As all of our clients know, Flatsourcing is a 50/50 partnership between the U.S. side and the Russian side. With one office in New Orleans, the other in Kazan, and clients spread across the globe, we understand how important open communication is. We strive to find opportunities to take our online communication offline at least once or twice a year so that we continue to strengthen the bonds we have built over the last 4 years.

On February 22nd, Chris and I hopped a flight to Miami for Future of Web Apps 2010 and to meet up with our colleague Alex Mamaev. After an inspiring day of presentations on topics that ranged from deeply technical to highly entrepreneurial (for more check out Chris’s take on some of the presentations), we headed back to New Orleans with Alex. In the almost two weeks Alex was here in New Orleans with us, we were able to dive deeper into some of the structural issues of Flatsourcing and better understand as managers our current opportunities and challenges.

That’s to be expected and was incredibly useful, but what’s even more invigorating about these times we get to spend together is the chance to get to know each other on a more personal level. As was the case during our trip to Kazan last May, getting to see the day to day of each others work environment and lives outside the office builds an even stronger bond between all of us. The opportunity to see the office environment we have here at Launchpad New Orleans, meet the people we work around each day, as well as our friends and families gives Alex an insight into the US side of the Flatsourcing operation that is critical to our long term success.

One of the topics we closed out with was scheduling the next visit Chris and I will make to our office in Kazan for late-summer or early-fall of 2010. Last year we were lucky enough to have two of our current clients join us for the trip and we would like to extend that invitation again this year. If you’re interested in meeting the team that makes up Flatsourcing and see what makes us special, let me know and we’ll keep you up-to-date on the planning.

On a side note, Alex is also a terrific photographer, so be sure to check out his photo stream from the trip.

New Orleans City Park by Alex Mamaev

If you’re someone who manages a lot of Basecamp accounts and has a hard time remembering passwords, this post is for you.

There are a lot of authentication systems emerging, Facebook, Twitter, and Google all allow apps to let users login using their credentials.  Open ID is an open authentication system that a variety of providers operate.  It’s a godsend if you “can’t remember your passwords? tired of filling out registration forms?”

I have a lot (12, precisely) of Basecamp accounts.  We run it for Flatsourcing, and I’m pulled into a lot of client’s accounts.  I used to have to remember the URL, username, & password for each one.  That’s 36 things to remember, and countless combination of things.

Now I just remember a single URL and password with OpenID.  It’s awesome.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Create an Open ID.  I use myOpenID.  There are a lot of providers.
• Log into Basecamp and click “my info” in the upper right.
• In the area for your username & password, click “Use OpenID” and enter yours
• When you land on the login screen, click “Login using an OpenID instead” and enter yours
• You’ll be taken to your Open ID provider to enter your password and then voilà, you’re in
• HUGE BONUS - Basecamp has an “Open Bar” that is a drop down of all your Basecamp accounts (actually all your 37 Signal product accounts).  These are all now connected and easy to switch back and forth between.  This feature alone makes switching to OpenID for authentication well worth it.  That and you have 36 memory slots freed up.

Enjoy!

Hi everybody,

Don’t forget to change the clock, it should be around Sunday in US!

BTW have you noticed that clock already had changed a week earlier in Europe and Asia for example? I personally got confused with some meeting early this week

So don’t forget to adjust the clock and watch carefully the differences between timezones if you’re a global company like US, especially because it’s getting a bit confusing since different continents are adjusting their clock in different time.

Take care,

Oleg

One of my primary roles with Flatsourcing is to look at how we can grow our business in a way that builds on the things we already have. While growing the business could be translated into “sales”, that term isn’t the most accurate reflection of how we develop our business.

Our sales process is more about identifying those potential clients that are a good fit than it is about producing a high volume of new clients. The foundation of our growth is about helping our current clients expand by improving their bottom line, identifying new clients who compliment our current roster of clients and work well within the basic framework of processes we have developed over time. With that in mind, what we do on the sales front isn’t so much about selling ourselves as it is about the discovery process and determining whether we are the right fit for a client and they are the right fit for us.

We focus our efforts on transparently communicating who we are, what we do, how we do it, and what we have found it takes to successfully work in a distributed way. It’s not about convincing people how we never make a mistake or how we do anything and everything under the sun. We do sometimes make mistakes, and we don’t do anything and everything. We focus on what we do best and how we can continue to improve our level of service to our clients.

To get an idea of whether or not Flatsourcing might be the right option for your development needs, check out our Top 5 Reasons that Flatsourcing Works and our Top 5 Reasons that Flatsourcing May Not be Right for You.

If you think Flatsourcing might be right for your needs, give us a shout. We’re offering a special right now that allows you to “try before you buy”, making the opportunity to grow your team easier than ever.