What Was Elance

 Elance was a global online outsourcing platform . Clients could hire independent freelance professionals and use online tools to coordinate teams and projects worldwide.Independent contractors created online profiles and portfolios, bid for jobs, collaborated with their clients through Elance's website, and were also paid through the platform. The biggest competitors in online outsourcing were freelancer.com and twago in Europe . In late 2013 and April 2014, respectively, Elance merged with oDesk, one of its biggest competitors up to that point. In May 2015, Elance-oDesk launched together under Upwork.

The founders of Elance were inspired by a 1998 Harvard Business Review article entitled "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy."(e.g. the dawn of the E-lance economy) inspired the founding of the company. They saw the need for technology that could support virtual work. Thus, the first version of the website was launched in 1999. Two years later, Elance introduced a vendor management system for contractors and third-party services for large corporations.In 2006, Elance sold its enterprise software division and began developing the current web-based online work platform.

As of February 2012, Elance is used by approximately 140,000 businesses and 1.4 million registered contractors who have collectively raised more than $500 million to date.

Businesses can use Elance's website to post jobs, search for contractors and solicit bids. You can compare contractors applying for the job by looking at their qualifications, jobs completed, reviews, portfolios, and skill test results. Once a contractor is selected, all communication, file sharing and payment is handled directly between both parties through Elance's online workspace.Timesheets are automatically generated for hourly-based jobs and Elance's optional Work View tool provides an official log of work completed. Milestones are set for project-based jobs to break down the project and get an accurate view of progress. The payments are held in trust by Elance and only paid out once a milestone and thus an interim goal has been reached and confirmed.When a contractor offers a client an hourly rate or a set price, Elance automatically adds a service fee of between 6.75% and 8.75%. After Elance receives payment for the invoiced work from the client, the fee will be deducted and the remainder will be credited to the contractor's account.

Professional freelancers can browse Elance's website for potential jobs, search for clients, bid on jobs, and then collaborate through the online workspace. There, messages are exchanged with the client and work files are uploaded. Each contractor has an individual profile, which shows previously completed jobs and their evaluations, a portfolio and specific skills as well as background information on the training. This information can be verified by a potential client.Registered users can bid up to 15 jobs per month for free, while paid memberships allow additional bids. Payment for work done is guaranteed for both hourly and project-based work when using Elance's system.

A 2011 survey of contractors showed that under 36% of respondents Elance was their only source of income. Furthermore, 69% stated that they had at least a bachelor's degree. The contractors can come from the same country as the client ( onshoring ) or from abroad ( offshoring ).

IT jobs such as web and app programming and development contribute the vast majority (59%) to Elance's revenue, followed by creative jobs (24%), marketing (7%) and operational jobs (7%).Jobs for authors and graphic designers are also popular.Elance maintains a list of the 100 most in-demand skills and in 2011 PHP programming, WordPress programming, article writing, graphic design and HTML programming topped the list.Elance provides detailed information, including global job growth figures and earnings for the most in-demand skills, on its website.

Elance is cited as an example of the emerging pattern of informal workplace communications, the use of social media tools and cloud-based applications to increase productivity.Elance also addresses the increasingly liquid labor market by facilitating direct contact between contractors with specific skills and clients with specific needs. The losses and the effort involved in finding skilled workers are thus reduced and the economy as a whole benefits from this.

With companies increasingly looking to hire project-based staff rather than traditional full-time employees, freelance platforms like Elance are becoming increasingly important.Entrepreneurs are supporting the trend as their staffing expenses will be reduced, while workers will benefit from greater job security as they work for multiple employers.Project-based employment also allows smaller companies access to highly qualified specialists at a significantly lower price compared to permanent employees.

In 2009, Elance was selected as one of CNET's Webware 100, an award that recognizes products and services that embody Web 2.0 ideals of collaboration and cloud computing .