VARs flock to register skills with OrderWork

Online skills marketplace hits member recruitment targets and looks to focus on quality of service

More than 1,000 VARs and integrators have now registered with online IT skills market place OrderWork since it launched last May (CRN, 22 May).

The web site, which allows skills to be sourced on a job-by-job basis rather than for a set period of time, currently has more than 1,500 jobs a month available through its platform. VARs register themselves or their company’s engineers on the OrderWork system free of charge. When notified of relevant work, if they choose to accept, they pay 10 per cent of the work value to OrderWork.

Neil Bradford, chief executive of OrderWork, said: “We’re approaching our first anniversary in May so are thrilled to have reached our goal of recruiting 1,000 IT firms as suppliers. Now we’ve reached the quantity target we want to focus on the quality.”

Customers are encouraged to provide a rating of firms they have used.

“Resellers who get better ratings get more work,” Bradford said. “We also carry out an approval process before a reseller is allowed to register on OrderWork. We check customer references, insurance and certifications; so firms have to jump through a lot of hoops before they can become an OrderWork supplier.”

In February, OrderWork agreed a partnership with Dixons Stores Group (DSG) to enable DSG to source skilled engineers in remote parts of the UK and to support peaks in demand. Kent-based VAR Just PCs told CRN that a lot of its OrderWork jobs have been for DSG, including for its TechGuys service.

Julian Goffin, managing director of Just PCs, said: “We signed up to OrderWork 12 months ago and it has certainly been of benefit to our business. We get work practically every other day through OrderWork, a lot of which has recently been with DSG.”

David Gould, commercial director at PC World Business, added: “We use our own resource where possible, but as we sell more services it is likely we will have more work than we’ve got the resource to apply, so we would need to look to other organisations to source engineers from.”

Alan Sury, managing director of VAR Thurrock PC Services, said: “We have been a registered OrderWork supplier for six months and so far have completed 57 jobs, ranging from small scale upgrades to more complete installations.”