PreSales Questions about iLance

[discoganya]

I'm in the market for a reverse auction software tool that works as described below. Checked out your tool and it looks impressive. Here is what I have in mind:

Section 1: Buyers Section. Buyers can login, select a product they would like to buy, create a time dependent reverse-auction to accept bids on that product from suppliers, limit the auction to a few suppliers by zip code, track the lowest bid, modify the product, communicate anonymously with bidders, track all previous purchases, etc.


Section 2: Sellers Section. Sellers can login, browse available reverse auctions (tenders), bid on a tender, provide additional details for the bid, track the current lowest bid, communicate anonymously with the buyer, track all previous bids, etc.


Section 3: Admin: Admins can login, accept payments from buyers and sellers for the use of this service, search, browse through all current tenders, communicate with buyers and sellers, delete and remove auctions, ban users, lock user accounts, generate statistics on transactions (e.g. lowest bid, etc).


My questions:

1. Can iLance be used for this application out of the box?
2. Can iLance be integrated with Google Maps to limit bidding from certain geographical areas?
3. Can products be predefined for users to buy? E.g. lawnmowers. There are about 10 brands and each brand has about 10 products. I would like the user to be able to select the brand, then the product and start accepting bids for this product.


More to come!


TIA

[Erin]

Hi,

Thank you for visiting,

- ILance will allows you to create custom roles, such a Buyer Role, from here you can go further to create permissions and then subscription plans to access specific site resources.

-give buyers or sellers the access to buy/ sell/ bid on products or events
-post service auctions (reverse bidding format) select the event privacy, event time, bidder restrictions and more....

- limit event to only bidders in specific regions ( zip codes)
- manage bids and/or edit the listing through the control panels
- communicate via Private message board when bids are placed
- manage all event history, archives, etc.


generate statistics on transactions (e.g. lowest bid, etc).

---Stats option is coming...soon and could be used for this feature.

My questions:

1. Can iLance be used for this application out of the box?

YES

2. Can iLance be integrated with Google Maps to limit bidding from certain geographical areas?

YES, ( I believe) this app is new and more info can be searched here in the forum about GM ( googlemaps)

3. Can products be predefined for users to buy? E.g. lawnmowers. There are about 10 brands and each brand has about 10 products. I would like the user to be able to select the brand, then the product and start accepting bids for this product.

YES, the category system is extensive and allows you to create sub categories, custom fields and make them active as search filters so members can search via brand, model, colour, etc.


More to come!

Great! so far, we have what you need. Please check PM for admin access, it will tie it all together better for you

[discoganya]

Thanks Erin!

Before I read through the manual completely, I had a few more questions:


YES, the category system is extensive and allows you to create sub categories, custom fields and make them active as search filters so members can search via brand, model, colour, etc.


1. Can each product have pictures? In the demo I see only text boxes...

2. My goal is to charge sellers a fixed transaction fee for their reverse auction listing. I understand that sellers can deposit some funds into their account right now. Can they use these funds to pay for a listing fee?

[wterpilo]

Hi
1. Yes you can post new auction and add as many pictures as admin allow :)

2. Yes, user can deposit some money on his online account and pay from that account for all sevices in your marketplace. Also for listing fees.

Wojtek

[discoganya]

Hi
1. Yes you can post new auction and add as many pictures as admin allow :)

2. Yes, user can deposit some money on his online account and pay from that account for all sevices in your marketplace. Also for listing fees.

Wojtek

My question #1 is a little different. I want users to start RFPs (reverse auctions) on (industrial) lawnmowers.

They select the lawnmower and suppliers bid for their business.

So when setting up this RFP for lawnmowers can a user select one pictorially ?

[wterpilo]

Hi
ILance was designed to handle product auctions (forward), service auctions (reverse) and unique bidding. Your idea is something between product and service. I think if you change wording you can easily customize software to your needs.

Wojtek

[discoganya]

To Erin / Peter: Is there a trial version available for me to download and install on my webserver?

[discoganya]

A couple of more questions:

1. How many *active* websites currently use iLance? I understand that you cannot give out the names/URLs, but approximately how many copies of the code have you sold, and how many of those websites are actually up and running?

2. How easy would it be to find a developer to work with iLance? I don't see many hits for an 'iLance' search at getacoder.com or elance.com .

[wterpilo]

Hi
A couple of more questions:

1. How many *active* websites currently use iLance? I understand that you cannot give out the names/URLs, but approximately how many copies of the code have you sold, and how many of those websites are actually up and running?

This is confidental information which won't be revealed. What is more we don't track users websites so we really don't know what is going on with the software after purchase.

2. How easy would it be to find a developer to work with iLance? I don't see many hits for an 'iLance' search at getacoder.com or elance.com .
You can look for developers at www.ilance.org

Wojtek