Introduction of MarketSqr Supply Network the online supply community. We facilitThis demonstrates the future of social media in purchasing and supply.

1. MarketSqr Supply Network
Introduction
Francois Naudé

2. Background
In old world economies, people came to the How often do we still see that our best
market to do business. At the market they could customers are those whom we have the best
browse through merchandise and meet new personal relationships with? The old world
business associates, but also people who could personal relationships still triumphs over an
help them in making their business decisions impersonal electronic transaction.
and share information.
People feel more comfortable doing business
In modern day society markets have with a person who has been recommended by
consolidated and became more efficient. They someone they trust.
now consist of many times more people and
cover larger geographies. Yet, they still consist MarketSqr brings these old world values back to
of people. our contemporary society by providing a
platform that allows and encourages the
Particularly in the Business-to-business fostering of relationships, sharing of information
arena, markets have become much more and enhancing the professional profiles of
efficient since processes have been optimized participants in their business community.
and increasingly sourcing and transaction
processing are done electronically. This
efficiency has certainly brought tremendous
benefits to businesses but it has been at the
expense of personal relationships.

3. Benefits to buyers and suppliers
Suppliers rated by Buyers find references on
1.Discover business contacts (buyers) suppliers
Reduce support cost for Less assistance needed by
2.Support suppliers buyers
Share best practice
3.Associate Engage interest groups
information
Suppliers engage opinion Buyers can identify &
4.Analyze leaders engage with influencers
Suppliers build Buyers share information
5.Network relationships online with peers
Buyers share their opinion
Suppliers can exhibit new
6.Showcase products & services
on suppliers’ products &
services

4. Social Media in B2B
Changes in behaviour
Social The bulk of innovation in Social Media
Marketing has taken place in marketing and in
particular consumer targeted
Social marketing.
Social Sales
Innovation
Sales has seen some progress with
Business huge potential growth remaining.
Use Cases
Business areas with potential to
Process Social explode in their use of social
Collaboration Support
technologies:
•Customer driven support
Social •CRM/SRM
SRM/CRM
•Process Collaboration
•Innovation

5. Social Media in Purchasing
The use of social technologies in Purchasing and Supply processes is in its infancy
and holds tremendous potential for greater collaboration and efficiencies.
Stay on top of developments
in the supply market
Understand what Research
suppliers are saying
about you as a customer
Informed supplier
Listen Select
selection decisions
Purchasing
Have access to Benefit Share policies and
consolidated news, Aggregate Inform procedures with
knowledge and research suppliers
Derive value from shared Learn Influence
best practices, case Share opinions and
studies and experiences experiences with peers
with suppliers Participate actively in
support forums

6. A cluttered social media landscape
MarketSqr aims to consolidate trade relationships
for the Purchasing and Supply community in
one place

7. FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW

8. Personal Profile
The personal profile identifies and positions the individual in his professional environment . Profiles usually include short
bios or résumés, photos, and summaries of the individual’s area(s) of expertise.
Profiles can be valuable vehicles for finding people with the right proficiency for specific projects or issues that need to be
addressed. Many companies use profiles to enhance community within, and external to the organization, allowing staff to
post photos and slightly more personal information to assist in fostering relationships.
The individual can promote his profile through active engagement in interest groups, forums and writing a regular blog on
topics of personal expertise.

9. Professional Network
Each personal profile can be connected to
a network of professional connections
made up of:
• Colleagues
• Ex-colleagues
• Classmates
• Suppliers
• Customers
This personal network will be utilised to:
• Evaluate suppliers
• Find recruiting prospects
• Generate sales leads
• Promote personal profile

10. Company Profile
Companies showcase their products or services on their company profile.
This is also where they communicate with potential and existing customers or suppliers.

11. Applications
The MarketSqr platform offers four core collaboration applications utilised by Companies and
Interest Groups. These applications lend themselves to different interaction styles and needs.
Not all applications are activated in all cases but they are always available to be switched on:
2. Forums
1. Wikis
Forums enable exchange of information and
Collaborative instruments for keeping
ideas, expertise and advice on how to address
knowledge, reference materials, project
issues among members. Types of forums:
information, and operations manuals up to date
• Discussions (posts with replies).
because they are always accessible for updates
• Q&A (questions with replies, suggested
and error corrections by permitted users.
answers, or verified answers).
They can include moderation tools to ensure
Forums are useful for Customer-driven Support
quality of information.
and Interest Group debate.
3. Blogs
4. Media Galleries
A blog is generally maintained by an individual
Rich media is shared amongst members in the
with regular posts or commentary and
form of audio/video podcasts, photos, and other
descriptions of events.
documents. Short videos in the likeness of
Personal opinion carries heavy emphasis and it is
YouTube are easy to create offer far-reaching
important to have a personal flavour to a blog
company exposure. Particularly useful for
which assist in fostering relationships.
training, product demo’s. Available 24/7, they
Access to blog functionality is determined by
can greatly enhance productivity and efficiency.
user privileges.

12. Company Profile
Companies showcase their products or services on their company profile.
This is also where they communicate with potential and existing customers or
suppliers.
1. Blogs (News)
2. Forums (Support)
The four applications on the MarketSqr 3. Media Galleries
platform are used to showcase the company
and interact with its community. 4. Wiki’s (Brochures)

13. Interest Groups

14. Interest Groups
1. Blogs
2. Forums
Collaboration around interest 3. Wiki’s
groups or communities of practice is 4. Media Galleries
facilitated through the four
applications provided on the
MarketSqr platform.

15. Site search
Site search
allows
searching for
any company
name or
keyword across
the entire site.
All companies
groups and any
blog
post, forum
thread and
wiki’s are
included in the
search.

16. Supplier Recommendation
Buyers enter supplier recommendations based on previous exposure to the supplier.
Peers can view this in their review of the supplier.

17. Supplier Rating
Buyers enter supplier ratings (out of five stars) based on previous interaction.
Peers can view this in their review of the supplier.
An average of all buyers’ ratings is shown on the supplier search screen.

18. Supplier search
1. Search criteria are entered as UNSPSC Segment and Family or key word.
2. Results list suppliers who meet the search criteria.
3. The user’s network relationship with the supplier is shown along with review indicators.
4. Click through to supplier profile provides direct access to more detailed information.

19. MarketSqr Overview
Company Profile
Purchasing
Lead
Role based functionality Personal Profile
1. Blogs
2. Forums
3. Wiki’s Professional Network
4. Media Galleries
Interest Groups
1. Blogs
Supplier Search
2. Forums
3. Wiki’s
4. Media Galleries

20. Sourcing
•RFQ/Quote/Award functionality is added specific for the DCCI/Nedbank/Worldbank project.
•Combined with the process automation the knowledge provided by the community ads to
dramatically improved procurement decisions.
RFQ
Notification
1 1
1. Create RFQ 2. Submit Quotation
2
3. Award & Notify
3
Buyer Supplier

21. TECHNICAL PLATFORM

22. Technical Platform
MarketSqr deployed Telligent
Community 5.6 on the Telligent
Evolution Framework.
This platform was customised to meet
the needs of the Purchasing & Supply
Community.
• Company Profiles
• Supplier Search
• Supply related roles and role based
functionality.
Telligent Analytics completes the
picture to enable social analysis.

23. Forrester evaluation
The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise
Social Platforms, Q3 2011
IBM, Jive, NewsGator, and Telligent
have the edge.
“Telligent maintains a razor-sharp
focus on analytics,
a platform designed from the ground
up for extension, and a growing and
impressive stable
of partners.”
“Forrester evaluated nine of the 90-plus
vendors in the exploding community
platforms market. Jive
Software and Telligent Systems lead the
pack because of their strong
administrative and platform features.”
Forrester: June 29, 2010
Community Management Checklist

24. Telligent Solutions
“Telligent leverages analytics as a differentiator. The focus is on identifying and prioritizing information of business
value across a disparate vendor landscape. Telligent will continue to drive innovation at the platform level…”
- Forrester: Enterprise Social Networking 2010 Market Overview

25. Francois Naudé
fnaude@marketsqr.com
@fnaude