Annual report 2007
Consumer Services
MARKET AND SERVICES
The merger between InfoCare and Powermill Group cemented the already strong position we enjoyed in the Nordic region, and we provided our clients with a real competitive alternative. The merger strengthened our opportunities to compete with the central, Europe-based repair facilities several of the international product suppliers seek to establish in their efforts to reduce the number of service providers for repairs.
We created a strong and independent Nordic-Baltic service partner, with even greater opportunities to industrialise its activities in a cost efficient manner, which is necessary to face increased international competition and higher demands from clients.
Through economies of scale we are able to keep the service we provide at home in the Nordic countries and offer our clients – such as product manufacturers – a solution that is both cost and time effective, with shorter processing times for repairs and deliveries.
AN EXPANDING MARKET
The market for consumer-directed services is rapidly increasing. Sales figures for cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras, TVs, flatscreens, digital decoders, laptop computers, etc. continue to set new records, and the complexity for the individual consumer increases. “The digital home” is no longer an imagined vision of the future, but rather the everyday reality for an increasing number of people. The demand for functional solutions for computers, TVs, telecommunications, broadband, and film and music systems is on the rise, which poses new demands for services, prices, and accessability. With more centralised solutions in the home as well, vulnerability increases, and security solutions, such as back-up and disruption protection and virus protection become increasingly important as part of the solution for the home environment as well.
In this regard, our wide selection of services constitutes a strong motivator for success, giving us and our partners, the product suppliers, an important competitive advantage. Our 15 repair workshops handle thousands of assignments every day, and our system of joint pick-up and delivery at electronics warehouses throughout the Nordic countries provides our partners with the benefits of increased efficiency, in terms of shorter times and lower costs.
For the wide variety of assignments encountered in the home environment, we have broad competence within both IT and telecom, which we manage through an efficient courier organisation, a large number of service engineers, and specialists within telecom and broadband services through our affiliate Nätverksakuten.
Our technical couriers conduct services for the digital home in the form of installations and on-site service of satellite dishes, flatscreen TVs, home cinema systems, wireless networks, etc. InfoCare’s technical couriers are carefully selected, customer oriented, independent sole proprietorships that work within a franchise concept. Our own programmes for customer relation training ensures that we carry out high-quality technical work, while at the same time achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.
Another area where we have seen an increasing trend in recent years, is renovation and innovation in the kitchen, which promotes and increases the sale of white goods. Here, we really see the strength of our courier concept, which provides fast and cost effective services to our partners, and, in the extended sense, to the end user, in this area as well.
BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR SERVICES
InfoCare offers centralised workshop services for IT hardware and software, as well as for a wide range of home electronics. The services also include installation and repair on-site in the home of flat screens, digital decoders, broadband, TVs, and so-called brown and white goods.
Our advanced service and logistics system, SESAM2, enables us to efficiently handle a large number of PCs, printers, teller machines, flat screens, monitors, digital cameras, mp3- players and white goods that are picked up, repaired, and returned every day.
WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
- Repairs at module or component level
- Software services
- Environmentally scrapping services
TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS SERVICES
- Cost effective transport
- Pick-up at electronics warehouse
- Unpacked transport solutions
- Pick up and return
- SWAP
- Return management
- Warranty validation
- CRU (customer replaceable unit)
- DOA management (dead on arrival)
- Spare parts logistics
