Tech-Support Company Turn people's baffling computer mishaps into a money-making opportunity.

My computer growls at me. Grrrr. Sometimes, I imagine a littleelf inside grumbling at me for waking him up to run the hard drive.I wait for the elf to calm down, or I hit the tower, rattling thelittle guy enough to shut him up. When nothing appeases him,I'll finally call one of our computer techs to permanentlysolve the problem. That makes me one of the lucky ones.

Average consumers or business owners generally don't have aconvenient techie to aid them in times of need. That's where agrowing number of help-desk companies hope to capture a chunk ofthe tech-support market. While there were nearly 72 million PCsinstalled in American homes and $150 million generated by supportportals in 1999, IDC predicts those numbers will grow to more than 128million PCs and over $4 billion in 2004.

With about half of all American households owning a PC, The Yankee Groupassociate analyst Gerard O'Shea says people's frustrationswith computers, and thus their need for technical assistance, willlikely increase. "As consumers grow more savvy with theirexperiences with the Internet, the applications are becoming evenmore complex at a faster rate than we're becoming savvy,"O'Shea says.

Today's Web support options include subscription-basedservices like PCsupport.com, which charges $149.99 per year for24-hour access to technicians and remote repairs over the Internet,as well as per-use services like ePeople, where businesses select from tens ofthousands of service providers.

For as little as $79 a year, customers of San Ramon,California-based Ask Dr. Tech have 24-hour access (via telephone or theInternet) to 700 tech-support agents in a Utah call center. With atwo- to three-minute wait time for premier members and a six-minutehold time for standard members, the service is simple andaccessible, says president and CEO William Lam. "There aresome companies out there focused on providing online help,"says Lam, 22. "But what if somebody couldn't get online ortheir modem wouldn't work or their PC wouldn't boot up? Howdo they get help then?"

We're On.and Off

Indeed, Dr. Raffi Amit, professor of BIZ Experiencesship anddirector of the Wharton eBusiness Initiative at the University ofPennsylvania, believes that hybrid companies providing bothonline and offline assistance have the best chance of survival."I think the companies that will win here are the ones thatare able to properly integrate [an] online and offline helpdesk," Amit predicts.

Even companies that provide online help have expanded theirbusinesses beyond the support market. Andreas von Blottnitz,president and CEO of Expertcity Inc., says his Santa Barbara, California,company focuses on its screen-sharing technology, which allowsusers to view each other's screens over the Internet.Blottnitz, 35, says it's not much different from what othercompanies do on a regular basis. "You're a company [like]Goodyear," he says. "Goodyear not only focuses on cars,[but] also make tires for airplanes and bicycles. They focus ontires, but they are in different industries. The same is true forus."

O'Shea concurs that tech support must be just one part ofyour business if you want to make a profit. "I wouldn'twant to say that tech support in and of itself is not worth goinginto," he says. "It's a good way to make your name[and] a way to brand yourself, but it's not necessarily whatyou want to be completely dependent on for your income."

With major players like TechKnow-How.com, SafeHarbor TechnologyCorp. and Attenza already vying for the help-desk market,newcomers need to either develop the right partnerships or create acompelling technology. Contends O'Shea, "If there weresome type of technology out there that was really advanced wherethey could solve some of the more advanced problems, that wouldsurely get a little bit of press, not to mention [that] it wouldattract the more novice users and [the] more savvy user."

So before your face turns red from swearing at your ailing PC,relax. Breathe deeply. Think of all the people out there facingsimilar problems. Then think of all the money you could make byhelping them. Smile. And buy yourself a Macintosh.