Elance Achieves Record Growth and Adds Powerful New Site Capabilities

The Elance Remote Work System (TM) Provides Small Businesses with Tools and
Best Practices for Effectively Managing Remote Work

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Elance, where businesses
hire and work with qualified professionals to get work done, announced today
that its customers have completed more than $100 million in billings since
2006 and that its professional network has grown to more than 100,000 service
providers. In addition, to accelerate this dramatic growth, the company is
introducing today the Elance Remote Work System (TM), a complete solution for
remote work that integrates communication, collaboration, reporting, payment
and feedback between Elance employers and service providers.
Elance is experiencing record year over year growth, with the number of
new jobs posted now averaging 20,000 per month and billings up by 65 percent,
as more businesses hire "on-demand" to maintain flexibility and remain
competitive in an uncertain economy. Similarly, more and more independent
professionals and small service firms are using Elance to capitalize on the
trend of distributed work and are getting paid for delivering their
specialized skills every day.
"The Internet is rapidly transforming the world of work," said Fabio
Rosati, CEO of Elance. "To develop the Elance Remote Work System we studied
best practices in traditional workplaces, observed thousands of remote work
engagements and involved our customers. With the Elance Remote Work System,
we're making a huge first step toward making hiring and working online even
more reliable and efficient than traditional practices."
The Elance Remote Work System (TM)
The Elance Remote Work System provides employers and service providers
working together a standardized process to set up and manage remote
engagements, track milestones, deliverables and hours worked, share documents
and ideas, all the while automating administrative tasks like invoicing,
payments and 1099 tax forms. By bringing more transparency and structure to
the work process, the Elance Remote Work System enables higher quality
results. Key elements of the Elance Remote Work System include:
-- Workrooms: Workrooms enable real-time interviewing, proposal
evaluation, hiring and collaboration. As central repositories for each job,
the workrooms help businesses to manage one or many remote work engagements.
-- Status Reporting: Status reporting helps providers systematically
manage customer expectations and customer satisfaction by tracking and
documenting progress as work is performed, and by communicating job status on
a weekly basis.
-- One-click Invoicing: Service providers can convert status reports into
invoices and supporting documentation with one click. In conjunction with
Elance's Escrow and 1099 tax services, businesses can bill and pay for work
performed with complete confidence.
-- Skills Certification: Service providers on Elance must review video
tutorials and other material prior to taking the admissions test. Once
admitted, they choose from over 200 skills tests to certify their skills and
differentiate themselves. Credentials can also be verified.
Small Businesses Powered by Elance
Nick Dalton is CEO of 360mind, Inc., an iPhone SDK Development business.
"Elance has helped me greatly expand my business and I've grown from a single
developer to a team of six since joining Elance as a provider," said Dalton.
"When your company is growing this rapidly you have little time for
administrative tasks. The Elance Remote Work System makes it easy to get work
done and manage clients. With one-click invoicing, my weekly status reporting
and time tracking are instantly integrated into a professional invoice. This
gives my clients all the information they need and reduces the time spent on
tracking and reporting."
Jonathan Fleming & Associates is real estate company that regularly
utilizes Elance to hire programmers, designers, writers and administrative
professionals. "Finding and hiring the right person for a specific job can be
a stressful and time consuming process," said Jonathan Fleming. "The Elance
Remote Work System enables me to evaluate, interview and hire the best talent
quickly and easily, while at the same time making it simple to stay on top of
projects already in progress."
About Elance
With the largest network of rated and certified technology and creative
experts, Elance helps businesses succeed by getting them the timely and
specialized skills they need to get work done. Elance facilitates the entire
work process from hiring to collaboration to payment. Businesses use Elance to
achieve more by delegating work to qualified service professionals when
needed. Service professionals use Elance to get jobs and make money doing what
they do best. The company is privately-held and headquartered in Mountain
View, California. For more information, visit Elance at http://www.elance.com.
SOURCE Elance

Emily Call Borders of Borders+Gratehouse, +1-415-963-4174, ext. 1,
emily@bordersgratehouse.com, for Elance