Tutorial for the Dynamic Outsourcing System

Experience the Whole Picture

Whether you are a Requester or a Provider, it is best to see both sides of the operations so that you understand what the other is doing. So, for the purposes of this tutorial you will register as both a Requester and a Provider.

This tutorial is where you should begin in using the Dynamic Outsourcing System. This tutorial takes you through step-by-step in doing the following:

  1. Set up a PayPal account OR skip if you have a PayPal account.
  2. Register a new Individual user or Company with both Requester and Provider User Types.
  3. Logging on to the system.
  4. Selecting Requester queues.
  5. Adding an entry to a queue as a Requester.
  6. Adding an additional logon as a Provider.
  7. Using multiple logons as a Requester and a Provider.
  8. Selecting Provider queues.
  9. Submitting a bid on a queue entry as a Provider.
  10. Processing a queue entry as a Provider.
  11. Reviewing a Providers work as a Requester.
  12. Completing (accepting, rejecting, and rating a Provider) a queue entry and downloading the output as a Requester.
  13. Logging off the system.

1- Set up a PayPal account and register with the Dynamic Outsourcing System

    Go to the DOS Home page.

    If you do not already have a PayPal account, select the PayPal image to set up your PayPal account.

    Select either the COMPANY or INDIVIDUAL image. This places you at the Terms & Conditions page. Read the terms and conditions and select the Accept or Reject button at the bottom of the page. If you selected the Reject button, you cannot complete this tutorial. If you selected the Accept button you will now be at the registration page with the registration form displayed. Fill in the form with your information and in the User Type(s) field (next to last field), be sure to select the check boxes for both Provider and Requester (you can change these later using Alter User Types). Be sure to use your correct e-mail address or you will not receive your Account ID, which you will need to LOGON. Once you have registered, you will see the Individual Registration Successful page with the options to DISPLAY NOW or SEND BY E-MAIL. Pick the option you desire and you will either see a page with your User Name and Password (and System IDs) or a page confirming the information was sent by e-mail. Select the browser window that has the DOS Home Page. Click on the image that says CLOSE REGISTRATION WINDOW.

    Retrieve your e-mail to get your Account ID which was sent by e-mail (and your User Name and Password if you chose to have them sent by e-mail). You are now all set to LOGON and use the system.

    NOTE: As you will see, the Dynamic Outsourcing System will let you know when and what User Type is required as you use the system. So, lets get started by doing the following:

2- Logging on to the system

    Scroll down the page and select the SELECT QUEUES under the REQUESTER

    You are now at the Select Requester Queues page with a message in the page status area telling you that you must be logged on as a Requester and providing you a link to LOGON. The page status area is where overall status messages relevant to the entire page will be displayed. First, look at the top navigation bar (TNB) ; It contains links to the functional pages which Requesters utilize to accomplish their tasks on the system. On the left, and below the page status area, is a LOG OUT selectable image. You select this when you want to log off of the system. On the right, and below the page status area, is a image. Selecting this will open a PopUp window which gives you help information about using this page. Select the HELP image now. You may leave this window open as you work (probably a good idea in the beginning) or open and close it as your desire. To close the window (as with any window) select the X in the upper right corner.

    Now select the link (CLICK HERE) in the page status area to LOGON to the system. Fill in your Account ID, User Name, and Password and select the LOGON pushbutton at the bottom. The LOGON window will close and your Select Requester Queues page will be refreshed with the available queues displayed. Also notice that your Requester System ID is displayed.

3 - Selecting Requester queues

    This is where a Requester reviews the available queues and selects and/or VOTES on queues they would like to be supported by the system.

    Review the available queues (green background) and potential queues (pink background). The queues each have one (1) industry category (e.g., Cross Industry) and at least two (2) industry segments (e.g., Data Input and Data Entry). Each queue also has a description associated with it which can be viewed by selecting the .....Click here to display the description for Queue n. Display the description for Queue 2 now ( a note here; The description states it supports files with extension type of gif , jpg, or tif. It also supports the txt extension for testing purposes as you will see later). Now select another queue description; You will notice it refreshed the PopUp window with the new description. Close the description window. Now select the check box for Queue 2 (and any votes you want to cast) and then depress the Enter Key on you computer keyboard or scroll down and select BUILD CHECKED QUEUES and/or TOTAL VOTES pushbutton. You will now be taken to the Manage Requester Queues page which will be refreshed and showing the Queue 2 selection you made. Select the image and review the help text. Now you can get some work done!

4 - Adding an entry to a queue as a Requester

    Select the ADD AN ENTRY TO QUEUE 2 pushbutton. This will open a PopUp window which allows you to add a queue entry. Review the page in the PopUp window and notice there is a Note there that you may use “txt” files for testing. Now, you know if you already had a text file (which is what will be produced in the end), it does nor make a great deal of sense to use one for input, but it is nice for initial testing and you will use it now).

    Select the Browse... pushbutton to the right of the first input field (the button to select an input file). A Choose file dialog will open displaying files on your PC.

      If you do not have a text file on your PC that you want to use for testing, use Notepad (Windows users) or any other text editor to create the following two files:

    • A file named Queue2Input.txt containing the following text:

      • “The quick brown fox jumped over the fat lazy dog.”

    • Save the file in some directory (e.g., C:My Documents) on your PC.
    • A file named Queue2Instructions.txt containing the following text:

      • “These are the instructions to the Provider which processes my Queue 2 entry.”

    • Save the file in some directory (e.g., C:My Documents) on your PC.

    In the Choose file dialog locate a text file (e.g., Queue2Input.txt) that you want to use a input to this queue entry. Select the file and then select the Open pushbutton (or double click the file name). The file path and filename now appear in the input field.

    Do the same for the instructions file. Now, select the Upload The File(s) pushbutton. Page 2 is displayed; Read the page and select the pushbutton to CONTINUE . Page 3 displays; The Offer Price is the MAXIMUM price you are willing to pay a Provider to perform this data entry task. Providers will not be able to submit a bid on this entry which is above the Offer Price you enter. Care should be taken here, too low an offer price an no Providers will bid. Enter an Offer Price of 0.00 (US$ 0.00.). The Bid Start Year, Month, Day, and Time default to an immediate Bid Start. The Bid End Year, Month, Day, and Time default to a Bid End which is thirty (30) minutes from the Bid Start. Leave them as set and select the SUBMIT & END pushbutton (if you wanted to add multiple entries to the queue, you would select SUBMIT & CYCLE until your last item was added). The Add Queue Entry window will close and you will be returned to a refreshed Manage Requester Queues page showing the queue entry you added.

    It is worth noting here that even though you selected an immediate Bid Start, bidding may not start immediately. This is because the Add Queue Entry function uses the computer time from your PC to set the Bid Start and Bid End times (so they are more relevant to you). If your computer time is behind (earlier) than the Web Site Server computer time, you will see ADDED as the queue STATUS, rather than BIDDING as the queue STATUS for the period of time which is the difference between the computer times (your PC and the server). If you see the ADDED queue STATUS, just use your BROWSER REFRESH periodically until you se the BIDDING STATUS. You now have a queue entry which is available for Providers to bid on.

5 - Adding an additional logon as a Provider

    Select FastPath at the top of the left navigation bar. FastPath is a quick way to get to the most commonly used pages. Click on the SELECT QUEUES under the PROVIDER selections.

    You will now be at the Select Provider Queues page for Providers. For now, you see a message in the page status area which tells you that you need to be logged on as a Provider and are currently logged on as a Requester. It would be nice if you could be logged on as BOTH a Requester and a Provider.

    Well you can, just select the link to add an additional LOGON. Note that you were not required to go through the LOGON PopUp; That is because the system already has all your account information.

6 - Using multiple logons as a Requester and a Provide

    You will notice the REQUESTER image to the right an above the page status area. Selecting this image will SWITCH you to your REQUESTER session where on the left side you will have a PROVIDER image to SWITCH you back to your PROVIDER session.

7 - Selecting Provider queues

    Even though your Requester selected only Queue 2, you will see a composite of all the queues that all Requesters on the system have selected. You will not see any queues which have not been selected by at least one Requester. Now, select the check box for Queue 2 and depress the Enter Key on your computer keyboard. You will be taken back to a refreshed View Requester Request page showing the queue you just selected. Select and review the information about this page. When the entry is in BIDDING status you will be able to submit a bid. Otherwise periodically refresh the page until BIDDING status is present. Now, select the SUBMIT BID; This will result in a PopUp window that allows you to submit a bid.

8 - Submitting a bid on a queue entry as a Provider

    Read the information in the window. If you would like to try to submit a bid greater than US$ 0.00, try it! Then submit a bid for US$ 0.00. This will take you to the Providers Manage Submitted Bids page, rather than the View Requester Request page which is where you were when you submitted the bid. This is because Manage Submitted Bids is the next logical step for the Provider. Review this page and the associated HELP information for the page.

    Your Requester has added a queue entry and your Provider has submit a bid for that same entry. You now have some time on your hands until the BIDDING time has expired. While you are waiting, this would be a good time to SWITCH to your REQUESTER session and select QUEUE PREFERENCES and review all the options you have there as a Requester.

    When bidding is complete, unless another Provider on the system bid on the entry, your Provider will win the bidding and be assigned to the queue entry. Select your PROVIDER session and then use your BROWSER REFRESH and you will see the entry has disappeared from the Manage Submitted Bids page.

9 - Processing a queue entry as a Provider

    Now from the Top Navigation Bar select Process Assigned, and you will see it has been assigned to you. Look over this page and review the HELP information for the page. Now it is time for the Provider to do some work.

    Select the INSTRUCTIONS and see that they are what was uploaded by the Requester when the Requester added the queue entry. Close the instructions.

    Select the INPUT and then select the OUTPUT. This has both windows open at the same time because the Provider would read from the input window and key their output in the output window. For our purposes here select ALL the TEXT in the input window and copy it and paste it into the output window textarea. Or if you had rather, read it from the input and key it into the output window. When you are done, close the input window and go to the output window. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select pushbutton to submit your output to the Requester. The output window will close. Go back to your PROVIDER Process Assigned page and use your BROWSER REFRESH. You will see messages stating your output has been submitted.

10- Reviewing a Providers work as a Requester

    Now select your REQUESTER session. Notice three things:

  1. OUTPUT is selectable so the requester can view the Provider output
  2. The ASSIGN END date and time is filled in
  3. COMPLETE is selectable

    4. Look at the output and then select COMPLETE.

11- Completing (accepting, rejecting, and rating a Provider) a queue entry and downloading the output as a Requester

    This will open a window which allows the Requester to either Accept or Reject the Providers work and rate the Providers performance. If the Requester chose Reject, another page would show allowing the Requester to add further detail and optional comments and have the opportunity to either Cancel or Rebid the queue entry.

    You are going to be nicer, select 8 (eight) for the rating and SUBMIT it. The next page in the window lets the Requester download the output to their PC, so select the button to download. Depending on the BROWSER you are using, you will see some type of File Download dialog. Use it to save the file wherever you want on your PC. Now select the button to close the window. Do not select the CANCEL button.

12- Logging off the system

You are done! Go and SWITCH back and forth between your REQUESTER and PROVIDER sessions and you will see the entries are gone. You may continue using the system or select LOG OUT on one or both of your sessions. You should always LOG OUT when you are done. The system will log you out after one (1) hour with no activity.