Q. What is the purpose of this web-site?
A. If you are a computer contractor you almost certainly work through an agency.  Some of them are well run and provide a good service, but others leave a lot to be desired.  If you get stuck with one of the bad ones you may find it an unhappy and expensive experience.

Q. How do I know if a particular agency is any good?
A. The hard way to find out is by personal experience.   The easy way is to use this web site to learn from the experience of others.  By sharing this information with each other we can reward the good agencies with our business and encourage the bad ones to improve.

Q. How much is this going to cost me?
A. Nothing.  The information on this site is completely free.  It is provided as a service to the contracting community.  We hope that you will find it a useful resource.  If you have time, please pop into our bookshop.   We have a great selection of computing titles, and every purchase helps to support the costs of running this site.

Q. How should I use this site?
A. If you are searching for a new contract, why not start with our list of agencies.  We also have links to other contracting related sites. If you are currently working through an agency, let us know what you think of them.  The amount of detail that we have on each agency will improve over time, so please bookmark this page and come back regularly to see what's new.

Q. How can I help improve this site?
A. The most important thing is for you to complete a survey for every agency that you have dealt with.  This doesn't take long, and it is completely confidential.  The results of these surveys will be collated and displayed on the agency detail pages.  By sharing our experiences in this way it will be possible to make a better choice of which agencies to deal with in the future.  With every completed survey, the quality of the information on this site will improve, so please spread the word.

Q. This site is obviously "pro-contractor", doesn't that make it "anti-agency"?
A. Not at all.  In our opinion, agencies perform a very useful service.  Without them there would be almost no contract market.  However, with so many agencies around it is not surprising that there are a few bad ones.  It's these that give the others a bad name.  Hopefully as the word spreads about which ones provide a good service and which don't, the bad ones will start to lose business while the good ones will benefit.  That will certainly give the bad ones a strong incentive to improve!  By the way, agents are welcome to use this site too, and are encouraged to check their details.

Q. What now?
A. Have a look around.  Is your current agency in our list?  Do we have the correct contact details for them? Why not complete a survey for them, and any previous agency that you have worked through or just dealt with?  Maybe you would like to tell us what qualities you consider to be important in an agency?  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.  We also have a number of contracting-related links, and a bookshop.  Please look around.