Samasource featured in the Stanford Daily

A reporter from the Daily discussed Samasource in her piece on the Social E Challenge Business Plan competition, published on the front page of today’s paper.

Check out the coverage here: http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=2268.

Samasource’s Preciss International on CNBC TV

This morning, I came across this CNBC interview of Mugure Mugo, the Kenyan owner of Preciss International, one of our pilot firms in Nairobi:

Satyam Fraud Will Encourage New Outsourcing Models

The New York Times reported today that Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Indian outsourcing giant Satyam Computer Services, falsified the company’s accounts, reporting over $1 billion of nonexistent assets in the second quarter of last year. (Read the full article here.)

While some analaysts warned clients (which have included several Fortune 500 companies, the US government, and the World Bank) to find a way out of Satyam contracts late last year, this news comes as a surprise to many. Satyam, which grew to over 50,000 employees over the last 20 years, has long been held as one of the darlings of globalization. The company made its name providing large-scale back-office solutions to firms including General Motors and General Electric.

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ Code of Ethics and similar measures promoted by regional outsourcing organizations are a start towards encouraging greater accountability among leaders of outsourcing firms, but they lack real muscle without an enforcement mechanism. One problem is the sheer size of most large outsourcing firms– since accounting is centrally managed, fraud on such a large scale is easier to commit.

While much of Satyam’s exising business is likely to migrate to other large outsourcing firms in India, there may be an opportunity for smaller companies in other parts of the world to benefit. In the wake of this news, Samasource plans to encourage its service providers to open their books to external auditors and agree to provide greater transparency to both clients and donors.

oDesk Global Outsourcing Statistics

Amit Bakshi at oDesk summarized some interesting trends on oDesk, a platform for outsourcing to freelancers and small businesses. Of note:

*The country with the most service providers (and the highest average feedback) is the US
*Philippines is the fastest-growing country on oDesk
*India has the largest number of software and web providers, categories that have 3x the wages of most other kinds of work on oDesk.

Check out the full presentation below:

Happy Holidays from Daproim

Steve Muthee, the young founder of Daproim (one of our service providers in Nairobi) sent an e-card with some photos from the company’s end-of-year party. I’ve included one below, with a quote, to highlight how his firm helps young, skilled workers in a low-income country:

The pictures comprise of both the Book Validation and Transcription team. Our employees are from diverse backgrounds, including me (the tallest male standing right at the door , university graduates, a deaf agent, a young and single parent, ongoing university students – all of whom are high performing and producing great results.

Craigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp Interview

Samasource was profiled at the Craigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp by JD Lasica, of Real People Network (click on the image to view in Vimeo):

Samasource from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Samasource profiled in Dutch RaboCom Magazine

Samasource was profiled in the Autumn 2008 edition in a piece called “Bridging the ICT Gap with Africa,” by Susan Randall.

Click the image below to download the full article.

RaboCom is a publication of the Global Telecommunications, Media and Internet (TMI) group within Rabobank International and is published twice a year.

Samasource to host Facebook Developer Garages in Ghana, Uganda

Samasource is partnering with the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and Appfrica, an NGO, to host two more Facebook Garages in Africa. These events help young software and web developers learn how to use their skills to create applications for Facebook, the fourth-most trafficked website in the US.

To learn more:

>> Visit the event pages on Facebook: Ghana Uganda

>>Download a flyer for each event: Ghana Uganda

A new look for Samasource

Samasource has a spiffy new design!

The new site is parked at www.samasource.com. We’ll keep what’s currently at the .org up as our blog; if you want to stay up to date on Samasource news, please become a fan on Facebook.

Follow-on work with Benetech

We’re happy to report that Samasource’s largest client to date, Palo-Alto based nonprofit Benetech, has awarded a second contract to a Samasource service provider in Nairobi, Preciss International. Preciss is run by two Kenyan women, Mugure Mugo and Ivy Kimani, and employs university students and recent graduates in Nairobi on projects including data entry, transcription, and video captioning.

Samasource is proud to have played a role in this partnership, and we look forward to finding more opportunities for Preciss in the coming months.