Development of WhiZZer - A Platform for Connection Businesses with Freelance Management Consultants

Whizzer is an online platform that has focused on enabling people to cut costs when hiring consultants. It is a business engagement platform with a wide range of consultancy services which enables businesses to connect with freelance management consultants. WhiZZer is a unique online platform as it focuses solely on consultancy services to the businesses or firms that find it expensive, time-consuming and tasking to approach consultancy firms. Additionally, the platform requires no experience for a freelancer to join it. One can have previous skills however those that are not well skilled are made better using the training and evaluation programs. Entry-level consultants can leverage the platform to build up their portfolio by offering low-cost or pro bono services.

How it Works

WhiZZer is a platform that uses algorithms to match the user to a client based on the need, cost and skills thus allow the consultants to market their talent and the clients to select the right freelancers for their tasks. The site offers hiring managers an insight of each consultant through the freelancers project portfolio and feedback from previous engagements. The sites proprietary feedback system enables clients to rate consultants based on expectations of a client and the work delivered by the consultant. The rating of the consultant is then used to match him or her on future assignments.

The freelancers will have accounts on the WhiZZer platform and clients will also have to sign up for accounts on the website to view different potential clients offering the kind of services they need. The clients later search for consultants offering services within the field and choose the favorite one based on their profile, history feedback, and competency. An offer is sent to the consultant, and the services are offered. On completion of the work, payment is made based on the satisfaction rate of the client and feedback offered as well.

The online platform also offers training to the consultants. The training programs aim to improve the knowledge and skills of the consultants as well as test their capability. WhiZZer has development and performance evaluation tools used to offer the knowledge and later test the freelancer. High ratings from the freelancers enable them to acquire high performance and rankings that are revealed on their profiles. Those who acquire low to average ratings in the tests are facilitated with more training and development opportunities. The hiring firm or business is therefore assured of acquiring well-skilled consultants within WhiZZer. Assurance of high-quality talents is a guarantee of high-quality work hence clients will be coming back to the online platform to seek more quality services.

There are charges that clients will incur which include a subscription fee that will be charged to the clients to enable them to have access to professional freelance consultants on the website. There will also be a brokerage fee charged for every payment done during the hiring process. It will enable WhiZZer to earn from the freelancers as a way of supporting its services to enable maintenance of the website as well as pay different costs for hosting the website. It will allow the freelancers to have a stable online platform where they can source for jobs even in the future. There is also an option of freelancers paying to be listed as the top freelancers in the results page which allows clients to view them first before others. It enables the freelancers to increase their visibility chances hence more likely to be contracted for consultancy services by clients.

Costs

The development of WhiZZer requires $700,000. It will cater to the development, marketing and maintenance of the online platform. The website design is set to cost around $15,000. The design cost will be the initial investment of the website and will include the creative planning of the site structure, presentation link, and branding board, designing of the pages, logo and taglines as well as the creation of content ("How Much Does A Website Cost In 2017 para 16). The multimedia design will cost $10,000 to offer the website design a more eye-catching look as well as offer interactive capabilities to the content on the website. The mobile optimization option will cost around $30,000. The website will be optimized to enable users who rely on mobile phones to access it through the mobile format. Content management system will cost $10,000 annually.

Database integration will cost around $50,000. The option will be useful in enabling visitors who sign up on the website to add their own data. The domain name will cost $30 annually. On the other hand, the developers will incur $350 per year to host the website on the host server and allow it. Other costs that will be incurred include regular maintenance to ensure the website is operating smoothly and payment for Security Socket Layer (SSL) certificates. SSL certificates average costs will be around $70. Maintenance which includes the addition of interesting features, regular updates on the websites to make it more secure, as well as offer fast connection to the users, will cost $1500 annually. Various bloggers, mass media stations, social media influencers, and adverts will be approached and paid to market the website. The marketing costs will vary with the time taken for the target market to respond and how each of the marketing options costs. There will be costs that will be incurred to pay the monthly salaries of the project manager and assistant as well as the marketing team, HR personnel, and the overall management team. There will also be costs incurred for purchasing computers as well as office rent. Schedule

The developers plan to launch the beta version of WhiZZers platform by the end of 2018 and plans to introduce it to the market by 2019. Various activities will be carried out in different timelines to ensure WhiZZers online platform is complete by the end of 2018. The first phase will be the strategy where project expectation are laid, the timeline for the project is laid, benchmarks are done, and advertising recommendations are suggested for about four weeks. The architecture involves wireframes and site architecture mapping that will take place in 4 weeks. The design which includes the subpage and homepages designs will take about seven weeks. The next phase will be the development of the website. It involves the building of the website to actualization. The process will take four months as it is a complex website. The time will allow the developers to have adequate time for change request or delays as well as implementation issues (Pizem, para 5). After the website development phase, there will be ongoing support which includes re-skinning designs, refreshing search-optimised copy, making adjustments on the website according to the user experience data and introducing campaigns to attract visitors to the site. There will also be beta testing and review where potential clients are asked to view the site and offer feedback on the performance. It will be ongoing however will take about two months before the launching of the website.

Works Cited

"How Much Does A Website Cost In 2017: All About Site Development Prices." Thinkmobiles, 2017, https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/how-much-does-website-cost/.

Pizem, Brad. "Website Timeline: A Plan For Success." Upanup, 2013, https://www.upanup.com/blog/website-timeline-plan-success.