OnForce Continues Technology-Enabled Freelancer Economy Movement

Forecasts indicate that independent workers may account for up to 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020

BostonJune 5, 2014OnForce, a provider of technology-enabled workforce management, highlighted various milestones the company achieved in accelerating the adoption of independent contractor workforce models since the launch of its platform that connects companies with best-fit independent information technology (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 became a widely used platform for engaging, managing and paying independent IT workers in the U.S. and Canada.

In the last decade, OnForce achieved numerous milestones, including:

  • More than 6,400 companies—ranging from the world’s largest enterprises like Apple, AT&T, Xerox, Comcast and Pitney Bowes to small and medium businesses (SMBs)—that used OnForce’s platform to engage, manage and pay independent IT workers.
  • More than 2.2 million assignments secured through OnForce’s platform.
  • Nearly 250,000 work orders accepted through OnForce’s 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 Bull’s 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 skillsets for completing specialized assignments,” said Andrew Karpie, chief analyst of The Research Platform. “OnForce’s 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 their unique skills and expertise to work anytime and anywhere they are needed.”

Task-to-Talent Growth Opportunities Emerge Beyond IT

Recent studies estimate that contingent labor accounts for up to 30 percent of an organization’s total workforce mix, and forecasts indicate that independent workers may 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 skillsets 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, we’ve 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.

OnForce’s 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.

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