The Broker Forum Year end report

The Broker Forum is very happy to present to its members its 2010-2011 year end report.

This past fiscal year has been a success and that we have witnessed good growth in all areas, from membership count all the way to individual member’s activity levels.

Membership to The Broker Forum grew steadily throughout the year, and we are happy to report between 5 and 10 % year over year growth in all geographical sectors of our membership.

Growth was not only limited to membership numbers however. Activity growth was very significant, particularly in the Escrow, Search and RFQ departments with healthy year over year growth.

Functional highlights:
This year was very significant as it saw the implementation of new functions that were focused on our key strategic objective of increasing the quality of the Search Experience, the safety of the Transaction Experience as well as increasing the diversity of our markets.

A key highlight of the year in terms of key functions was the introduction of a moderator status for key members wishing to point to The Broker Forum abnormal Search results. These members have been very active in helping us locate and filter out data that is not optimising The Broker Forum’s performance for its members.

Another highlight TBF is particularly happy with is the alliance concluded with the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce, whereby members of The Broker Forum in China have been invited to register with the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce and obtain this joint tag. Members holding this security tag are members in good standing and have been verified by the China Electronic Supplier Network, including verification of Business and Tax licenses, rental agreements including warehouses, as well as verified identification of Legal representatives. As well, tag holding members must have no unresolved transaction disputes on record with the China Electronic Supplier Network.

ISCP members will also have noticed that stock checks have been stepped up as we have been very active in the Quality Control areas, developing and launching automated stock control mechanisms. ISCP strikes have also been on the rise.

The Broker Forum also launched a Franchised Search tool, following several requests by our members. We are also very happy to report that the number of Franchised Distributors on The Broker Forum is on the rise again, and this is indeed very good news.

Finally, we are also glad to report that The Broker Forum World Tour 2010 was a success, with events held in Shenzhen and Munich. While the Shenzhen leg of the tour was very successful, the Munich event saw The Broker Forum taking part for the first time in the electronica exhibition, with its own booth, lounge area, along with several of its key members. 

We would like to thank all of our members for their continued support over the year, and we look forward are looking forward to keeping you updated on a series of new functional improvements that are currently planned to be rolled out in June 2011. We are also putting the finishing touches on the World Tour 2011 schedule, which promises to be even more exiting than last year’s.

Best regards,
JM Stam
Vice-President, Operations
The Broker Forum