Hang gliding and paragliding are exciting but dangerous sports that require a lot of detailed records to support insurance and licensing requirements. When the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA) contacted my company, The Hathersage Group, to build their management system, we jumped at the chance to help.
The USHPA is the main licensing body (called “ratings) for hang glider and paraglider pilots in the U.S., and their system is quite complex, tracking various details like ability and experience levels, as well as different types of skills and equipment. To manage this data, they needed a set of web applications that would be easy to use, reliable, and affordable to build—and we needed talented pros to make it happen.
Several years ago, I hired two engineers through Upwork — one in Siberia and the other in Cambodia — to help with a different database marketing project. The experience was amazing. The geography was odd; while Irkutsk and Phnom Penh are close together in time zones, the weather difference was stark. But each night the three of us would talk on the phone about the day’s work, and the next morning I would get up to see what progress they made. The project was resoundingly successful.
The Hathersage Group is a small development shop, so we work with a lot of subcontractors on an as-needed basis; many are people I know through my own network, but at other times I’ll turn to Upwork.
The USHPA project called for a range of different systems : a CMS for a new website, accident reporting for researchers, and a management system for the memberships and ratings that form the backbone of their organization. By considering scores from skill tests on Upwork, client feedback, and other indicators displayed on freelancer profiles, we narrowed our list of contenders to three developers. When we noticed that two of the three were in the same city in Pakistan, we decided to give them a try.
Tap Into the Benefits of a Professional Network
A few months later, those two engineers had introduced us to a number of their colleagues — all of whom were on Upwork — and we had a small community of developers working on our project. They live in Lahore, a city in Pakistan just across the border from India. While they work independently in small offices, they all know each other and are able to help us get the right projects to the right people.
They are highly skilled and experienced developers who bring a level of expertise to the table that is useful. We don’t always know the best way to solve a problem, but with their strong technical skills we often rely on the team in Lahore for their expertise and advice.
In fact, it felt a little as if we had an office of our own in Lahore, even though none of us ever went there. And we got to know the developers personally. One of them took a few weeks off to go on the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia. He also had a baby girl. And while I’ll probably never meet him or his wife, I’m excited for them. When I worked with a programmer in Cambodia, I’d hear his kids running around in the background. He was one of the best programmers I’ve ever worked with, and I had this opportunity to catch a glimpse into his life and into a different culture. A side benefit to working through Upwork is getting to know people and cultures in other parts of the world by collaborating with them remotely.
That really became clear to me at Easter, when I awoke to learn of the bombing in the park in Lahore. I immediately emailed the team, asking whether they were OK. It took almost 24 hours to get responses back from them, but fortunately they were all fine.
Keep Your Focus On Your Core Business
Some of the developers from Lahore have helped us with other projects now. Upwork takes care of all the administration — including, most importantly, the invoicing and payment process. Instead of calling the bank about international wire transfers to Pakistan, we can focus on the technology and making each project a success for our customers.
But even more importantly, there are really talented people who are just looking for the right opportunity to help on interesting projects. Upwork allows ordinary businesses to tap into the latent capability and energy all over the world, whether in a basement in Siberia, a family house in Cambodia, or a small office in Pakistan.
This story was submitted by The Hathersage Group and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.
The post How The Hathersage Group Built a Global Development Team appeared first on Upwork Blog.
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