Insight needed- Upwork to deliver IT Projects and Support them

[9eb4c70b]

Dear Community,

I need your experiece.

I am new to Upwork, however I have used Fiverr in the past for single tasks. I run an IT Consultancy that serves the Small and Medium Business communuity for over 10 years now. Our clients love us and trust us. They expect us to bring technology to them that serves them and we have to problem doing that within reason. The problem I am facing is that the talent pool and attitude of employees and partners where I am located is poor. However, thanks to the internet, we are not limited to talent where we are physically, but across the globe which is indeed a beautiful thing.

I've used Fiverr.com for personal things like social media and artwork creation for our company needs, but I am interested in using the talent pool at Upwork to create a team or multiple teams that accomplish a particlar talk.

For example, let's say I want to build a Website for a client. 
For me, this involves using someone listed as a Web Designer in Upwork to do the task of designing the layout of what the client wants to achieve. Then I will take the completed and vetted work and pass it on to someone listed as a Web Developer in upwork to code the design and make it 100% complete. I prefer this than perhaps using some hotshot who is good at coding but is not good at design!

I think this can work from what little I understand from Upwork. Can you tell me? Do you forsee any gaps or pitfalls in my approach?

Let's talk about support. A client needs something changed or there is bug in the website that has it down! This is where I think my challenge will lie - the speed in communicating with the appropriate resourse in upwork to get the task done. Must I first pay someone on upwork first before I communicate with them or can I do so up front? (Like in Fiverr.com) Do you see any pitfalls to using upwork for this type of support?

I appreciate your feedback. I do wish to use the platform to satisfy my objectives, and I wish to abide by the system and rules. I hope the Upwork framework can support my business in this manner.

Thank you for feedback and energies!

Cheers!

[prestonhunter]

Upwork does not deliver IT projects and support them.

Upwork is a service that allows clients to find, hire, and pay freelancers.

As a client, I have hired over 150 freelancers on Upwork.

MANY of the jobs I have hired for have been IT projects and IT support.

Through Upwork, I have found excellent freelancers who have provided IT projects and IT support.

re: "For me, this involves using someone listed as a Web Designer in Upwork to do the task of designing the layout of what the client wants to achieve. Then I will take the completed and vetted work and pass it on to someone listed as a Web Developer in upwork to code the design and make it 100% complete. I prefer this than perhaps using some hotshot who is good at coding but is not good at design!"

What you described here is the CORRECT APPROACH.

Quality work in large projects, such as a website of significant scope and size, is not done by one single individual. A high-quality project is indeed obtained using multiple specialists to work on specific aspects of the project.

re: "I think this can work from what little I understand from Upwork. Can you tell me? Do you forsee any gaps or pitfalls in my approach?"

I have personally used Upwork to hire freelancers to accomplish significant projects, using exactly the approach that you described.

I once created an entire website in one day, by hiring multiple designers, artists and content providers. I hired over a dozen people at one time.

I have worked on many projects which have a longer time frame than one day, of course. Many projects involve a few key freelancers, such as a database designer, a  backend programmer, and front-end designer.

re: "Let's talk about support. A client needs something changed or there is bug in the website that has it down! This is where I think my challenge will lie - the speed in communicating with the appropriate resourse in upwork to get the task done. Must I first pay someone on upwork first before I communicate with them or can I do so up front? (Like in Fiverr.com) Do you see any pitfalls to using upwork for this type of support?"

You do NOT need to pay a freelancer on Upwork before you communicate with them.

You can post jobs and then communicate with freelancers before hiring them.

Upwork does not actually place any limit on how much you can communicate with freelancers before hiring them.

When I need complex IT support, I often post a job AND hire a freelancer AND work with them to complete the task, all within an hour or two hours.

Personally, I think that most pre-hire communication is a waste of time. I prefer to hire people quickly and let them get to work. But different clients have different approaches to this.

I think one of the most important tips I could provide you is this:
You have ALL THE TOOLS you need at your fingertips to manage freelancers and jobs and projects.

Plan to never contact Upwork Support to ask them to help you manage your freelancers or projects. That is not their purpose.

If you have any questions at all, just ask right here in this thread. We love to talk about this stuff.

Also: For what you need to do, use only hourly contracts. Not fixed-price.

[marc_compte]

That was a great answer. I just wanted to add that when you start you should start with small tasks and keep a close eye on your freelancers. From all the freelancers you will hire, you will find some bad ones and some good ones. Test them first with payed tasks and if the task is to your liking give them more work.

Some freelancers may be good to perform a single task but not for longer term support. Some other freelancers will be more reliable in terms of support and fast turn-around.

[9eb4c70b]

Hi Preston,

Whoa, your reply blew me away! Thank you for your professional feedback and detailed advice!
As you said, I have all the tools needed.
I like to go the extra mile and understand the framework, principles and ethos of crowdsourcing. Upwork falls under the topic of crowdsourcing,correct?

Can you reccomend any resources that I can use that will hone me towards becoming an expert in managing IT projects via Upwork?

I did purchase 2 books to wet my appetite on the matter of crowdsourcing in general.
The first which I almost finished is "The Interim Revolution: How crowdsourcing, the on-demand Gig Economy and Teams as a Service are transforming business globally" by Pat Lynes. I agree with the principles and arguements made in the book so far, at 60% completed.

The 2nd I have to begin is " A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing: Advice from Leading Experts in the Field Kindle Edition by Paul Sloane"

Thank you! I truly appreciate your feedback!

[prestonhunter]

re: "Can you reccomend any resources that I can use that will hone me towards becoming an expert in managing IT projects via Upwork?"

Well, Upwork has put together a lot of useful resources, including these:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us

But I am not aware of anything compiled targeted specifically for hiring for IT support.

I recommend that you check out what is there, and then do a search in the Community Forum. for topics that interest you.

And then post questions in the "Clients" section. You can ask about all kinds of things here, and people will offer advice, as long as it relates to how to use Upwork effectively.

If you start getting into specific technical issues not related to Upwork, the Forum is not likely to be an effective place to get information.

You are welcome to ask me about how I hire IT professionals. Or even better, just ask general questions and I'll answer the questions if I have experience with what you are asking about, and others will do the same.

If you ask questions in the the Forum, without naming a person, you are likely to garner insight from a wider variety of people.

re: "Upwork falls under the topic of crowdsourcing, correct?"

That is a fascinating question.

Upwork can be used for crowdsourcing.

I have used Upwork for crowdsourcing.

But I don't know of anybody here among the Upwork representatives or Forum regulars who uses that term.

I don't use that term even when I'm doing it through Upwork.

I think one reason that we don't use that term much here is because Upwork really predates the term. And also, there are other sites that embrace that term more than Upwork does. I feel like there is a "crowd" or "bulk" element to the term "crowdsourcing" that many clients and freelancers don't think applies to how they use the platform.