Managed service is starting to take off in the home with mass retailers and specialist home service organisations fast moving to grab a share of the market. Among them are Domayne, Harvey Norman Commercial, AWA and Gizmo to name a few.
These providers may charge a regular monthly fee for services such as automatic backup, virus protection and software patches as well as the installation of large TV screens home theatre and Hi Fi.. Or they may sell blocks of time for customers to use their tech support -- on a discounted basis -- as needed.
So will it catch on? Parks Associates interviewed more than 6,000 Internet users to determine how they would buy PC services. The Dallas-based research firm found that approximately two-thirds of consumers prefer ad hoc in-home services versus a consistent monthly subscription for regular IT support.
Approximately 40 percent of consumers would prefer to pay $125 or less per in-home incident.
