Brian Festa,, a technician at Nerds to Go, works on the home office computer of Cheryle Newton-Ferante in Glastonbury. Nerds to Go, based in Guilford, is part of a wave of new businesses that are providing consumers with in home technical searches. Below is a the "Nerd belt buckle Fasta wears..

When You Need A 'Nerd'

The Hartford Courant
Sunday, september 18, 2005

By John M. Moran
Courant Staff Writer

Cheryle Newton-Ferante need her computer fixed -- and she needed it fixed in a hurry.
Chronic sluggishness in her black desktop Dell PC was making it nearly Impossible for Newton-Fernate to do her job managing medical billing records from her Glastonbury home office.
Merely opening a document for editing took several minutes, during which Newton-Ferante could do little but gaze at flowers outside the window or look over framed family photographs on the wall.
But privacy rules prevented her from dropping the computer off at a repair center. So she turned instead to Nerds to Go Inc., a Guilford based service that dispatches technicians to fix computers on-site.
WIthin an hour after arriving, Brian Festa, one of the company's' "certified Nerds,"had freed valuable memory and double-checked the computer's security and antivirus defenses. Soon, documents were launching in seconds and Web pages were springing instantly to the screen.
"I feel like I just cleaned my house," a smiling Newton-Ferante said as she prepared to pay $174 for the service call and arranged a second visit to install more memory chips.
Nerds to Go is just one in a wave of new businesses providing in home tech services to consumers seeking help with the ever growing mountain of household gadgetry.
Many providers are small, independent firms; some are even sold proprietors. But large, established companies are now also rushing to offer in-home tech services. Just last month, for example, the office-supply retailer Staples said it will roll out a national on-site tech support service.
Electronics retailer Best Buy, meanwhile, recently said it plans to expand it's "Geek Squad" of on-site technicians, which it launched last year. Circuit City has a service it calls the IQ crew, but currently the company only makes house calls in four markets: Atlanta, Richmond, Va., Tampa, Fla., and Pittsburgh.
The widespread availability of in-home tech service represents a big change form the days when consumers were forced to lug balky gear to a repair center or face the daunting prospect of trying to fix the problem themselves with the aid of telephone technical support.
Service technicians point to the growing presence of sophisticated technology in homes as a key reason for the trend. Thanks to the falling PC prices, many households are now running several computer systems simultaneously. Consumers are also depending more heavily on their PCs for such vital tasks as shopping, bill-paying, home working and investing, so they can't tolerate glitches.
Development of advanced home entertainment technology -- such as digital video recorders, home theaters, satellite systems and high-definition television monitors-- has only added to the complexity.because only the savviest of consumers can hook up all of their equipment and keep it running smoothly, experts say the market for on-site repair and maintenance is expanding rapidly.
The number of households with home computer networks is expected to nearly quadruple during the next five years -- from 12.3 million this year to 46.5 million in 2010, according to a recent report from Forrester Research.
Households with digital video recorders will grow to 42.7 million to 2010, up from 10 million today, the report forecasts.

"Right now, it's a new and growing marketplace," said Ron Silliman, an analyst at Gartner Inc., the Stamford-based research firm.
Most of the activity is currently focused on home computer technology, but serve for entertainment gear, such as home theaters, is on the increase, as well. Best Buy's Geek Squad handles both PCs and home theater equipment. Nerds to Go focuses on computers, but does some audio and video work; Staples plans to stick to computer gear only.
Nerds to Go is typical of the independent companies arising to provide tech support in the home Founded in Guilford in 2003 by David Colella, Nerds to Go aimed from the outset to offer consumers the kind of support services that small businesses commonly use.
"PCs have moved from entreatment appliance to household necessity," said Colella, who formerly worked as a business support technician. "I'd be hard pressed to see where computers are not a major part of people's lives."
Nerds to Go now has 35 technicians working throughout Connecticut, serving a roughly even mix of ordinary consumers and small office/ home office clients, according to Colella.
The company charges $99 to diagnose a computer problem and quote a price for full repair. If the customer then decides to go ahead with the full repair, the diagnosis charge is applied to the final cost. Otherwise, the $99 fee for the service call is the only charge.
Prices for common repairs include $165 to detect and remove computer viruses and spyware, $229 to reformat hard drive and reinstall operating system software, $145 for anew PC installation with data transfer from the old machine, and $149 for a wireless network installation (plus $35 for each additional PC added to the network.)
During a recent service call to the Rocky Hill apartment of Kristin Colaresi, Festa scanned the PC to remove malicious programs, such as viruses and spyware, that were slowing the computer's performance.
Colaresi, a message therapist, said she knew something was wrong with the computer -- "it's never been this slow" -- but had no ideas how to fix it.
In particular, she said, pop-up ads were making it virtually impossible to use the Internet."It kept telling me I won a free laptop. I'm sick and tired of it," Colaresi said. "once you get dependent on using the computer, you can't put it in the closet for a few weeks."
Festa, reaching down occasionally to stroke Colaresi's pet cat, set to work deleting the offending software programs. Less than n hour later, he declared the computer virus and spyware free. The PC connected to the internet in seconds, the process that previously took minutes.
System cleanings are, hands down, our most common calls," Festa said, adding that data back ups, and installation and troubleshooting of such PC peripherals as printers, scanners and digital cameras, are also popular.
On this call, as always, Festa was called in the company's standard issue yellow sport shorts emblazoned with the Nerds to Go logo. Even his belt buckle has the word "NERD" written across it. Although Nerds to Go has begun advertising, the company also gets plenty of inquiries from people who spot the boxy, bright yellow "nerd car," compete with decals depicting a glasses wearing computer.

Reliance on tech sounding names and odd looking vehicles isn't exclusive to Nerds to Go. Best Buy's on-site tech service, for example, is called the Geek Squad and drives around in white, orange and black Geek-mobiles.
Founded as a one man tech service in 1994, Geek Squad was bought by Best Buy in 2002, which said it will put Geek Squad outlets in all of its North American stores.
Geek Squad spokesman Kevin Cockett said home networks and home theater installations are among the company's most frequent service calls.
"Technology continues to get more complex. The manuals get bigger and thicker," Cockett said. "People still hate reading their manuals, so we do that for them."
Another well known retailer, the office supply store Staples, is diving into the market with a service it calls Easy Mobile Tech, or EMT, mimicking the abbreviation for emergency medical technician.
The service, which Staples has been quietly developing for months, is already proving popular, said Bradley White, Staples' director of product services.
"We just started doing the on-site part of our business this year, and that's really exploding for us," he said, "Customers don't want to bring computer equipment in. It's Inconvenient."
Although Staples fields calls from consumers and small business, it limits its service to calls to office related technology, such as computers, printers and wireless networks.
Home entertainment to equipment, such as televisions and stereos, is not currently part of the service training, white said.
Like Nerds to Go, Easy Mobile Tech assesses a diagnostic fee -- which it calls a $59.99 "trip" charge -- to assess the problem at the customer's premises.
If a customer goes ahead with the repair, the fee is applied against the flat rate charge for various services, such as $99 for PC installation, $129 for a one hour computer tutorial and $159 for a virus cleaning.
Although consumer support business is a brisk now, Ron Silliman, the Gartner analyst, cautioned that it could be difficult for some in home tech services to sustain themselves once the initial boom of home-networking subsides.
"That's an unusual market, but once it's saturated, there's not going to be a lot of growth," he said.
But Colella said household are only going to get more technology oriented in the years ahead, offering plenty of opportunities for providers that are efficient and cost effective.
In home technology is becoming an essential part of the house hold infrastructure, he said.
"Just as you would call a plumber or an electrician," Colella said, "you'll call a nerd."