About Elance

About Elance

Elance is an online staffing platform based in Mountain View, California, United States

Type                      -            Private
Founded                -             1999
Headquarters         -             Mountain View, California, U.S.A
Key people            -             Fabio Rosati CEO
Industry                 -             Internet
                                           Online employment platform
                                           Freelance marketplace

Description
Elance was first launched in 1999, its name inspired by a 1998 Harvard Business Review article titled "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy". It was initially developed as a technology for supporting virtual work. Two years later Elance introduced a vendor management system (VMS) for contractors and third-party services used by large enterprises. In 2006 Elance sold its enterprise software division and developed instead its current web-based platform for online, contingent work.

As of February 2013, Elance is used by approximately 500,000 businesses and 2 million registered freelance professionals, who have collectively earned nearly $850 million to date.

A merger with oDesk, another online staffing platform, was confirmed in December 2013. The deal is expected to be finalized in April 2014 and the two companies will create a resource that consists of 8 million freelancers and 2 million businesses.

Clients
The Elance website allows businesses to post jobs, search for freelance professionals, and solicit proposals. They can evaluate the contractors applying for the job and, once a contractor is selected, communications and files are exchanged through the Elance system. Payment for jobs, which can either be hourly-rate[8] or project-based jobs, is made by the client through Elance's system, which deducts a percentage of the fee, 8.75%, as a "commission." Elance offers a Work View tool provides an official record of work completed. For project-based jobs statement of work or milestones are used to indicate progress toward completion, and funds are held in escrow by Elance to ensure payment upon completion of the milestone.

Freelancers
Freelancers search Elance's website for jobs, and can research clients' buying histories on the system. Each freelancer can post a profile displaying past jobs and feedback, a portfolio, and specific skill and educational-background information. Registered free users are allowed to submit a limited number of proposals each month while those on paid membership plans can submit additional proposals. Elance offers payment guarantee once work is done using the Elance system.


A 2012 survey of freelancers conducted by Elance indicated that freelancing was the "sole source of income" for 48% of respondents, and that 69% had at least a bachelor's degree.


Awards and recognition
Elance has been cited as an example of the emerging paradigm of informal workplace communication, employing social media tools and cloud-based applications to drive productivity. Elance also caters to the increasingly liquid labor market by facilitating direct contact between contractors with specific skillsets and clients with specific needs. This reduces search friction and benefits the economy as a whole.

According to 2013 reports from Accenture and Deloitte that mention Elance, enterprises are increasingly looking to supplement their permanent employee workforce with flexible, extended workforces of project-based personnel. Business owners support the trend because it lowers their payroll expenditures, and workers support it because working for multiple clients results in increased job security. Project-based hiring also allows small businesses access to highly skilled workers at a significantly lower cost as compared to hiring full-time staff.

In 2009, Elance was selected as one of CNET's Webware 100, an award recognizing products and services that embody Web 2.0 ideals of collaboration and cloud computing. In 2013, Elance was selected as one of Red Herring's top 100 companies.