes that many customers continue to hold onto their aging hardware, though there are hopes that Windows 7’s debut could begin to trigger a hardware refresh in 2010.

Even before Windows 7’s official launch on Oct. 22, VARs such as District Computers LLC report that they’re booked to manage Windows 7 customer migrations every weekend through January 2010.

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