Repair Work Accounts for 63% of Jobs in Q1

The latest data from OnForce continues to support the trend that the market for new installations of consumer electronics equipment has definitely stalled in favor of the repair market.

According to the OnForce Services Marketplace Index (OSMI), a quarterly report analyzing the "job tickets" that are booked via the OnForce automated platform for consumer electronics and IT installation and repair services, the first quarter of 2009 showed a dramatic increase in the percentage of repair jobs vs. new installs.

Specifically, 63 percent of all "events" were categorized as "break-fix" events, while only 31 percent were new installations.

The remaining 6 percent were training requests, such as needing an integrator to come over and retrain the homeowner how to operate his or her remote control.

"The data supports the five predictions we made last quarter in regards to the CE space," says Peter Cannone, CEO of OnForce. Those predictions were:

• The market will trend toward fix, not buy services.
• Consumers will be looking for the cheapest alternative.
• Consumers and businesses will look to outsource their service needs.
• Customers will drive the prices.
• The overall market for CE and IT will remain foggy.

Cannone did say that the statistics show that there is money to be made in HDTV. OnForce job tickets represent 12 percent of the overall HDTV warranty work in the U.S., according to Cannone.

"We think that HDTV repair work will continue to go up. HDTVs are temperamental."

Another identifiable trend appears to be an increase in front projector "events."

Cannone explains that this is likely due to the extreme reduction in business travel causing businesses to rely more on teleconferencing system use to "meet" with clients.

Overall, video (both installation and repair work) represents 22 percent to 24 percent of all the OnForce work orders.

On a regional basis, OnForce saw a dramatic decrease in work orders in Florida, Nevada and Arizona… three states hit hard by the housing decline.

Other highlights from the OSMI study for Q1 are:

• TV/ Video was the second highest volume category for onsite service in Q4; Desktop computer ranked first for the third quarter in a row.
• Hourly rates for Point-of-Sale (POS) service dropped for the first time in one year
• In Q4 hourly rates for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) fell below the national average; this changed in Q1 as hourly rates has now exceeded the average, although work order value fell in Q1.
• Hourly rates for Projector onsite service were more expensive than every other Consumer Electronics category
• Ohio, Indiana, and Massachusetts were the least-expensive states for onsite service in Q1 as opposed to Hawaii, Delaware and Maine that were the least-expensive states for onsite service in Q4. Hawaii and Delaware both moved in to the top 10 most-expensive states.
• Houston, New York and Chicago saw more onsite service volume than any other city in Q1 of 2009 for the second quarter in a row.

Most and Least Expensive Service Category Q1

Rank	Category	Hourly Rate Index	Average Total Work Order Value(Q1 2009)	Average Total Work Order Value(Q4 2008)	Change % from Q4
1	Projector	2.23	$327.84	$328.08	-0.1%
2	VoIP/ Telephony	1.76	$359.70	$482.52	-25.5%
3	Home Theater**	1.35	$216.97	$249.29	-13.0%
4	Peripheral	1.27	$116.64	$105.92	10.1%
5	Telephone / Intercom	1.27	$189.71	$201.79	-6.0%
6	Wiring & Cabling	1.25	$229.68	$275.19	-16.5%
7	TV/ Video**	1.24	$95.43	$108.88	-12.4%
8	Network / Server**	1.21	$129.68	$158.11	-18.0%
9	Point of Sale	1.13	$138.84	$148.53	-6.5%
10	Audio**	1.12	$170.35	$188.33	-9.5%
11	Printer	1.08	$109.94	$113.30	-3.0%
12	PCLaptop	0.94	$153.53	$205.28	-25.2%
13	PCDesktop	0.90	$114.38	$138.27	-17.3%
14	Security	0.89	$173.26	$229.21	-24.4%
15	Server	0.85	$167.22	$174.43	-4.1%
16	Software	0.78	$133.18	$114.96	15.8%
17	Network	0.75	$114.57	$141.90	-19.3%