Annual report 2008
Our markets and its players
The degree of outsourcing in the IT infrastructure market for field service, installation and repair has become increasingly common. Our opportunities in this market strongly depend of our partners’ success both in terms of outsourcing contracts as well as high volumes of product sales. The trend of selective outsourcing contracts seems to proceed which implies positive opportunities to us in cases where the contract is clearly limited to the services InfoCare provides. Due to demands of geography, volume advantages, certifications and authorisations, the number of large service providers is quite short, but competitors (as well as partners) are found in six different groups of companies:
- Dedicated field services, installation and repair companies
- Contract manufacturers
- Value-added resellers/infrastructure suppliers
- IT services companies/outsourcing companies
- Manning providers
- Franchising and service chains
The market for consumer-directed services is rapidly increasing. Sales figures for cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras, TVs, flat screens, 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 an everyday reality to us. Today’s demands of functionality for computers, TVs, telecommunications, broadband, and film and music systems rises new demands for services, prices, and accessibility. Centralised solutions in the home as well, increases vulnerability which makes security solutions, such as back-up and disruption protection and virus protection increasingly important parts of the home environment service solution.
None of our Nordic competitors alone can match our entire range of delivery and workshop services in the consumer segment. Competitors in Sweden and Norway are Anovo Nordic and Assist Servicekedjan. Assist, which only targets brown goods, is both in Sweden and in Norway also a partner. In Denmark there is Elektronik Centret, which only repairs brown goods, and Servicegruppen, which works with IT products, both in a workshop setting and on-site. Digi-Service and Asapcom are two of our competitors in Finland, focusing of workshop repair of brown goods and IT-related products.