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More solution providers are using external IT resources than a year ago, in part because they're nervous that the economic recovery may not be sustainable to allow them to begin hiring additional staff, according to new research by CRN.
Sixty-three percent of 106 VAR respondents in a CRN study said they used project-based contractors or technical staff outside their own bench to perform technical work on behalf of their company in 2010. Meanwhile, 62 percent said they expect to use more project based workers this year than they did last year.
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| View the Survey Results |
Channel executives also said the economic recession has helped create a bigger and better pool of IT contractors to choose from, as 78 percent of the survey's respondents said there are more external resources available now than before the recession. The good news is those workers are doing a good job. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the contractors they hired performed the work in a satisfactory manner and 55 percent said the skills of the contractors is of a higher quality now than it was before the recession.
Two thirds of the respondents said they hire contractors with whom they have had an existing or long-term relationship. Almost half use someone recommended by a customer or person they trust and 36 percent use a fellow member of a VAR or other IT organization. About 22 percent find help through technical staff marketplaces such as OnForce or two new entrants into the workplace marketplace: TecDirect and Work Market.
VARs -- like other segments of the market -- are still nervous about the economy and don't want to commit to long-term costs to get what could be short-term business done, said Bill Lucchini, COO at OnForce, a Boston-based workforce marketplace where VARs can find technicians to hire on a temporary basis.
"Spending is improving, all the metrics are in the right direction, but they're all worried it won't last," Lucchini said. "We use the term jobless recovery. It's very true. These companies are very cautious about building up the cost basis of employees again. They don't want to go through layoffs again. They can use a much higher percentage of contract work to get the same work done. They want to get verified demand before they add headcount. We see much greater interest to use contract work to make sure expense line items line up with revenue items."
Bob Pojman, senior vice president of operations for Vital Network Services, a Tampa, Fla.-based VAR, believes that huge corporate IT layoffs the last two years has increased the number of technicians looking for contractor work as well as the skills those workers possess.
"We've seen things from, 'We need a pair of smart hands and a tool set onsite' to higher-end Cisco resources. We can get them easier and more plentiful than we could 12 to 14 months ago," Pojman said.
