VirtualEmployee.com transforms the Freelancer into Virtual Employee

Who is a Virtual Employee and how has the Freelancer been converted into a Virtual Employee?

Introduction:
The Virtual Employee takes the outsourcing industry a step further than the freelancer. Where outsourcing to a freelancer was ground breaking five years ago, the Virtual Employee now assumes this mantle. The Virtual Employee has completely changed the dynamics of SME outsourcing by achieving what not long ago would have been unimaginable. In comparison to the freelancer, the Virtual Employee will save companies more, increase their efficiency yet further, enable greater choice and more flexibility. The Virtual Employee is the new frontier and the natural evolutionary step in the outsourcing industry.

Why is the freelancer successful?
Outsourcing a short-term project to a freelancer in a country like India is now a frequently deployed and well established practice. The success of freelancing sites such as elance.com certainly purports this view. Elance.com alone has close to 100,000 registered freelancers of which a significant percentage is freelancers from Third World countries.

So why are so many companies from the West outsourcing to freelancers in India? There are numerous reasons for the success behind the offshore freelancer, but in brief the success behind the freelancer can be attributed to the following simple principle: "outsourcing lowers cost and achieves the same result". Outsourcing to a freelancer simply enables companies to achieve the same result at a much lower cost.

Outsourcing to a Virtual Employee?
VirtualEmployee.com is an outsourcing service provider located in New Delhi NCR, India. VirtualEmployee.com provides companies from the USA and Europe with employees or "virtual employees". The employees work directly for the US company but from the VirtualEmployee.com head outsourcing office in India. The employees work on a long term, permanent basis. A Virtual Employee can be hired in any field of office work; technical or back office positions, e.g. programming, law, accounts, call center agents, data entry etc.

A Virtual Employee works directly for and with the company outsourcing from the US, UK or Europe. The process is just like hiring an employee from your country; the employee will do and follow your instructions just like any "normal" employee. The only difference is that the employee works "virtually" as opposed to physically from the company' office. The process is more accurately described as hiring an employee as opposed to "outsourcing" per se.

VirtualEmployee.com takes control of all non-work related issues and manages the employee on the client's behalf. VirtualEmployee.com provides a sound office environment for the Virtual Employee, pays the employee, keeps the client's data secure, ensures the employee is working, recruits the employee and equips the employee with all the necessary office hardware e.g. PC, fast internet connection, fax, scanner, printer, telephone with local US number etc.

Freelancer converted into Virtual Employee
Hiring a Virtual Employee is, in many respects, an extension of hiring a freelancer. Both the Virtual Employee and freelancer work from a foreign country, both work remotely, both use technology to interact and collaborate with the client. Furthermore, both the freelancer and Virtual Employee share the same principle justification as to why a company should hire either; this principle being that both the freelancer and Virtual Employee lower costs, increase efficiency and maintain high standards.

The difference, however, between a freelancer and a Virtual Employee or where the "conversion" fundamentally takes place is that a freelancer is self-employed and works independently. In contrast, when outsourcing to a Virtual Employee there is a third party with a physical presence that overviews the whole outsourcing process.

The physical presence is key for it gives much greater professionalism, structure, accountability and flexibility in comparison to outsourcing with a freelancer. And it is because of these higher standards that a Virtual Employee can work on a long term basis whereas a freelancer's unprofessionalism restricts them to only short-term projects.

When hiring a Virtual Employee, VirtualEmployee.com:

• Provides an office environment maintained to international standards
• Equips the employee with all the necessary hardware
• Monitors the employee's work
• Ensures the employee works the correct hours
• VE managers implement any of the client's instructions
• 24 hour client support department is available should a client need any assistance
• Guards sensitive data
• Pays the employee so you don't have any risk
• Takes control of all tax, insurance and employee benefit considerations
• Ensures the employee works dedicatedly and professionally at all times
• Ensures the employee maintains certain work ethics and standards etc...

This structure is not present when outsourcing to a freelancer and it is for this reason a freelancer is limited in scope. The increased levels of service and control that can be derived from having this physical presence thus enables a freelancer to be transformed into a Virtual Employee.

Why is the Virtual Employee ground breaking?
The Virtual Employee is ground breaking due to the fact that any company of any size can start hiring full time and permanent employees in India. But even more than this, with VirtualEmployee.com clients also have their very own offshore office in India. This is because our office becomes an extension of the client's office. So for the first time even small to medium sized firms can outsource to India the same way as corporations such as Microsoft, Dell, IBM, British Telecom, Oracle etc do. Earlier, this was not possible because hiring a freelancer on a long term basis is not practical. Freelancers are notorious for their inefficiency and unprofessionalism which makes it impossible to hire an individual working from home on a long term basis.

The typical cost of a Virtual Employee is just US$1095 - $1995 per month and so the service is very affordable. VirtualEmployee.com is even more ground-breaking for the reason that outsourcing any office work is possible; specialist or back office e.g. software development, graphics design, SEO, engineering, law, accounts, data entry etc... And so clients can have an offshore team in India with employees from various different backgrounds all working from the same office.

Conclusion
The internet enabled clients to hire freelancers in India for low budget, short term contracts. VirtualEmployee.com enables clients to hire full time, permanent employees in India. Although the freelancer will retain an important role within the offshore outsourcing industry, the Virtual Employee takes over from the freelancer as the latest innovation in this industry.