Outsourcing to far-flung places via Elance
Today I finally tried something I should have tried a long time ago: soliciting a technical subcontractor via an online employment site.
A client of mine has asked me to get a web-based project done which I don't have all of the skills for. She readily agreed to my trying out Elance.com, one of the premier sites of this type. So I signed up for a free account and submitted a detailed description of my project and the skills that would be necessary in a provider.
The process wasn't hard to figure out and didn't take long. I was required to pay a $10 deposit which, I was promised, would be returned in full, no questions asked, in one week. It sounds like this effectively discourages those who are less than entirely serious from using the site. I provided my name and email address in order to get an account, and filled out the form for advertising a job.
This was all pretty straightforward. According to the FAQ files I read and tutorial videos I watched, the next few steps will be a little more involved - reviewing the proposals that will come in , choosing a provider, negotiating the specific terms of the job, including checkpoints and associated payments, and then proceeding with the work. But these are nothing different than I would be doing if I were hiring someone in a more traditional way.
Elance protects both the buyer and the provider by a number of methods. For example, typically, funds are deposited by the buyer into an Elance escrow account, where they are held until the the provider meets certain designated checkpoints in the project, at which point the buyer authorizes them to be released. This, along with the fact that the checkpoints are clearly spelled out in advance, ensures that the money is there for paying the provider, and that he only gets paid when he completes the work he agreed to.
The exciting part was when the responses started coming in, almost immediately; the first from Serbia, the second from India. Both made reasonable proposals and showed recommendations and portfolios.
It looks as if we'll have our contractor very soon. What the larger ramifications may be to this instant globalization of technical work, we don't yet know, but for now, it's serving my client and I very well.
A client of mine has asked me to get a web-based project done which I don't have all of the skills for. She readily agreed to my trying out Elance.com, one of the premier sites of this type. So I signed up for a free account and submitted a detailed description of my project and the skills that would be necessary in a provider.
The process wasn't hard to figure out and didn't take long. I was required to pay a $10 deposit which, I was promised, would be returned in full, no questions asked, in one week. It sounds like this effectively discourages those who are less than entirely serious from using the site. I provided my name and email address in order to get an account, and filled out the form for advertising a job.
This was all pretty straightforward. According to the FAQ files I read and tutorial videos I watched, the next few steps will be a little more involved - reviewing the proposals that will come in , choosing a provider, negotiating the specific terms of the job, including checkpoints and associated payments, and then proceeding with the work. But these are nothing different than I would be doing if I were hiring someone in a more traditional way.
Elance protects both the buyer and the provider by a number of methods. For example, typically, funds are deposited by the buyer into an Elance escrow account, where they are held until the the provider meets certain designated checkpoints in the project, at which point the buyer authorizes them to be released. This, along with the fact that the checkpoints are clearly spelled out in advance, ensures that the money is there for paying the provider, and that he only gets paid when he completes the work he agreed to.
The exciting part was when the responses started coming in, almost immediately; the first from Serbia, the second from India. Both made reasonable proposals and showed recommendations and portfolios.
It looks as if we'll have our contractor very soon. What the larger ramifications may be to this instant globalization of technical work, we don't yet know, but for now, it's serving my client and I very well.
Labels: outsourcing
posted by Patty Ayers at
10:39 PM
2 Comments
