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Potential best buy geek squad rival: iYogi Business NonStop

Apr 22nd, 2012
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The Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) Geek Squad team could have some new competition soon from a new service called iYogi Business Nonstop. iYogi already offers on-demand remote tech and PC support services. But iYogi Business NonStop will offer on-site tech support, initially from 1,000 local IT support professionals across the United States. So how will iYogi recruit those IT professionals?

The answer involves Work Market, a fast-growing online marketplace. Led by CEO Jeff Leventhal (who also co-founded OnForce), Work Market positions itself as the world’s first Labor Resource Platform. Initially, Work Market focuses mostly on the IT services provider market but the system is designed to support service professionals and companies outside of the IT industry. Leventhal explains the Work Market strategy in this blog.

Back at iYogi, the strategy seems clear: iYogi will extend its cloud-based IT support platform, called iMantra, to Business Nonstop users. In theory, that means iYogi will create thousands of small MSPs all tied into the iYogi customer management and support system.

Uday Challu, CEO and co-founder of iYogi, said in a prepared statement:

“Through our partnership with Work Market, we are providing an opportunity for local tech support engineers to expand their businesses in the growing tech support market. iYogi is excited to partner with local Tech Support Engineers for the next phase of our growth.”

Here Comes iYogi

iYogi Business Nonstop arrives during a market inflection point. Even as Best Buy attempts to overhaul its Big Box stores, the retailer has been pushing deeper into managed services and cloud services through its Geek Squad and mindSHIFT operations.

Meanwhile, I’m not suggesting iYogi Business Nonstop will be a guaranteed success. Finding and onboarding 1,000 local IT support professionals won’t be easy. And iYogi has faced some heat from media critics like InfoWorld in recent weeks — though MSPmentor has not heard about such challenges directly.

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