Thanks to everyone for the discussion. We are considering a programming project and are looking for insights on how best to proceed. Mahendras, don't feel too bad. We have the same problem in the USA. Many of our government employees are English illiterate too.
Get away from using those Freelance Programming websites. They are horrible. These days they are cluttered with unqualified wannabe programmers willing to do ANYTHING for $50 no matter how long it takes them and usually the work produced is just crap... then when a GOOD programmer bids on jobs he/she is over looked or labeled as "over pricing" because he/she is charging fair market value for professional work. The only DECENT Freelancer website out there is ODesk...but mainly due to volume or jobs and freelancers.
I need advice from someone familiar with programming (software and hardware). Two partner companies are not keeping their products up. and I need to know how to proceed as we have a responsibility to our customers that bought their products from us. I will not identify the companies as I don't want to create problems. One company has a hardware program on an 8 bit chip to make the product work, but they have not kept up and are now 2 versions behind the industry. (2 years and no updates just promises). The other company is a software program that works with the product of the first company, and they have not had updates in 3 years and the program currently is way behind the industry in certain areas. both of these are excellent products for their day, but both are falling further and further back. Until about 6 months ago, I believed they were 'fixing their products' but I no longer believe that. I have a liability to support products we have sold, but that is now in jeopardy. I am NOT a programmer, but it seems reasonable that it should not be a big task for either company. I do not know what languages(?) they programmed in...we could drop these products, but they could harm our customers...is it possible for programmers to take their current products and update them so that it does not put us in an awkward position nor continue to harm our sales? any ideas as to what programmers should be paid per hour to fix these problems? ADVICE PLEASE! Thank you all for any insightful input into helping us solve this problem.
You know, people have the same sentiments about oDesk that you have about freelancing programming sites in general -- especially considering the fact that oDesk is a freelancing programming site.