ifThen – South Africa's first code shop launched

Where do you find that reliable resource with the right skills that you know to be out there at the right price, right now? The answer is delightfully simple: ifThen.co.za.

End of August saw the launch of South Africa's first ever online code shop, ifThen (at ifThen.co.za). With the growing demand for and trust in independent contractors, ifThen is the ideal junction where companies can post projects and be introduced to the best experts the industry has to offer. Likewise, ifThen offers developers out there - employed or not - the opportunity to spread their wings and be great. Although only in its start-up phase, ifThen is already attracting a large interest from developers, representing a substantial skill set from 3D design, HTML gurus, all the code languages like .Net and Java, right through to database and scripting experts and specialists. The development of ifThen is backed by Starship Systems, a South African company with a solid track record in outsourced project development.

So, you might ask, an online service? How does this differ from personals, personnel agencies or the Yellow Pages? Easy! ifThen doesn't just offer a place to meet individuals or groups to answer your call for IT help, but offers an unique rating system to help you decide which developer will suit your project needs and fit into your company's unique culture to ensure the job gets done right. Companies can view statistics on active projects a developer is currently working on and how many past projects were completed successfully, allowing an understanding of the developer's availability, commitment and skill. If you are a developer, you have the ability to browse and apply for posted jobs. ifThen keeps a detailed history of a listed company's project history, giving you a glimpse of their past engagements and allowing you to decide whether you are willing to work with them or not. After project completion, involved parties have the opportunity to rate each other, allowing future collaborations to become easier and smoother for everyone.

The costing of this service is simple and straight forward. Registration for both developers and contributing companies are free. A company will budget for a project, and an offer will be made to the ifThen developer community. The difference in budget and offer is the small percentage charged by ifThen for the service. So, the service costs the developer nothing outside the offer put forward, and costs nothing more than the company budgeted for. On payment of this percentage, the contact details of both developer and requested company are disclosed and the project can start.

“We are very exited about ifThen. We believe that the time is right for South African companies to take charge of their development initiatives and start using this service with confidence. This is definitely a new era for project development in South Africa,” says Herman van Heerden, MD of Starship Systems.