Fewer Dealers Employ More Pros

There were five fewer companies on the Business Journal’s annual list of largest computer dealers than there were the year prior.

The list, available here, is a round-up of retail and wholesale computer dealers in the area ranging from the high-end commercial services of VeriSource Inc. of Rogers to retailers like Best Buy in Fayetteville.

Despite the loss of four local computer dealers due to acquisition or closure, there was a net gain of 6 percent in “computer employees” by the 14 remaining local dealers. Total computer-related employees rose 6 percent from 134 to 142.

Of the national computer dealers with local locations, one retailer, Office Depot, didn’t respond to requests for information and was therefore omitted. Recalculating the employment numbers for comparison, the three remaining national dealers employed 42 percent fewer people, from 144 in 2004 to a total of 84 currently.

A large portion of that decrease came from IntelliMark Inc., which seemingly lost 52 percent of its employees. But Eric Heil, vice president at IntelliMark’s Springdale office, said those employees were contract labor and the loss reflected the end of a two-year contract agreement.