PC Retail

Strange statement to make. Since the year dot, most independents have been either surviving or thriving on the service they provide rather than the product they sell. Admittedly, this is becoming increasingly critical. However, all buying/selling groups have their own fundamental flaws. One of those is the self importance of member numbers which is not always a good thing, but is certainly more suited to a buying than a selling group. The cake is only a certain size. Dividing it up into multiple parts within small geographic locations has detrimental impact on any member's ability to drive their own business growth as suppport calls for a given area are shared out. They lose aspects of control and customer ownership could well be lost. Then it becomes reliant on who has the best brown-nosing technique.

But there again feedback suggests that the selling group(s) really haven't made any real market penetration whatsover. A year on the focus is still inwards to the channel rather than outwards and public facing. It would be interesting to know just what the average service callouts per fixitlocal agent per month during the last 12 months has been together with growth/month analysis.

I'm not berating such new types of groups but what I am pointing out is that the above statement is yet again demonstrating internal rather than the critical end customer focus required. Buying groups, even those undergoing a metamorphosis, will not become extinct through words alone but only through showing they are succesful in delivery.

CORRECTION:
"Buying groups will not become extinct through words alone but only through selling groups showing they are successful in delivery"

FixItLocal is such a success, paid since the start, received 2 calls - one of which was in error

i agree with what you are saying about your plumbing, but its not really portable. if your car is broken do you take it to the garage or does the manacic come arround your house. the answer of course is both. cant start got a flat battery the aa come to you and yes they can fix a lot at the side of the road. but major repairs always require a garage.
i believe that inalsectors of the it repair industry the will be a mixture of both home visits and drop off repairs. the nature of technology means that fixing someones broad band means you have to be on site whilst virus removal offen require the machine to be machine to be taken away . why would someone want to pay callout for the privalidge of you picking up the machine or want to pay �49.99 for you sitting drinking thier tea whilst watching the antivirus scan the hard drive?

Our company has paid fixit local from the start aswell. Had ZERO calls, even with me covering more than one area!! They keep telling us of business contracts that they have won, yet still waiting to see the fruits!

On another note, will also be changing contract from V-Networks (who fixit local make you sign your telecomms with so you can use the fixit service) as they have got my bill wrong every month since being with them

The challenge for customers is to find high quality, reputable service providers. That's why we at www.PCIQ.com are pioneering the use of ratings and reviews for independent IT service providers. We are seeing rapid growth in customer take-up based on this approach and over 97% positive approval ratings. I would recommend service providers that want more work investigate how to build their online reputation space - www.PCIQ.com is one good way of doing that.

Every current national support model seems to have it's own achilles heel. And there are some who encourage pin money earners from students to company IT department employees willing to moonlight depressimg overall remuneration for all. If one doesn't attach a proper value to what one does then no-one else will.

The value propositions or lack thereof show the downsides.

It would be nice to see some of this growth filter down to the support engineers. I have been with fixitlocal from the start and have received 1 call that generated any income.
Lots of promises of service modules and contracts won but NO calls. I am sure V-networks are pleased with all their new customers !!!!!

Would have to agree, Only one call in nearly a Year..not good..Should try OrderWorks instead.

Sorry Andrew, PCIQ. Changing the title to get it back on subject matter.

fixitlocal is a joke. they have never sent one job to me and i too have paid since the beginning.

John, which buying group are you referring to, Synaxon? Derek Jones, chairman of the PCA has already stated in another article that Synaxon deals with 12,000 products from 111 distributors in Germany, they seem to be very product focused, although it is very early for any of us to form an opinion as yet.

If you think that Brigantia or NBG are committed to earning commission from helping indies buy products alone, then you are very wrong. Brigantia, have many associates who are service providers, and there is huge potential for members to earn a lot of money by offering these services, without losing their independence. Also a mini website is provided to all members at no extra cost, it took me about 90 minutes to set mine up, and it brings me loads of additional business.

The independents that have enjoyed success in the past by just selling hardware, have long gone. As you said, most products can be bought at the local PC World store at less than we can sell for. Although in my opinion, Supermarkets and Etailers such as Tesco, and Ebuyer are the biggest threat to our sector.

I genuinely wish that you make FixitLocal a success. But as posted above, you should be outward not inward, you should concentrate on promoting the company to the consumers and customers, rather than criticising your competitors. It doesn�t matter how many service providers you may have, you need enough customers to give all the providers a fair slice of the cake.

Same here, Paid from the start, had my area increased and still not a phone call from a potential customer.
Only calls I have had are either from me testing the line or fix it local themselves.
So far its been a joke, maybe customers will pay me monthly for nothing.

Not a single post from anybody benefitting from being a member of a current national support model service provider! And none of the providers defending themselves with claims of their referal numbers!
I doubt that fixitlocal etc etc is a business opportunity or that it ever will be. The clue for it's demise is 'local support from a national provider' Any of us doing our jobs right will be making our local comuunities aware of our existance and our services and will always get much more business through word of mouth and local involvement.
Every other company wants your subscription to this that or the other service whicfh will make you rich - spend the same money on local promotions and advertising and reap the benefits. Investing in fititlocal etc doesn't appear to me to be a viable business investment in the context of benefitting the local services businesses they are supposed to promote.

I have been getting one or two phone calls per month thanks to Brigantia Computer Experts and the call volume seems to be ramping up. Since January this year I have had calls for two portable repairs (power supply and something else), two or three people looking for new custom built desktop computers (can't do this, not enough volume and weee makes it too expensive), at least one person looking for a portable, several enquiries for memory upgrades (sdram) and about two desktop repair enquiries (virus infestation). I'm not posting who or where I am because several other local shops are already members like myself and I don't want the other 5 shops who aren't to read this and sign up.

We have been with Fixit Local since they started and as yet all we have achieved is another phone line,we do seem to be being offered more things to buy rather then outward facing customer service opportunities.I hope that their new service modual yields a better result.However the support and reliability from Brigantia has been great and I think honest.

Our business is kept alive by the trade that the service side brings in.

However signing up to the Fixit service has served only as a waste of money, yet Brigantia (our buying group) has been able to open the door to new suppliers with discounted rates from day one.

I have to say that I am in agreement with John Carter on a major issue - Indies need to be offering repairs, upgrades and other service related services. Funnily enough when we invited DMSL to be an associate member of Brigantia over four years ago this was because we were helping our members to find more services to promote and sell that offered ongoing commission rebate income. It was only because of John�s decision to launch fixITLOCAL using a model we did not believe would work that we were unable to renew the DMSL associate membership. Indies have survived at the neighborhood level against the margin erosion on products initially lead by the large multiples such as DSGi. Their day looks to be done now unless they evolve their models because the supermarkets have entered the market and as recent GfK figures show eTail has really now come of age. I frankly do not think the entry of Best Buy will do much damage to Indies as I feel it is the existing multiples that need to watch out.
Brigantia started life as a lease funding brokerage for small Indies and through developing more and more services for Indies became a subscription membership organisation. This then lead on to the members asking us to become involved in sourcing product and to developing relationships with vendors. We currently have over 120 associate and media members. Our associates are service providers, vendors and distributors. We encourage our members and associates to communicate with us and amongst themselves through our membership forum and regard criticism as positive as it helps us to adapt and change the Brigantia offering.
I think there is much about the fixITLOCAL model that has a great deal of merit however I have never been convinced by the idea of a central number. The telecoms offering of DMSL was always very good and I would certainly rate them in that field. Our own approach to lead generation has been to develop the Brigantia Computer Experts self accreditation and mini website system which the public can find from one central postcode locator on our home page. We have managed to achieve top listings under "computer expert" and "computer experts" through Google and other search engines which have lead to millions of hits per month and an ever increasing use of our member locator. We expect all members to comply with the ITACS code of ethics and professional conduct which we believe enhances our members standing in the public eye. ITACS Chairman, Matt Woolley, is even on "You & Yours" today talking about antivirus scams which helps to keep profiles high. The Brigantia Computer Experts brand is also visible on the high streets and office parks around the UK as members display their Accreditation Mark window stickers and certificates. We will be delivering ever more visibility for the Brigantia Computer Experts membership over Q4 and beyond as many longstanding plans are delivered with help from our associates and partners.
It is a shame that fixITLOCAL have chosen the path they have done at a time when relationships between Brigantia, Integra and NBG have never been better. I would invite John Carter to reconsider the path he has taken and to evolve his model so as to work with the serious incumbent subscription membership organisations rather than against them. The reality of our market is that there is room for a number of organisations that are devoted to helping their membership bases.

STOP PRESS - In the above post I mention Matt Woolley, ITACS Chairman being on You & Yours today - this will now be on Monday as Matt tells me that the editors of the show have discovered that this issue is even bigger than they thought!

We as network engineers and support personel are still desperately in need of a national organisation that helps us grow our business. It will never be FixItlocal because they have demonstrated quite clearly that their service DOES NOT WORK FOR US despite it probably making THEM money.

I agree with you Mike. Fixlocal is not the answer but we do need a service that helps us make work.

ditto mateys... i get no love from fixitlocal....but they get my money

Why do you continue to pay Fititlocal if they don't give you any work??

I have followed this discussion with interest since we operate a national network that really does work in the interest of the IT professionals that form our network and i would urge any of you to check out www.PCIQ.com and prove for your self what i mean. We promote you as a local independent business and we share in the rewards you make - i don't think you can say farer than that. Please try us.

I have been a member of PCIQ for some time. As it happens, I received an enquiry yesterday (which unfortunately I was unable to persue). However, I have had a couple of worthwhile jobs from them. Having said that, I only ever get perhaps one enquiry every other month - if that. The idea is sound, though, and the commission basis has got to be better than having to cough up up front a la FixItLocal.