Company Brief
New Delhi, February 27, 2008At a press conference today in India, it became clear that the benefits of outsourcing are no longer exclusive to the Fortune 1000. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) everywhere are now poised to fully participate in the global economy by requesting bids, awarding projects, and building trusted relationships with service providers around the world, thanks to a new Web platform that was launched today: LimeExchange, the first socially networked marketplace for global talent.“Small and medium-sized businesses haven’t dared to outsource due to legitimate concerns over risk, cost, and complexity,” says George Searle, CEO of Lime Spot LLC. “LimeExchange has cracked the code of outsourcing, making it simple for any business to build tight productive relationships with talented service providers anywhere on earth.”
LimeExchange is the first talent marketplace designed to help SMBs, entrepreneurs, and individuals to outsource, connect and collaborate globally. Traditionally, outsourcing has involved large, multi-year, multi-million-dollar projects delivered by large service providers to large multi-national corporations. Through LimeExchange, SMBs gain the same competitive advantages of outsourcing, previously enjoyed only by larger companies, such as a flexible workforce, lower-cost labor, and access to specialized skills.
“There’s no reason why businesses and service providers of all sizes shouldn’t be able to participate in the benefits of globalization, whether on large projects, or small one-off projects,” Searle says. “LimeExchange connects two fragmented communities-smaller businesses and smaller service providers-through the power of social networking. We’re bringing the competitive advantages of outsourcing down to the individual.”
LimeExchange breaks the mold of first-generation online services marketplaces, going beyond mere matching of buyers and sellers or providing simple “feedback” rating systems. Instead, LimeExchange is a relationship-based services marketplace, meaning it provides contemporary social networking and project management tools members need to establish, build, and sustain profitable business relationships online.
“Other services take a pure matchmaking approach, and focus only on transactions,” says Pawan Agarwal, Lime Spot’s Head of Indian Operations. “You could say they’re like eBay for outsourcing. They were state of the art a few years ago, but they haven’t kept pace with changes in the marketplace. Today people want tools and technologies that allow them to forge close and lasting relationships online. That’s where LimeExchange operates at an entirely different level, facilitating relationships that will endure over the long haul. We’re moving outsourcing to the next level by going beyond matchmaking, and bringing the power of social networking to the on-demand services marketplace model.”
Businesses can sign up and post their projects on LimeExchange for free. They’ll receive free proposals from LimeExchange’s global pool of professional service providers, contractors, and freelancers. Using LimeExchange’s “Connect” social networking features, buyers can make well-informed decisions about service providers before they award a project. They can check references with other businesses in their trusted network. They can limit bids or hiring to providers already in their trusted network or the networks of others they trust. They can request or generate qualified referrals. And they can research satisfaction ratings, talents and skills, completed project portfolios, and blogs to get a well-rounded picture of a service provider’s qualifications, suitability, and reputation.
Once they narrow the field, LimeExchange provides all the tools buyers need to negotiate pricing; award projects; escrow payments; monitor, review, and approve work; and communicate with service providers using e-mail, instant messaging, message boards, and more.
For service providers, LimeExchange provides the global marketing reach, relationship and reputation management, and financial benefits that never existed in an online service marketplace before. Sign-up, bidding, and membership are free. Providers pay only a flat 8 percent commission to LimeExchange at the successful completion of a project.
New bidding opportunities appear automatically in providers’ inboxes. Escrowed payments help ensure service providers aren’t burned by unscrupulous buyers. And LimeExchange’s social networking features foster strong relationships and repeat business opportunities in ways that are simply not possible with first-generation marketplaces.
At launch, LimeExchange connects buyers with service providers in the following areas: accounting, administrative support, blog theme and plugin development, business plan development, computer programming (.Net, Java, ASP, PHP, Perl, C++, SQL, etc.), corporate blogging, data entry, finance, graphic design, IT consulting, legal consulting, networking, Web site development, and writing. Other service disciplines will be added over time. The company also plans to add a community-driven knowledgebase that will provide guidance and peer support for companies interested in outsourcing, off-shoring, and freelancing.
Buyers and service providers can join LimeExchange at http:/www.LimeExchange.com.
Website: www.LimeExchange.com |
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