3 Offshore IT Resource Models to Scale Your Firm Faster | ITVA

0:00Welcome to IT Mastermind Talks, your access to insights and experiences from thought leaders in the IT services industry and those that support the industry. Our podcast features not only the seasoned professionals charting their start to exit journey, but also the key contributors who help ensure their success. We delve into the diverse challenges encountered within the IT services realm, encompassing both professional hurdles and personal obstacles. Join us. Be part of our growing community and engage in the conversation hosted by Ian Markram of Loading Growth. Hi, good morning. It's Ian from IT Mastermind Talks, Loading Growth Coach. And today I've got the awesome Angelica from the ITVA in Philippines, who is actually one of my co-founders there. an would you just like to say hi to the audience this morning?

0:53Hi. Hi, everyone. Morning. Great to be here, Ian. Brilliant. Brilliant. What's the weather like in Daro at the moment in Philippines? Is it nice and hot? It's a Yes, it's a sunny day. So, that's Great. Great. In Australia at the moment, it's pretty cold. It's mid- winter for us here. So, all the all the joys of Philippines and I'll be there in Philippines actually in the next 3 or 4

1:16So, I'm quite excited to get out the cold and get that heat. that's fantastic. So what do we the session today is really around the different employment models that ITBA actually uses to hire staff. Now why why is ITBA even exists? it's basically since I've been coaching for 11 years one of my clients about 7 years ago said hey Ian we need some marketing resources from the Philippines. Why don't you set up a team in the Philippines? And that's what really happened with ITBA. It's how it all around the demand that was driven by my clients and the team there has been going really really well and it's and grown and it's done a lot of different things and the model has changed. So, I'm going to talk a bit about the employment model, one of the components that it does, does marketing, it does a whole lot of stuff, bookkeeping, admin, there's a whole lot of things, but we're just going to talk a bit about the employment model today. and before we do that, a lot of my clients that start out, one or two staff members locally in in the US, UK or Australia, where most of my clients are, they tend to actually go earlier they go to offshore, the better it is. you can get, you know, a person maybe two, three staff offshore that is the same price as onshore. And basically what that means is they can scale faster and they can do things a lot quicker as well. And they don't have to be full-time resources in the Philippines. Some of our clients actually use like a 0.5 resource or a couple hours here, a couple hours there.

2:48So there's different models there within this model that we not probably not going to talk about, but that's just to help the smaller clients move up and actually start to win quicker and faster and actually get great great results to to their clients and and make sure they can do the services there. So just like to you know all the clients that I work with that actually do win have a component offshore and and sometimes the the clients when they get to 10 to 12 people offshore they tend to build their own offshore team with an Ang's team's help to do that and then they have their own team but under 10 12 people it's cheaper to go through an agency like the ITVA as well just to to give you a bit of that also now a lot of our staff in the Philippines or all our staff actually in the Philippines are all certified on claude for example there's three to four exams on claude they're all certified even an I are certified as well we lead by example and that's really important to to realize that AI is definitely going to change the way our clients deliver to their clients but we are also delivering quicker and faster and certain prices have have actually come down for our clients around the marketing piece so what's actually happening is we're using those to to deliver quick and faster for clients. So they are enabled as well locally. I'm going to hand over to to an just go through the different models.

4:14They are confusing initially and that's why we want to do this video today just explain what these models do and how our clients leverage to keep on winning with the offshore team. So an just talk about the direct sourcing the number one model on the lefth hand side. would you would you like to just go through that and talk a bit about that? Yep. Yep. Sure. But just before I go into the three models Ian just want to say that you know I've run offshore teams for our clients for like six seven years now and I've seen both the good and the ugly side of recruitment.

4:47Over time we've also built a network of you know IT professionals and agency owners locally. So my experience in running offshore teams has really equipped me over the years on how to work with them, how to augment onshore teams with offshore resource and you know get really well versed on the technicalities and the legalities involved in the whole process of it. So over time you know one question that we always get all the time is what's the difference between having ITVA find someone fully manage someone or just handle compliance for someone that they have already found. So today I just want to break down our three employment models and help you guys figure out which one really fits your situation. So like what you've mentioned we've got the first model which is the direct sourcing model. So, in plain terms, it's finding and placing the right person for you. IPva does that. And once they're hired, they're 100% your employee. So, you handle payroll, HR, compliance, day-to-day management, and everything else. So, our job basically stops at

5:57Correct. So this one is ideal for companies that already have HR and payroll systems in place and you know they just want to help find the right hire. So think of it as you know just help me hire someone type of model. Perfect. Perfect. Now you're also doing this so it's you you're doing direct sourcing for clients in the Asia pack for their offshore teams as well. You're hiring for their offshore teams. you hire for your our own off for our clients as well and you set them up as well. That's the the the number two and number three. But also you're starting to hire for people onshore as well. Can you

6:35You know cuz it's the same process and you've got all the processes in place and you've got the LinkedIn recruiter which is extremely expensive. So you are hiring people locally in the US, UK and Australia for resources as teams flex up and on as well, aren't you? Yes. Yes, you're right. Thanks for mentioning that. So we don't only hire or build offshore teams for you, but we also do start to do now the onshore

7:02Nice. Nice. Okay. Brilliant. So that's for, you know, someone that's organized and someone that's up and running and and going. What about the option two? Let's go through that. Right. So the all-inclusive solution is our second model. So this is the set and forget option. So we find, we hire and we manage the person on your behalf. So it's basically like having a fully outsourced HR and employment department. So we handle recruitment, full payroll, even the Philippine statutory benefits that actually makes you

7:35HR, admin, operations, support, and team integration. So I all you have to do is just manage the person's day-to-day work. And the good thing about it is that we have an office here in the Philippines. So we can provide local oversight. The person sits here with a team that makes everything else better. So that's our all-inclusive

7:59Great. Thanks. Thanks for that. Now if the if the client is in the US or the UK, our staff work to their their timetable as well. It's really important. That's right. So to mention that an because you know and and they got to have the security and everything else to work remotely at night and and all those type of things. So there's a really it becomes important to to understand that. So the US clients that they'll do the midnight shift and then in the UK they do the evening shift as well and then in Australia, New Zealand it's that they normally start with you know because it's only two hours to three hours depends on where you are time difference. It's not that bad. It's quite easily to do that. So to get that into that rhythm is is important. but you can back package work up hand it over to them and they can execute that work out of out of your hours you know or later on as well. So there's different ways you can work with the team as well. So just let you know that let's go on to option three then

8:58Okay so option three or the third model is our employer of record or the EO. So this one is perfect for companies who have already found their person. Maybe they sourced the candidate themselves or they have already staff in the Philippines. So they just need to someone to legally employ that person and hand handle compliance. So what ITVA does is we take care of full compliance, payroll, tax filings, even the employment contracts and you get a dedicated local account manager for your vis. So what you just basically do is you know manage the person day-to-day since they are already working for you. So the simplest way to really think about it is you already have your person you just want to make things legal.

9:43Brilliant. Brilliant. Now let's just talk about that legal component because that's become quite a big thing in the last 2 three years. companies in Australia have just been hiring people through you know one directly and they haven't had the the EO the employment of record set up. So basically what's happened is when they actually retrench a couple of staff members they just you know the next day they wake up and that staff member in Philippines has been fired and they don't get a payout they get treated as a human being as I call it and they just get roted and and they just get abused and that unfortunately is happening a lot in in the Philippines when you go there is a lot of people virtual assistants or people that are working for companies in Australia, US and UK get ripped off quite a bit. So what's actually starting to happen more and more is the governments around the world have realized we can't allow this to happen. So they've actually put the legal constraints around it. So if someone gets fired now in Australia and they've been working for you and deemed as a normal staff member then you have all the legalities and you actually can get sued now and that's where the employment of record helps you protects you around that is any any further thoughts on that an

10:56Yeah it's really good that you've deep dived on that Ian because that's a very important differentiator. So with both the all-inclusive solution and the EO, ITVA becomes the legal employer of record here in the Philippines. So that means we handle the local labor law, tax, benefits, all compliance related, you know, activities. So our clients aren't, you know, personally exposed to Philippine employment regulations. So that's a really big relief for companies who have never hired offshore before.

11:31Fantastic. So just a couple of things that I always when I talk to clients you know that I'm coaching around hiring resources from from Philippines or or from Asia is really you've got to make sure that like for example in the in the option two is we have that that fee there to make sure that they get you know all the actual things that saturate stuff they need and and make sure that they are treated as an employee properly. Okay. So, it's not like you're hiring someone from Fiverr or Upwork where you go in there, you go, you know, I need this piece of work, a oneoff and you give them a piece of work and that's all inclusive. What we do is, you know, we add the 187 bucks on top and that is around the stratuit all the things that we need to make sure that that person's looked after and treated as a human being and has all the benefits that they need to really have as well. So, it's really important to understand the Upwork and Fiverr is a model. It exists for certain things. What we're saying is we are developing we're hiring for IT you know services people that have background in SAP Oracle or SharePoint or Microsoft or whatever services you go to market they will hire those people to actually do the work. Okay. We also hire people for bookkeeping and and back office staff appointment setting for events and for client engagements and webinars and all that sort of type of thing. and sometimes those staff members we hire for our clients are basically might be a 0.5 or a 2 resource. And that actually helps those clients, small clients

13:04Scaled up because they don't need to have a full-time resource. They can have a part-time or.5 resource who's actually doing the work in our office for that person. And when they get busier, they can flex that resource up as well to a full-time resource. And that helps people get the third or fourth person going. Really, really important. that that really happens like that. So, I just thought I'd just mention that we're not Upwork, we're not, you know, Fiverr, that's a different model. These are the three models that actually really work. and and you can build up and and flex up. and when you get to about seven to eight staff, you probably would want to fly over, meet them, and actually get to,

13:43You know, see how they're working and and and actually work with them. And it's it's amazing when you see clients flying over to speak to their staff for the first time. It's, you know, it it's it just brings a team together and and builds the team bond and they will help and deliver and they do things for for you that go above and beyond and I think it's amazing. So, Angie, anything you want to add to that?

14:06Yeah. just want to go back though to the 187 AUD just so they know what the resource is actually getting. So on the 187 UA AUD they get u health insurance they get house funding contribution and social security contribution. So these are all statutory benefits that the resource gets for the 187 AUD and on top of that the person gets integrated in our team. So, you know, when we do team building activities, team lunch, team

14:38They get to be part of that. And when you come here twice a year in the Philippines, they also get the opportunity to get coached by you, to work with you for like a week or two straight. So, you know, that just makes things a little bit better and different, you know. Defin definitely. No, you know, you know, we we're taking these humans and we making sure they're going to be part of your engine, delivery engine. Then then we got to make sure we we upskill them and keep them going as well. Yeah.

15:05Mhm. Correct. Great. Okay. Hopefully that answers a lot of questions out there. if anyone needs help around the resourcing models or wants further information or wants to hire anyone, please reach out to an directly or just come via me and I'll introduce you to an details should be below the video and hopefully that helps solve a lot of questions that we get all the time. Thanks very much.

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