IT search portal offers helping hand to time-poor CIOs

Having spent the past few months courting vendors and suppliers to populate its site, the owners of IT search portal, Comparetheware.com, are now opening the service up to end users.

The site provides IT decision makers with pricing and technical information to help them choose between tech products, as well as who to purchase them from.

Speaking to IT Pro, Comparetheware co-founder, Mike Worby, said the site's aim was to speed up the IT procurement process.

"Buying IT is an expensive, time consuming process that all companies have to go through. IT decision makers spend a lot of time researching products on the internet, reading analyst and press reports, and trying to make sense of all the complex data this usually uncovers," explained Worby.

Every supplier is moderated before they are listed to ensure they actually do what they say they can.

"It is not our aim to replace these sources of information, but to find an easier way to bring it all together and for organisations to find a supplier who can help them."

He claimed the site's content is independently sourced and unbiased, and that each supplier is carefully vetted before their details are listed on the portal.

"We want to promote trust and for people to have confidence in the service, so every supplier is moderated before they are listed to ensure they actually do what they say they can," said Worby.

Worby was keen to stress that, although Comparetheware was founded by IT distributor Computerlinks and many of its technology partners feature on the site, the advice end users receive will be impartial.

"There is no hidden agenda and we do not share any customer information between the two companies," said Worby. "There are vendors listed on the site already that are not part of the Computerlinks stable and I expect there will be many more of those as we build out the service."

From launch, the site will feature details about IT security products and suppliers, before expanding into other areas including virtualisation, networking, storage and cloud later this year.

"We are starting with IT security, but we want to be [covering] the whole of the market in time," added Worby.

"We also plan to introduce a five minute tender builder tool for end users that would allow them to select and specify the technology they are looking for and then submit this to suppliers."