This has been a year of profound changes for The Broker Forum.
Following our 2009 strategy that was centered around making TBF more
visible on major Search engines world wide, 2010 saw TBF put mechanisms
increasing the quality of our members’ search experience, as well as,
increasing the safety of the transaction experience.
Increasing the Quality of the Search experience:
Tightening our ISCP Program- The pillar around which
The Broker Forum has always articulated its actions has always been in
our In Stock Certified Program. This year, we revamped our ISCP program
with a fully staffed QA team, as well as, the introduction of automated
ISCP spot checks. These checks have been tightened to include pictures
of parts, quantity, date code, and company identification. Since
January 1 2010, well over 1000 ISCP stock checks were performed, and
over 40 companies saw their ISCP tag disabled.
Great uptake on our moderator function: This year, TBF
introduced a new moderator function, enabling experienced members to
flag suspicious inventory as they perform online searches. Since the
launch of this program in Q2, our 75 Moderators have performed over 300
moderations of suspicious inventory.
Increasing the safety of the transaction experience:
Never has international trade been fraught with risk as it is today.
Buyers and vendors from all corners of the earth have converged on the
Internet and trading has boomed, and so the instances of
counterfeiting. While Escrow services help to reduce transaction risks,
The Broker Forum has been tracking members who have been involved in
counterfeit issues or other reprehensible activities in order to
determine patterns of behavior and react accordingly. Since July 1
2010, The Broker Forum has locked out or terminated the membership of
over 20 different companies, and an additional 30 are currently under
investigation.
Overall: The Broker Forum is happy to report that 2010
growth has been steady, both in terms of members and usage per member.
Challenges remain and,
- We look forward to our vendors being transparent regarding posted
information, helping our buyers make fast and efficient decisions.
- We need all members to remain vigilant and report behaviour that may be damageable to the community.
As our industry prepares for the New Year, we at The Broker Forum are
hard at work planning and testing the next generation of tools to help
our members achieve long term sustainable success.
From all of us at The Broker Forum, we wish to extend our warmest wishes to all during the holidays .
