TBF 2011 Year in Review
This has been a year of enhancements for The Broker Forum. Following our 2010
strategy where TBF put mechanisms increasing the quality of our members' search
experience, as well as, increasing the safety of the transaction experience. In
2011 the efforts were placed on enhancing Broker Forum products in order to
increase quality, search, and the overall experience one should have by using
the Broker Forum site.
Increasing
the Quality of the Search experience:
The Broker Forum announced the launch of a new
XML feature call XML RFQ. With XML RFQ, which not only lets members to
search the TBF database from your their internal system, yet to be able to send
RFQs as well. This is a very significant improvement over the previous versions
of XML, limited to inventory uploads and Search.
Coupled with the enhancement to the XML service Broker
Forum also updated Web Wizard by launching the Web Wizard Plus. Web Wizard Plus enables members to provide their clients
with access to over 60 million line items of in-stock inventory, and seamlessly
brand our powerful search engine as your own.
One of the most highly asked for change to the Broker
Forum site in order to facilitate the search for parts was to incorporate stock location as the member’s
location. Since it is now common practice to have a warehouse in one
country and a sales office in another country, to increase the quality of the
information to our buyers, TBF will from now on distinguish the principal
business address from the location of the inventory by replacing the Region
with “STOCK LOCATION” in the search results.
Member
score cards were also introduced in Beta mode. The Member Score is an algorithm based assessment of a
member’s standing on The Broker Forum. The objective of the Member Score is to
enable members to quickly assess a prospective business partner’s track record
on our website before entering into or initiating a transaction.
Another challenge which is faced by the Broker Forum
is false inventory postings. Therefore Broker Forum took initiative to start to
issue Non ISCP Stock Checks. Non
ISCP members will be subject to regular stock checks, similar to the ISCP
process. These checks will be moderator driven, and will work as follows:
Following a moderator complaint, an ISCP type stock
check is sent to the member. If the non ISCP member fails the check, he
receives a warning and the following penalties will apply:
1st Complaint: Member receives a warning
2st Complaint: Stock posting capability reduced by 10
%
3nd Complaint: Stock reduced by 25 %
4rd Complaint: Stock reduced by 50 %
5th Complaint: Stock deleted completely, member will
only be able to list avails.
Members will not be allowed to return to the previous
level unless they apply for it. Only 1 application per quarter will allowed for
each member.
Increasing the safety of the transaction
experience:
On July 13th, The Broker Forum introduced a key change to its Escrow Agreement in
order for counterfeit or suspected
products to be systematically taken out of the supply chain.
This policy has been introduced to protect Buyers from
purchasing counterfeit Parts, as well as protect intellectual property rights
owners against infringement, and is designed to create a safer marketplace.
This is in line with The Broker Forum’s key strategic objectives introduced in
our Shenzhen, Munich and Sanya conferences.
Overall: The Broker Forum is happy to report that 2011 growth has been steady,
both in terms of members and usage per member.
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.
