OnForce Delivers Mobility to the Freelancer Economy

BOSTON, June 27, 2014 OnForce, a leader in technology-enabled workforce management, today announced the newest version of its mobile app for iOS and Android. The app enables more effective communication between the IT field service freelancer and the buyer, and for the first time allows companies and independent workers outside of the IT industry to leverage OnForces mobile freelancer engagement and management capabilities.

OnForces freelancer marketplace and management mobile app is one of the most widely used in the IT industry. The app offers companies instant access to OnForces network of certified IT field service freelancers, and enables these freelancers to find jobs on-the-go as well as communicate with the buyer and capture signatures for payment while in the field. Since OnForce launched its iOS app in December 2011 and Android app in March 2012, IT field service workers have used OnForces mobile apps to find and manage nearly 250,000 work orders, as well as communicate with buyers and secure necessary signoffs.

I used to find work through my computer or an existing contact, show up for a job with a big clipboard full of paperwork, and fill out all the necessary invoicing and other paperwork when I got home, said Jodie Bass, lead technician at Relentless by Design. Now I secure roughly ninety percent of my work through the OnForce mobile app. Im able to find jobs without being tied to a computer, quickly review the scope of work, pricing and location, and use the app to capture my clients signature for invoicing. When Im finishing up a project that I traveled a ways to get to, its great checking the app to see if theres any other work nearby before heading home.

With its revamped mobile app for iOS and Android, OnForce is further streamlining communication between the freelancer and the buyer, allowing IT workers to spend less time doing administrative tasks associated with managing freelance projects and helping companies avoid costly work order description misunderstandings. The app is also now customized to work with OnForce Converge, the companys newest platform that gives organizations in industries outside of IT such as education, finance and marketing the ability to manage their private networks of freelancers for on-site projects as well as online work.

Key new features of the OnForce mobile app include:

OnForce Converge customization: Companies using OnForce Converge can now ask their private networks of freelance workers to download the OnForce mobile app, which allows for seamless communication about new project opportunities, work order details and directions to the work site. The app can also be used to collect sign-offs necessary for payment.

Custom field and resolution notes entry to mobile: Previously accessible only through OnForces Web application, companies across industries can now set up custom work order and resolution notes fields in the OnForce mobile app. OnForce Pros can also fill out these forms through the app while in the field, instead of having to collect notes on the job and later submit them through a desktop application.

Work order formatting enhancements: Companies now have the ability to add rich formatting to their work order description, from bold fonts to bulleted lists. This rich formatting allows companies to emphasize the most important job instructions, and helps ensure that miscommunications between the buyer and worker are minimized.

iOS7 design updates: The entire OnForce iOS UI has been redesigned to eliminate bugs and make it consistent with Apples iOS7 design schema, providing freelancers with the best mobile experience.

IT field services was the first industry where we saw an intense demand for a mobile freelancer marketplace and management application. Now were starting to see this demand emerge across industries, from school systems with substitute teachers to journalism and Web development, said OnForce CEO Peter Cannone. OnForces new app for iOS and Android makes it even easier for enterprises to find and manage their networks of freelance workers, and gives freelancers in IT field services and across industries the ability to secure jobs and process even more of their buyer communication through their smart phones.

To download the new OnForce mobile app, click here for iOS or click here for Android.

About OnForce

OnForce, a leader in SaaS technology-enabled workforce solutions, empowers companies of all sizes in all industries to gain a competitive edge in how work gets done. Its business model allows customers to rapidly grow their businesses, lower service costs, extend skill-sets, and generate new streams of revenue. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com.

Contact:

Alex Parks

Davies Murphy Group

onforce@daviesmurphy.com

(781) 418-2412

Reference: OnForce Press Releases 

OnForce Whitepaper Urges Businesses to Re-evaluate their Workforce Management Model

BOSTON, June 26, 2014 OnForce, a leader in technology-enabled workforce management, today announced the availability of its newest whitepaper, Task-To-Talent (T2T) Transformation: Why enterprise leaders need to understand and prepare their businesses for this different way of getting work done. The whitepaper presents reasons why business leaders should prepare for the increased adoption of worker engagement models comprised of smaller, unbundled engagements intermediated across digital platforms, and the advantages of a T2T contingent workforce.

T2T work arrangements, which are shorter in nature than traditional contingent work arrangements and involve finding freelancers with highly specific skill sets on-demand to complete assignments, are increasingly emerging in companies across industries. However, the workforce management techniques of the 20th century that are still prevalent in the workforce are not suitable for 21st century T2T workforce management needs. OnForces latest whitepaper outlines that current executive thinking about future workforce solutions is behind the times executives often do not consider the contingent workforce as a strategic solution, and are even less aware of new forms of work arrangements such as platform-intermediated T2T.

Executive leaders of larger enterprises are rightly concerned about how their organizations will have access to needed talent and skills in the future. But they are often looking in the rear-view mirror, thinking primarily about recruiting and retaining employees. Evolving forms of contingent work are seen as remedial fixes, not as strategic solutions and a new normal. A shift in thinking from old HR paradigms is needed, advises Andrew Karpie, chief analyst of The Research Platform and author of the whitepaper. Many of the skill and knowledge gaps opening up in 21st century enterprises are starting to be and will increasingly be filled with shorter engagements of a variablesometimes on-demandnon-employee workforce. Its the 21st, not the 20th centuryan attitude adjustment is long overdue.

The whitepaper outlines a number of factors and issues, including:

How current assumptions about talent engagement are being challenged in the near future;

Why executives need to shift their thinking to embrace these new workforce strategies for knowledge-based workers; and

How new workforce strategies are available and are being increasingly utilized by businesses today.

We have noted a shift in the development of the Task-to-Talent space for some time due to changes in the economy and technological developments, said OnForce CEO Peter Cannone. Long gone are the days of the full-time, 30-years-at-the-same-company worker who retires with a pension. Were seeing workers now who are self-employed or freelancers who understand that they are on their own. OnForce is providing solutions to help organizations secure qualified talent to perform short-term tasks, and the means to help manage that relationship.

Task-To-Talent (T2T) Transformation: Why enterprise leaders need to understand and prepare their businesses for this different way of getting work done, is available for download here.

About OnForce 

OnForce, a leader in SaaS technology-enabled workforce solutions, empowers companies of all sizes in all industries to gain a competitive edge in how work gets done. Its business model allows customers to rapidly grow their businesses, lower service costs, extend skill-sets, and generate new streams of revenue. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contact:
Alex Parks
Davies Murphy Group
onforce@daviesmurphy.com
(781) 418-2412

Reference: OnForce Press Releases

OnForce Continues to Lead Technology-Enabled Freelancer Economy Movement

BOSTON, June 6, 2014 OnForce, a leader in technology-enabled workforce management, today highlighted various milestones the company has achieved in accelerating the adoption of independent contractor workforce models since the launch of its platform that connects companies with best-fit independent IT workers, and gives companies the tools to manage and pay these workers. OnForce also outlined emerging business opportunities for providing workforce management solutions that address new types of freelancer arrangements outside of the IT industry.

In the spring of 2004 OnForce became one of the first companies to launch an online freelancer marketplace and management platform, which allowed enterprises to quickly find independent IT field service workers with specific skills sets for short-term, on-site IT projects, and also gave enterprises the tools for managing and paying these independent workers. Over the course of the last decade OnForce has become one of the most widely used platforms for engaging, managing and paying independent IT workers in the U.S. and Canada. In the last decade OnForce has achieved numerous milestones, including:

More than 6,400 companies ranging from the worlds largest enterprises like Apple, AT&T, Xerox, Comcast and Pitney Bowes to SMBs have used OnForces platform to engage, manage and pay independent IT workers

More than 2.2 million assignments secured through OnForces platform

Nearly 250,000 work orders accepted through OnForces native mobile applications for iOS and Android

Providing IT field services coverage in more than 99.8 percent of U.S. ZIP codes

Securing patents that serve as the foundation for efficient engagement of freelance workers, which focus on work order development, online negotiation and payment processing systems, as well as real-time clarification of work order requirements and visibility into the updated work orders for all relevant parties

Recognition from numerous industry sources as a leading freelancer management technology provider, including the Red Herring 100, Stevie Awards, CODiE Awards, Webby Awards and Channel Insider Bulls Eye Award

Technology has played an increasingly important role over the last decade in allowing companies of all sizes to quickly gain access to pools of freelance workers with specific skill-sets for completing specialized assignments, said Andrew Karpie, chief analyst of The Research Platform. OnForces platform offers companies a much needed way to engage, manage, and control short-assignment independent workers, and its mobile applications and other tools empower those freelancers to put theirunique skills and expertise to work anytime and anywhere they are needed.

Task-to-Talent Growth Opportunities Emerge Beyond IT Industry

Recent studies estimate that contingent labor accounts for up to 30 percent of an organizations total workforce mix, and forecasts indicate that independent workers will account for up to 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020. As OnForce looks forward, the company sees growth opportunities in providing technologies for managing Task-to-Talent workforce arrangements, which are shorter-term in nature than traditional contingent work arrangements and involve hiring freelancers with specialized skill-sets for completing highly specific, finite tasks.

The IT industry was one of the earliest adopters of the Task-to-Talent workforce model, where companies hire IT contractors for very short periods of time, lasting hours or even minutes, to complete a specific assignment, said OnForce CEO Peter Cannone. Recently weve seen many industries outside of IT, such as education, marketing, publishing and financial services, cultivate their own private networks of freelance workers, and these companies are now interested in implementing Task-to-Talent strategies and supporting technologies. OnForces platform for engaging, managing and paying freelance workers for short-term engagements has been battle-tested in the IT industry over the last decade, which puts us in a strong position to provide companies across industries with the most reliable platform for managing Task-to-Talent workforce arrangements.

This year OnForce launched OnForce Converge, a cloud-based Freelancer Management System (FMS) for giving enterprises the tools necessary for implementing a Task-to-Talent workforce model. The OnForce Converge platform offers a unique set of capabilities for managing enterprises private networks of freelance workers, including on-demand job filling and compliance management, along with consolidated invoicing, administration and reporting. To learn more, visit http://www.onforce.com/converge.

About OnForce

OnForce, a leader in SaaS technology-enabled workforce solutions, empowers companies of all sizes in all industries to gain a competitive edge in how work gets done. Its business model allows customers to rapidly grow their businesses, lower service costs, extend skill-sets, and generate new streams of revenue. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com.

Contact:

Alex Parks
Davies Murphy Group
onforce@daviesmurphy.com
(781) 418-2412

Reference: OnForce PressReleases 

OnForce Whitepaper Highlights Economic and Technological Factors Driving Task to Talent Employment Models

BOSTON, April 29, 2014 -- OnForce, a leader in technology-enabled workforce management, today released the whitepaper, "Task To Talent (T2T): How Technology is Driving a New Contingent Work Arrangement Paradigm." The whitepaper discusses a new type of workforce arrangement through which enterprises engage independent workers to perform short-term, specific, task-focused assignments. The whitepaper also offers an overview of some of the new Task-to-Talent technology platforms.

Recent advances in technologies, combined with enterprises growing demand to find and manage independent contractors for short-term assignments lasting for a matter of hours (or even minutes or seconds), are driving the emergence of a new Task-to-Talent workforce arrangement paradigm. While traditional staffing technology platforms such as vendor management systems (VMS) process large volumes of contingent workforce transactions and continue to evolve, they were not designed to support work arrangements for more specialized T2T "short assignments," "tasks," or "microtasks."

"The Task-to-Talent work arrangement paradigm is still at an early stage of development, but it is happening and will become an increasingly common feature and institution in our expanding digital economy," said Andrew Karpie, chief analyst of The Research Platform and author of the whitepaper. "While organizations have been engaging contractors for highly specific, very short-term assignments for some time, they've almost always done so using limiting, inefficient, ad hoc management processes that are neither automated nor transparent and may also pose compliance risks. Task-to-Talent technology platforms are now starting to enable organizations to achieve higher levels of workforce efficiency, agility and performance by leveraging, expanding, and truly 'managing' Task-to-Talent forms of work."

"Task To Talent (T2T): How Technology is Driving a New Contingent Work Arrangement Paradigm," offers an analysis of the economic and technological factors that led to the emergence of T2T workforce arrangements, and an overview and comparison of Task-to-Talent technology vendors including oDesk/Elance, TaskRabbit, Crowdflower and OnForce. The whitepaper outlines a number of factors and issues, including:

• The differences between the Personnel Staffing and Task-to-Talent workforce arrangement paradigms;
• How the co-evolution of technology and work arrangement paradigms resulted in the emergence of Task-to-Talent workforce arrangements; and
• Some of the basic differences among a range of Task-to-Talent technology platforms that are commercially available today.

Having spent the last decade working with thousands of the world's top enterprises including Apple, AT &T and Xerox in managing, engaging and paying independent contractors, we've seen first-hand the Task-to-Talent workforce arrangement paradigm take off in the IT space," said OnForce CEO Peter Cannone. "More recently we've seen the same Task-to-Talent need arise across industries as enterprises seek more efficient ways to manage the large private networks of freelancers they've cultivated to complete these short-term, specialized assignments.

In anticipation of the growing enterprise need across industries to manage Task-to-Talent engagements, OnForce recently announced OnForce Converge, a software platform that can be adopted within any company's contingent workforce program and enable the aggregation and management of a company's existing and future "short-assignment" contingent workforce. OnForce Converge is designed to work in conjunction with current workforce management solutions including managed solution providers (MSP) and vendor management systems, allowing organizations to expand their workforce management capabilities to incorporate contingent workers (independent contractors, freelancers, etc.) who perform smaller, shorter, specialized projects and tasks.

The whitepaper, "Task To Talent (T2T): How Technology is Driving a New Contingent Work Arrangement Paradigm," is available for download here. To learn more about OnForce Converge, please visit http://www.onforce.com/converge.

About OnForce

OnForce, a leader in SaaS technology-enabled workforce solutions, empowers companies of all sizes in all industries to gain a competitive edge in how work gets done. Its business model allows customers to rapidly grow their businesses, lower service costs, extend skill-sets, and generate new streams of revenue. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contact:

Alex Parks

Davies Murphy Group

onforce@daviesmurphy.com

(781) 418-2412

Reference: OnForcePressReleases  

OnForce and ICon Announce Partnership to Offer Leading Freelancer Management Platform with Robust Compliance Solution

BOSTON and Foster City, Calif., April 8, 2014 OnForce, a leader in technology-enabled workforce management, and ICon, a leader in independent contractor compliance, today announced a partnership that will give organizations across industries the ability to engage, manage and pay their private networks of freelance workers while ensuring that their contingent workforce management practices are compliant with state and federal regulations.

Recent studies estimate that contingent labor accounts for up to 30 percent of an organizations total workforce mix, and forecasts indicate that independent workers will account for more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020. With the heightened scrutiny of worker relationships by all levels of government, organizations need to proactively address the logistical challenges of engaging and administering contingent workers as well as manage the compliance risks related to the use of independent contractors.

Independent contractor compliance is one of the greatest concerns of companies seeking to capitalize on the efficiencies of the freelancer economy, said OnForce CEO Peter Cannone. With this go-to-market offering between OnForce and ICon, enterprise customers have the opportunity to manage the growing trend towards engaging freelancers while mitigating these state and federal compliance risks.

Organizations across industries now have the ability to use OnForce Converge, a cloud-based Freelancer Management System (FMS) for managing an enterprises private network of independent workers, along with ICons full-service automated compliance solution. Available in subscription-based models, these freelancer management and compliance solutions provide enterprises with the most efficient way of engaging, managing and paying their dynamic, variable freelancer workforce.

Theres really no debating that the use of independent contractors is one of the most advantageous strategies for companies to achieve greater workforce optimization, said ICon CEO Patricia Griffin. Were enabling companies to leverage these benefitsvia our technology integrations and partnerships, while also providing the assurance that they are adhering to the full scope of complex compliance regulations.

About ICon Professional Services

ICon is a leading provider of Contingent Workforce Management solutions which include 1099 contractor compliance, payroll and benefits administration.Since 1997, ICon has applied experience, technology, and process execution to create solutions that deliver on the promise of an independent workforce by expertly navigating the complexity of government compliance. Our award-winning iConnect technology platform remains at the forefront of the industry and provides powerful competitive advantages in terms of cost and performance. This technological advantage, along with our dedication to providing superior customer service, has earned ICon a long list of awards and satisfied customers. For additional information, visit www.gotoicon.com.

About OnForce

OnForce, a leader in SaaS technology-enabled workforce solutions, empowers companies of all sizes in all industries to gain a competitive edge in how work gets done. Its business model allows customers to rapidly grow their businesses, lower service costs, extend skill-sets, and generate new streams of revenue. For additional information, please visit www.onforce.com.

Contact:
Izumi Barker
ICon Professional Services
ibarker@gotoicon.com
(650) 378-4150
Alex Parks
Davies Murphy Group
onforce@daviesmurphy.com
(781) 418-2412

Reference: OnForcePressReleases

Platform version 5.60.4 release

The OnForce team will be releasing an update to the platform tonight. Here’s what’s new: Add rich formatting to work order details

Are you making it easy to understand the requirements of your work? Are you providing clear and easy-to-follow instructions? In a fast-paced on-site environment, how quickly can service professionals extract important information from your job description?

As a service buyer, improving the readability of your work orders helps the service professionals you work with to quickly and completely understand job requirements and instructions — saving time on site, reducing errors and missed steps, and leading to better overall service.

OnForce service buyers can now apply rich formatting to their work order description, instructions, and terms of agreement fields, making the scope of work and service instructions easier to read, understand, and follow. With our easy-to-use formatting toolbar, you can add any of the following formatting and styling options to your work order text:

• Bold Italics
• Numbered lists 
• Bulleted lists 
• Horizontal rules 

Some tips for improving work order readability:

Avoid using all capital letters

Part of the way our brains make sense of printed text is by recognizing letter shapes. Because capitalized letters are all the same height, we actually have to work harder to distinguish between them. A study in the American Journal of Psychological Research concluded that using capital letters for emphasis actually decreases reading comprehension. What to do instead: Use bold or italics to emphasize important details and highlight critical steps or procedures. Break up large blocks of text

Presenting job details in large blocks of text increases the amount of time required to read and decreases comprehension and retention. It’s much easier for our brains to assign meaning to what we read when visual characteristics, such as lists and spacing, are used to help us understand how the information is organized. What to do instead: Use section headings, spacing, and horizontal rules to organize your work order into smaller, more manageable sections. For example, maybe you want to provide instructions for what a Pro should do prior to going on site, while they’re on site, and when they are closing out the job.

Want more help?

Our support and account management teams are here to help you if you need pointers on how to structure an effective, easy-to-read work order.

Reference: OnForce Blog

OnForce CEO Among Staffing Industry Top 100 Most Influential

Peter Cannone is the president and CEO of OnForce, a workforce solutions company that delivers proven offerings to today’s pressing labor management issues for the Fortune 1000 and beyond. He brings deep insights regarding trends in the staffing and service sectors and an extensive understanding of the technology services industry. Through Cannone’s leadership, OnForce recently won the prestigious Red Herring 2013 Top 100 North America award. As an award winner, OnForce joins the short list that honors the year’s most promising private technology ventures.