Comments on: Outsourcing Sites: Threat or Opportunity?

By: Danut

Danut — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:30:58 +0000

Global outsourcing won’t go away because it’s cost optimized.

The quality of the services is measured by the project plan, communication and consulting.

As for the small oursourcing websites that recently appeared… they’re meant to increase the number of users of this (great) service; I do intend using them for outsourcing work, but I know for sure my clients cannot come from such places.

Regards,
Danut
http://www.dcrsolutions.biz

By: Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:42:42 +0000

To add to Nick’s comment above, ki work recognises that to thrive in the outsourcing business, there is a need for steady and high quality deal flow. So unlike most freelancing sites, ki work’s focus is on generating BPO deals in the $50k – $500k range. That enables a team leader “Expert” to develop a serious online business that provides a sustainable and high quality alternative to conventional employment. A current project for example is the requirement for 50 data entry agents to check and update Bills of Lading.

Michael Wolff – CEO
http://ki-work.com

By: jonpeltier

jonpeltier — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:35:04 +0000

These outsourcing sites are a nonstarter as far as I can tell Nobody is taking work from me. The projects offered are not the kind of stuff I like to do, and anyone who wants a project done for a dollar an hour is not someone I want to workk with.

By: Nick Clayton

Nick Clayton — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:11:12 +0000

As a professional writer I’ve been put off using sites such as Elance because they either tend to offer very low rates of pay or time-consuming pitch processes. But they do represent a trend which can only be boosted by the global recession. Any work which can be carried out online is capable of being outsourced to wherever it can be completed with the optimum combination of price and quality. Geography doesn’t matter as long as the knowledge worker has access to the internet it doesn’t matter where they are.

The article above suggests becoming a “middleman” which clearly makes sense. The problem is there’s not a ready mechanism for doing this through most of the freelance marketplaces.

I’ve been the blog editor for ki work (www.ki-work.com)for a few months. I joined because the people behind ki work seemed to be developing a real alternative to existing freelance marketplaces. The idea is to create a collaborative platform for virtual businesses to compete for projects. By including social networking features it is possible for knowledge workers to establish the sort of relationships necessary to complete complex projects.

The problem with existing models is that they’re designed to recruit individuals on a relatively short-term basis. Not only does the recruitment process then have to be repeated for every project, but so does the team building process. It’s not the most effective way of running a business.

It may be that ki work doesn’t prove to have the winning model, but I believe that there is enormous potential in the flexibility of virtual business process outsourcing that harnesses the power of an online marketplace combined with social networking or Web 2.0. At ki work we call it “collaborative capitalism”.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:02:10 +0000

Good point in your last para about farming some parts of a job out to cheaper freelancers. It means you get to keep “ownership” of the work and should also still make money on it. I guess you’d want to check that the contract with your freelancer covers what happens in the event that their work is not up to scratch.