-
What is CloudFactory?
CloudFactory is a scalable way to outsource tedious computer work. We help break your project down into small tasks that are completed by our global 24x7 workforce. Our software platform manages this workforce to ensure quick turnaround and accurate results for your business.
-
Is my project a good fit for CloudFactory? (and which projects are NOT a good fit)
If you have large amounts of data that need to be entered, collected, processed or categorized, you won’t find a better solution than CloudFactory. Almost every business has work they consider tedious, time consuming, repetitive computer work. Really, any computer task that can be completed by someone through a web browser is probably a great fit for CloudFactory. Projects that are not a good fit are those that require certain software other than a web browser (Photoshop, etc), require expertise in creative writing, design, programming or other higher level computer work, involve spamming/voting/traffic-building work that is basically cheating and our workers hate, etc. Best way to find out if your project is a good fit is to email hello@cloudfactory.com and we’ll let you know!
-
Should I use Self-Service or Full-Service?
Our self-service is great to understand and try out CloudFactory but it is limited in capabilities compared to what our full-service can offer. If you have a large project or ongoing work, need guaranteed accuracy or turnaround time (SLA), have a complex workflow or need a private crowd that you can train up and qualify with a test … our Solutions team is ready to help.
-
How is CloudFactory different from outsourcing?
CloudFactory is a new kind of outsourcing. You get a single point of contact for a scalable workforce that is billed by the minute. No interviews, no negotiating, no waiting for bids, no language barriers. You could try to find a BPO company to partner with, hire a bunch of separate contractors using oDesk/eLance, or use crowdsourcing to send your work to a faceless and unaccountable crowd with no quality assurance. Or you could save all the hassle and pain and come straight to CloudFactory!
-
Who uses CloudFactory?
We continue to be amazed at the variety of our clients. There are tech startups that need to scale and plug CloudFactory into their solution behind the scenes to digitize, moderate, etc. There are large companies that deal with tons of data and are tired of hiring temps or failing at their outsourcing attempts. There are small companies that have in-house staff doing pretty tedious and repetitive tasks that CloudFactory can simply do better and cheaper. It seems that almost every organization has a good amount of work that could be sent to CloudFactory once they understand how it works.
-
Where are your workers located?
Since we have our major office in Nepal and the country is filled with so many bright and motivated people, we have most of our cloud workers located here. As we expand the model over the coming months we have a target list of 79 strategic countries where people with untapped potential are waiting to be plugged in to the global economy.
-
How do you manage the workforce?
We use a combination of fancy software and a unique workforce model based on solidarity, friendly competition and a lot of gamification and love! Our cloud workers take this job seriously and it is what many of them list as their primary job on their Facebook profile. They meet face-to face in their teams of 5 people every week for two hours. Our purpose is to raise up leaders to address poverty in their own communities and we believe “leadership = character x competency”. That is why we spend 1 hour on competency at each team meeting (knowledge sharing on different tasks, watch weekly webinar on new tasks in the system and other updates, review the mistakes made in the previous week as a group and individuals, etc) and 1 hour on character (weekly CloudFactory principle such as honesty, dependability, listening, learning, etc is discussed and applied by setting a measurable goal for the week related to the principle). We also have “cloud seeders” that are responsible for training new team leaders and overseeing 10 - 20 teams.
-
How do you recruit and qualify your workers?
Our team leaders nominate people from their own social graph (friends, family, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, etc) and each candidate then goes through an initial online test then a skype interview followed by a final harder online test. Then each worker needs to take tests to qualify to work on certain tasks and even still they receive a lot of practice tasks until they can prove their accuracy.
-
How do you train your workers?
We work with our clients to quickly implement custom online training that use screencasts/screenshots to show corner cases and answer frequently asked questions by workers. In addition to showing they understand the training we also like to give a whole bunch of practice tasks covering a wide variety of cases to be sure each worker is ready for prime time.
-
How is it faster?
Imagine one worker doing data entry of a 10 page form or another work transcribing a 1 hour audio file. Now imagine CloudFactory slicing each page of the form into 20 different fields/sections and having 200 people working in parallel on the same 10 page form. Or the audio file being split into 10 second clips so that 360 people simultaneously transcribe that same 1 hour file. Our speed comes from our assembly line approach to doing work and the large workforce working 24x7.
-
How is it cheaper?
Our assembly line approach also brings great efficiency and therefore costs savings. Plus our workers are in strategic locations around the world where a couple dollars an hour is a very good wage.
-
How is it accurate?
Training and testing is used on the front end to ensure qualified workers. Machine learning algorithms are used on the backend to know when a result is accurate or not. We also track detailed accuracy reputations for each worker and periodically give them tasks we already know the answer for to keep them on their toes. In summary, we make a great workforce better through training and testing and then use technology and little tricks to keep everyone in line and ensure accurate results.
-
How is it scalable?
We grow with your business and can handle massive projects that most BPO companies never could. We are also flexible in that you can send as little or as much work to CloudFactory whenever you want.
-
How is it secure?
Security comes naturally built into our assembly line approach. Each worker is only given one small piece of information with no context. Think of CloudFactory as a paper shredder that then sends each little strip to one worker before finally putting everything back together in the end.
-
How can I get started?
Request a quote or more information on your potential project by contacting us at hello@cloudfactory.com
-
Do you really think you can change the world?
Yes. Imagine a group of young men and women of high character growing in their computer and language competency. They have flexible jobs where they earn good money and can work anytime and from anywhere. They go out into their community every month to serve as a team and learn about the needs and people around them. They are the next generation of leaders that will find their way into the arts, government, business, media, education, etc. Now imagine a grassroots movement with 1 million of these leaders all connected and networked and wanting to change their families, communities, cities and nation. That can change the world.