Update: Introducing RSS feature and Enhancements

Published
by
Product Team
on August 22, 2008
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, Innovation, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business, Technology and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

MindShareOver the last few days, we have introduced several enhancements on LimeExchange, starting from RSS feeds, to providing Instant Messaging (IM/Chat) during Proof of Concept (POC), Pilot phase To making it easier for all our users to understand and use Business Agreement (Business Agreement has now got a new name – Terms of Engagement).

Let us first apprise you about RSS feeds that we have introduced. Now you can stay informed of all the updates on LimeExchange. By using RSS feeds, you can know real time about updates on:
• LimeExchange news
• Projects
• Service Providers
• Contests, and
• Questions & Answers

You only have to subscribe to the RSS feeds to remain updated on all fronts. Feed reader will keep updating the feeds so that you do not miss anything important even while you are not logged in to LimeExchange. You can also choose the time frequency for updation of the feeds and the categories and subcategories for which you want feeds. We leave it for you to decide what is most important for you.

Another improvement in our project workflow is the introduction of Instant Messaging (IM, Chat) during Proof of Concept (POC). Now, buyers and service providers can remain in touch through IM during the POC period also. Besides this, PMB (Message Board) which was always available would only help improve communication and collaboration. 

We have also made little changes in the workflow concerning Terms of Engagement (earlier, known as Business Agreement). Now, users have two options while sending Terms of Engagement (TOE). They can either opt for default TOE or they can create their own TOE and send it to the other party. If they choose default TOE, the entire project is converted into a single milestone. If users wish to set several milestones for a project, they can create their own TOE.  Payments are attached with Milestones.

Like always, we await your views on our recent enhancements. Write to us, Post your comments on our Blog, send feedback and suggestions to feedback@LimeExchange.com or support@LimeExchange.com

Update: New Features for all LimeExchange Users

Published
by
Product Team
on July 31, 2008
in Business, Freelancing, Innovation, Knowledge Networking, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business, Technology and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

We have promised to provide our users with new and enhanced user-friendly features to continually improve & support the smooth functioning of a business deal.

LimeExchange now presents to all its users an enhanced platform to experience the innovative & interactive features to initiate, track & manage business relationships and projects.

Launch• You can now conduct a POC or Pilot Project activity to evaluate the service providers skills in the relevant field.
• Our Q&A feature brings an open forum to express your questions, share answers and give expert advice.
• Now further execute a project seamlessly using Issue tracker and Project Kickoff Checklist, which facilitate the buyer and the service provider to maintain better business relationships simultaneous to progress of the project.

Wait no longer to experience the specially designed features, as we are working towards making this marketplace the simplest and the easiest way to outsource.

We expect our readers to come forward and give us their views on our new feature. Write to us, Post your comments on our Blog, send feedback, suggestions to feedback@LimeExchange.com or support@LimeExchange.com

Introduction to (POC) Proof of Concept

Published
by
Product Team
on July 31, 2008
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, Innovation, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business and outsourcing
. 2 Comments

After going through a tough selection process, you have shortlisted some providers but some questions still keep bothering you …..Which one to choose? Who can provide the best quality? How to judge the skills? Would the provider meet your expectations?

project management, POC

We, at LimeExchange get a constant feedback from buyers that selecting a service provider based only on a resume like profile is difficult and without much incentive it’s hard to encourage a service provider to develop and submit some sample work during the bidding phase of a project.

SolutionAs a solution to all these questions, LimeExchange has introduced Proof of Concept/Pilot projects feature. A proof of concept or a pilot project is a sample work which a buyer provides to a set of multiple service providers to gauge and compare the quality and execution standards, thus minimizing the risks of initial dealings, and finally awarding the project only after complete evaluation.

As mentioned in our blog Online Services Marketplace - Further Considerations #1, which discussed about the risk involved in outsourcing. A buyer needs to evaluate a service provider’s work before awarding him a project. Similarly, the Service Provider also needs a platform to showcase his knowledge and skills. In a competitive scenario, actions would speak louder than words. Service providers can submit a sample of work to show their quality service to a buyer and get nominally paid for the effort.

How does POC- Proof of Concept work?

  1. A buyer can ask for POC or pilot project only before executing the deal.
  2. Buyers pay a small amount to the short listed providers working on a POC project. This helps in protecting the interests of the providers and to excites them to invest their best efforts.
  3. The final provider gets selected by the buyer, after going through a selection process.
  4. On the basis of quality of service shown, skills, knowledge and expertise the chosen one would get the best chance to execute the project.

This works as a key tool for Buyers and Service providers to minimize their pre-sales risks, evaluate and understand each other completely and conduct business fairly.

So take a quick tour of our help section to understand how ‘POC’ works: POC Help.

We expect our readers to come forward and give us their feedback on our new feature. Come and register on the site for free to try the proof of concept feature to avoid risks and ensure the best deal. As LimeExchange being the best outsourcing marketplace striving hard to make outsourcing a piece of cake for all its patrons…

Introduction to ‘Questions & Answers’ Feature as a Knowledge Network

Published
by
Product Team
on July 31, 2008
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, Innovation, Knowledge Networking, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business, Technology and outsourcing
. 1 Comment

Imagine asking questions like, “How should I begin freelancing as a Graphic Designer?”, “How would you measure the Usability of web applications?” or “What is so special about 3G iphone? Is it a case of more hype than substance?”

QnA, Q&A, Questions, Answers

Even though an answer might be quite evident to you, there is great value in exploring the problem and possible solutions from people in different geographies, mindsets and situation…… Colleagues and trusted networks are the best ones to reach out in case of doubts, but readily accessible expert opinion and advice always helps save time and money.

SolutionWe, at LimeExchange have been working hard to create a knowledge-networking platform and now provide a Questions and Answers forum for all our users to ask questions and discuss openly in a forum. Here enthusiasts can ASK questions and get tips from Entrepreneurs and SMB’s on how they have achieved their success. The paid “Questions & Answers” feature at LimeExchange provides experts yet another opportunity to monetize their skills.

As discussed in our blog Online Services Marketplace - Further Considerations #2, at the time of starting or executing a business; a professional trying to keep abreast with rapid technology comes across many questions. Being an Online Services Marketplace open communication channels and knowledge networking tools are of utmost importance to ensure business success of our users. We have tried to simulate the same here, where all our users can now pose questions to a community of global technology experts, subject matter specialists and utilize the ‘Wisdom of a Crowd’.

So take a quick tour of our help section to understand how ‘Questions & Answers’ works: Q&A Help and check out some early questions perhaps waiting for your expert response.

Our strength lies in our users, and user feedback is valuable to us. Choose any forum to respond, Leave a comment on this Post, Contact Us or send an email to support.

Our Effort to enhance management of online services

Published
by
Product Team
on July 31, 2008
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, Innovation, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business, Technology and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

What all it takes in managing a deal? …Frankly, It takes quite a lot!

LimeExchange here is trying to provide all of you …with some of our enhanced project management tools to support the buyer and the provider to conduct and deliver better. These new incorporated features will facilitate the buyers and providers in maintaining smoother business dealings.

project checklist, PKCFor a healthy project execution, it is important that the buyer communicates the expectations early, check points, deadlines and all the requirements clearly to the provider. This gives fair idea to both the parties on the area of work and assessment. At LimeExchange, you can use Project Kickoff Checklists through which a buyer can ensure that service provider has all the necessary information to meet the project objectives. At the same time the provider can understand expectations and respond early and better for smooth execution of the project.

Issue TrackerSimilarly, the new Issue Tracking system at LimeExchange now helps a Service Provider and a Buyer understand “who owns what” with an automated task, issue management system with reminders. It comprises supervising the tasks, controlling the issues and defects towards the project closure. You can now mitigate your risks, issues online. 

These new features coupled with the existing ‘Milestone based payments‘, as a performance assessment process, through which a buyer can set milestones for a given task and pay the provider based on its completion, and efficient communication and collaboration channels between buyer and a provider like ‘Private Message Board (PMB)‘ and ‘Instant message (IM)‘, now managing an outsourcing assignment with a provider who might be sitting thousands of miles away from you increasingly minimize the risks associated.

Why not take a quick tour of our help section to understand how ‘Project KickOff Checklist’ & ‘Issue Tracker’ works: PKC Help, IT Help

At LimeExchange, we are striving hard to provide you with more advanced management, communication and collaboration tools … so come and give us your suggestions and advice on these new enhanced features…for making outsourcing a simpler job to manage for all of us…

Online Services Marketplace - Further Considerations #2

Published
by
Product Team
on July 14, 2008
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, Innovation, Knowledge Networking, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business, Technology and outsourcing
. 2 Comments

Question & Answer, Ask, QuestionThe vision of LimeExchange is of building a focussed Knowledge Sharing & a Business Networking platform. Our vision has made us realize that for business proliferation, a greater need exists for sharing of knowledge via dedicated medium. Internet penetration has provided real time access to information and knowledge sharing, but with the amount of information getting published, figuring out forums, which share your passion and relate to your business need and has become more pertinent.

This is where a platform needs to adapt and solve to the process of Information problem solving:

  • Recognizing that an information need exists and to define that need.
  • Find the right information medium
  • Evaluating the information
  • Using and Communicating the Information

In a Knowledge for Business environment, having Information at hand as sharing of Tips, Experiences from global entrepreneurs, testimonies from subject matter experts would definitely provide valuable first hand knowledge to make an informed decision.

So, What if there was a dedicated forum to provide feedback and share global experiences, from mission critical queries on Whether setting up a captive in China was better than Outsourcing To whether choosing and Open Source Technology is better Vs a Proprietary technology for a particular business application? & What if you were able to get Industry experts to provide early market feedback or opinion-ate on your soon to be launched product, services, strategy, campaign etc, getting realtime advice should only help hone and adapt better to prevalent market needs.

Is there a need for such a medium or is Internet already crowded with such forums and now the need is for a secondary classification of information? Is this going beyond Knowledge Sharing and becoming a Knowledge Networking medium?

As James Surowiecki amply stated in his book ‘Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations’, a focussed community would benefit immensely from active participation of its users to effectively utilize the Wisdom of Crowds and provide a natural medium for access to On Demand information.

What would set a platform apart would be Information in Context and solving the Information problem process. The information need will always exist, the key is to provide a platform as the medium for context and a platform providing credibility of the Information giver as Subject Matter Expert, to easily evaluate and consume the information. This would be a natural extension of a Socio-Business networking platform to provide avenues to all its users to freely exchange thoughts, ideas & knowledge and create a Focussed Knowledge Networking platform.

We encourage all our readers and users alike to actively suggest and participate with feedback on what would be best suited for solving this challenge. We dedicate ourselves to create LimeExchange as the platform of choice for its users driven by its users.

Online Services Marketplace - Further Considerations #1

Published
by
Product Team
on July 11, 2008
in Business, Freelancing, Innovation, LimeExchange, Person to Person Outsourcing, Product Update, SMB, Service Providers, Small and Medium Business and outsourcing
. Closed

Question, OSM, Online Services MarketplaceBased on early feedback provided by 3000+ LimeExchange users, it is evident that for buyers it is difficult to select and evaluate a service provider’s skills based only on the quality of profile. In such a scenario, Buyers typically want to see experience and quality work product as a sample before making the final decision. At the same time Service Providers want an equal opportunity platform where they can literally show case their skills and expertise. Doing this as a pre-sales activity for free during selection and evaluation process becomes an additional cost burden for service providers and Freelancers, vying for this business. And Buyers remain unsure about capability, dedication and commitment of the vendors.

So what if there was an innovative way to provide the benefit of selection based on quality of work. What would be the considerations for making a decision? Would an equal competition playing field, where all units vying for the same business are demanded to work under same Scope, Cost & Schedule parameters yield an output which could help gauge quality of work?

And why would the Vendor/Service Provider be interested in making an investment? This could be huge cost consuming effort for the Vendor, given its size and the work demanded and still having put in all the effort there is always insecurity from the fact that there is still competition and evaluation before final selection. What if, the Buyer attaches a monetary incentive as fair compensation for this initial effort, would it be sufficient enough to excite the vendor?

To summarize from a Buyer perspective:

- Would it be enough to have ability to compare Apples to Apples?

And From Vendor perspective:

- Would it be enough to have an even playing field and fair compensation as cost recovery?

Given that in real life business scenario, getting a Pilot project conducted has been a proven method of evaluating the final vendor from multiple vendors. Given the level of competition, a Vendor is always looking for truly fair competition, where final selection would be based on the skills and expertize shown as a tangible output. Having a benefit from knowledge of definite recovery of cost for making this investment would further excite the vendor to do a better job.

At LimeExchange, we believe that mimicking this model to bring it online could be a natural extension of the offline business model.

We encourage all our readers and users alike to actively suggest and participate with feedback on what would be best suited for solving this challenge. We dedicate ourselves to create LimeExchange as the platform of choice for its users driven by its users.