The Hindu Business Line : Outsource your tech shopping

What it did can surely be defined as the next generation outsourcing, or outsourcing in a new avatar. 8K Miles, a start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, gave shape to the library chain’s dreams. As it describes itself, 8K Miles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables customers to outsource their IT requirements over the Internet.

“The way we work is very simple,” explains Padmanabhan Raghavan, Co-founder and Chief Evangelist. Companies wanting to build solutions can post their requirements on the 8K Miles portal. 8K Miles, on the other hand, has tied up with IT professionals who are willing to freelance, or even with small IT firms.

Once the requirements are posted, engineers registered with 8K Miles bid for projects that they are interested in. The customers can then choose their team from amongst those who have submitted bids. “Thus, the customers have an IT team in place without having to go through the hassles of hiring,” says Raghavan. Customers can also select a project manager who would hand-hold the entire project, he adds.

The team or the project manager then advises the customers on the kinds of tools they would require while developing the solution. The customers or buyers can subscribe to Microsoft or Linux development tools and applications through the 8K Miles portal. “This gives buyers on-demand access to infrastructure for which they will be charged based on usage,” says Raghavan. The Infrastructure would be maintained by 8K Miles.

Raghavan says all that a customer needs is a browser to access the Internet. The remote infrastructure solution has been built on the Amazon cloud computing platform. The customer requirements are designed, developed, deployed and maintained on the cloud. In the future they would like to use other cloud-based platforms such as the Microsoft Azure or the one provided by IBM, he says.

“In a nutshell what this means is that customers get access to workforce as well as software and hardware tools without having to invest in creating a physical infrastructure,” says Raghavan. “They just come and get their work done.”

And who would be the clients for such a service?

“We expect small and medium businesses (SMBs), start-ups and small IT and consulting companies to use our service,” says Raghavan. “The SMBs and the start-ups can outsource their IT requirement through 8K Miles, while for the small IT firms we would be their remote development arm,” he says. There are many such small firms in the US who get contracts but do not have the capability to deliver them, he adds.

8K Miles has tied up with skill assessment company MeritTrac to evaluate the quality of the engineers who register. It is also in talks with a verification company who can do the background check and verify the work experience. This would ensure that the chances of fraud are minimised, Raghavan says. Also, if an engineer quits, he cannot rejoin. There is pressure to do a good job or not to come back. Moreover, payments are based on milestones. Only when a certain percentage of work is complete does the customer have to pay. This would ensure that the customer does not lose his money, he adds. At present, about 500 people have registered with 8K Miles and there are about 15 service buyers.

shamik@thehindu.co.in

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