A client from Australia contacted Virtina. They wished to start an online community. The community as a whole would be built around the idea of enabling a more fluid and cohesive interaction between its members.
The community is to be made up of a group of freelancers or service providers who would register and complete the projects assigned to them. On top of this, they would even have a forum to facilitate discussions and chat within the community. Having a robust platform helps the client to gather and sustain the perfect workers for their projects.
The client was hoping to run its online activities on WordPress. They approached us because they were looking to create a site that would allow all of their requirements to come through effectively. This included setting up a wireframe of the home and inner pages, designing the home and inner pages and finally, implementation of project requirements in a custom theme.
Thus one of the tasks for us was to purchase a forum engine theme. The theme would needed to be compatible with the latest WordPress and PHP. Beyond this, they also looked to integrate a freelance marketplace theme to grow their business.
The theme would be a highly customizable freelance WordPress theme with an Escrow system. We were to start with the forum engine (theme installation) first, bring additional features via plugins and then add the freelance engine capability.
Due to the nature of the work, the entire project was split into two phases. We were to implement the first leg of the project – complete the forum engine as part of (Minimum Viable Product) MVP 1.0. The final, complete set made up of the freelance engine will be designed and developed as part of MVP 2.0, post getting the necessary feedback, fixing any errors and satisfying the early customers.
MVP 1.0 will come to include features that allow users to register, log in via emails, mobile or Facebook or LinkedIn, and request password reset. Allow users to follow and be followed. Users will get to update his/her personal and company profile. Allow users to publish posts in texts, images and videos. Like, dislike, and tag other users in their comments. Give users the ability to private chat with other users. Allow users to receive a notification, for any activity on his/her comment or when they receive a private message. Also, allow users to earn badges, upon hitting a certain number of comments/likes on the forum. Allow site admins to feature and moderate posts.
MVP 2.0 will allow the client to publish a “Request for Proposal” (this is equivalent to a project). Allow users (service provider) to tender RFP. Allow the client to confirm engagement and deposit tasks into Escrow. Allow Service Provider to be notified with Escrow and commence work. Allow Service Provider to update the progress based on Milestones, and the client to release funds from Escrow. Allow the client to provide a review on each milestone and sign-off the job.
The eCommerce experts at Virtina tended to each and every requirement and solved the same meticulously. As a result of which, the client ended up with a forum that would assemble people from all walks of life, who would come to solve various projects for the client.
The assistance from the astute experts at Virtina helped in the creation of a portal – that would help facilitate a simple, yet effective management of tasks, payments, tracking and reviews between the client and users. Beyond this, the community would also allow the users to interact with one another.
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