In fact, the amount of time for task is calculated based on manifold factors of which many cannot be exactly quantificational gauged by time scale. At Bpovia, we take following aspects into consideration:

1 Get familiar with the task and fully understand the instruction.

2 Time spend on communicate.

3 Time spend on task.

4 Time spend on writing report, if necessary.

5 Time spend on quality control, if necessary. We have internal quality control procedure in order to provide high quality service to our clients.

The above five factor together determine how much time should be allocated to each task and ensure that the client will get a satisfactory outcome.

Bpovia has work out project plans for different kinds of task in order to help you with time control issue. For instance, 10 hours are enough for 1-2 researches, simple graphic design, translation etc. Technical support such as Website Maintenance, HTML / CSS modification, Blog / WordPress Maintenance and Online Forms/Widgets are best done on project basis of 40 hours. We also recommend full time (8hours 5days/month) service for clients who wants customized application designs, or is interested in China Business Development. (Click here to see the pricing)

Time is the core issue of virtual assistance service. Therefore both sides–clients and service provider—want to make the most of it. As a leading provider of virtual assistance service, Bpovia ensures state-of-the-art service using proper amount of time. Through years of perspiration and efforts, we won customer trust by integrity and professional way of doing business. We commit to employing client’s time in economical manner and all we want is your trust in our profession intuition.

“Several important factors involved with their failure include: Too much competition, little service provider differentiation besides price, high service provider fees, no locality of services, ambiguous project descriptions, cheap Indians, as well as cheap Indians, and last but not least, cheap Indians.

Lets start from the buyer’s perspective. I think I made a pretty decent example. I’m a company CEO (or to dumb me down, startup founder) and I needed a business plan made and my website programmed from the ground up. I go to Elance.com, I submit a project that says I need these things done and I want to work directly with the service provider to make it happen. 50 Indians bid on my project, each going cheaper than the one before him, and I realize that they all suck. They don’t know what I’m looking for, so how can they adequately do my project? I want them in front of me so that we can plan the process out easier, but they’re in India and have a language barrier. Great. Now that I’m frustrated, I leave Elance and wasted over $200 in bidding fees for the service providers who bid on my project.”

Good point! Since post a project on elance is free. There are too many fake or dummy projects out there. Some buyers post projects simply to get an idea of the cost or to try to find free work. But bid on project is not free. Service providers will soon find it is waste of time to use Elance.

“From the service provider’s perspective, let’s say that I’m an Indian. I know that I’m good at programming, I know that I’m good at business, and I know that I speak perfect English. Mr. American goes ahead to post his business plan and programming project request for a really stupid idea. I look at it, nod, and make my bid. 49 other Indians bid with me. Mr. American is thinking, where the hell do I even start? How do I know that Mr. Indian can speak perfect english when I have to interview all 50 of these guys to know which one is right. Too many choices isn’t a good thing. Mr. American doesn’t buy from me, I wasted a lot of time and some money on a lost lead.

Of course, all of this is a problem for both the buyer and seller. The lack of quality service providers steers away the quality leads and buyers. Few buyers means fewer qualified service providers. At this point, the marketplace has failed. Elance has been treading water for the past 7 years and haven’t changed their model at all. They went into enterprise software for a few years, but that didn’t go very far.”

Very good point. The lack of quality service providers steers away the quality leads and buyers. Since most of the bidders on those sites are  typically freelancers, self employed and work at home. The reliability and quality of service are highly unpredictable. Elance is just middleman or marketplace so they have no control about the bidders at all. More and more dispute happened on elance. Serious business can’t depend on freelancers for outsourcing.

Some real life experience about elance users:

http://highfade.com/2008/09/27/elancecomterribleexperience/

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/elancecom-c55889.html

http://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/message.php?i=265026830

In recent years, thousands have switched their corporate jobs to work as virtual assistants for new bosses they may never actually meet. As independent contractors, they are engaged in all kinds of work ranging from bookkeeping, travel arrangements via phone, e-mail or fax, data entry, tax advice, accountancy to technology support. In spite of the fact that some bosses are only just coming to realize that administrative support can easily be done virtually, virtual assistance is in vogue.

Virtual assistance services have sprung up in such countries as the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. And the industry is now so popular that trade groups and websites begin to assist virtual assistants and try to attract potential clients.

The popularity of virtual assistance is attributable to the following two factors.

First of all, it is cost-effective. Employers are exempt from paying for extra office space, furniture, equipment or software, as well as additional cost for training, pensions or work insurance.

Secondly, virtual assistance sometimes can help employers make full use of time differences to meet deadlines.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/19/globaloffice.virtual.assistant/