Frequently Asked Questions

What does Q2™ do?
What are the benefits of registration?
What are the benefits of having a Trust Profile?
How much does the service cost?
How is the service viral?
How do I know that I can trust the information provided in the business's profile?
What is the Knowledge Base?
What is a Request for Quote?
What do the symbols represent?
How can I improve my profile?
What information is included in a business's profile?

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What does Q2™ do?

Our objective is to be the standard for measuring credibility on the Internet

Q2™ solves the problem of trustworthiness on the Internet. This is achieved with a unique rating system that enables businesses to make available a broad set of information about itself and then have this information validated online. The information provided covers quality standards, skills, financial information, case studies and customer feedback.

The data is organised in an easy to navigate structured directory making it simpler to search for suppliers and trading partners and then quickly assess the quality of a business before deciding whether or not to make contact. This leads to faster and more informed decision making and reduces the risks associated with trading online and offline.

Q2™ has two distinct and unique advantages over other directories in that the business model is extremely viral which means that more people will see your profile, and also the information provided in the trust profile has been validated so it is significantly more authoritative and of a higher quality than any other online or offline platform can provide.

What are the benefits of registration?

What are the benefits of having a Q2 Trust Profile?

A Q2 Trust Profile gives you access to the full range of features available on Q2™. Most importantly Q2 Trust Profile businesses can increase their credibility by adding references to their profile and then have these references validated by other businesses. Research has shown that 85% of businesses prefer to trade with a Q2 trust business.

Trust Profile businesses can also publish articles and white papers in the knowledge base to raise their profile and enable them to build their reputation as a knowledgeable source within their industry. Trust Profile businesses can also publish and respond to Requests for Quotes.

How much does the service cost?

It is free to register your business and create a Trust Profile.

How is the service viral?

The directory is propagated through a cycle of self-perpetuating activities:

a) A new business, company A, registers on the directory.
b) The business supplies information about itself using a simple framework
c) The business seeks out authentications for the information it has supplied in order to gain credibility within the directory.
d) A third party, company B, who wants to authenticate the information pertaining to company A, registers on the directory.
e) Company B then enters their information into the directory and seeks out endorsements for their business
f) The cycle begins again

As endorsements are built up and a degree of trust introduced, the barriers to trade inherent in any trading relationship are reduced. This allows the parties involved to quickly assess information and make reasoned judgments. The benefits of the viral nature of the service are that the directory grows organically and more businesses will see your profile.

How do I know that I can trust the information provided in a business's profile?

The information provided in the trust profile has been validated by other organisations which means that it is significantly more authoritative and of a higher quality than any other online or offline platform can provide.

In order to authenticate information the organisation that has been invited to authenticate that information first needs to register their own profile within the directory. This not only gives visibility of the organisation who the information is about but also visibility about the organisation that is validating the information therefore the level of trust for that authentication can be built up.

For example, Company A (The London Tea Company in London, UK) registers in the directory and as part of their profile enters information to claim that they have recently signed a prestigious new contract to export £100,000 worth of English tea every year for the next 3 years to Company B (The Boston Tea Shop in Boston, USA).The London Tea Company can then invite The Boston Tea Shop to authenticate that the information is correct. In addition, The London Tea Company could also invite their Lawyer to register on the directory and authenticate that such a contract has been signed thus providing event more credibility and a greater level of trust.

Ultimately this builds a rich data bank of information on potential trading partners within a standard framework. Organisations can review the ratings of businesses and make a reasoned judgement

For more examples see What information is included in a business's profile? below.

What is the Knowledge Base?

The Knowledge Base is a repository where businesses can publish articles and white papers relating to their business or industry. Information is categorised making it structured and easy to navigate. This knowledge can then be searched and retrieved by other businesses.

Publishing in the knowledge base enables businesses to raise their profile and build their reputation as a knowledgeable source within their industry.

What is a Request for Quote?

Use this area to publish Requests for Quotes.

This is a trading area that enables you to publish RFQs for goods and services that you need to source for your business.

Q2 Tip: Use the Q2 system to assess the quality of suppliers before responding. Remember; validated testimonials give more information about the credibility of a business than the information contained in the profile.

What do the symbols represent?

Q2 is an organised framework of information that enables you to portray specific information about your business. Q2 does not validate the quality of your business but we do provide the framework within which you can represent and improve the trustworthiness of your business.

The symbols are a graphical representation of the number of references you have added to your profile within each of the four categories (financial, quality, customers and skills) that have been validated by an independent third party. You can add as many references as you like within each category and each time one of these references is validated a quarter of the circle is shaded.

How can I improve my profile?

Within each of the four categories (financial, quality, customers and skills) you need to add information that is relevant to your business. You can view prompts for each of the categories here: What information is included in a business's profile?. When you add information within each of these categories you then need to invite a suitably qualified third party to authenticate the information. For each piece of information that is validated a quarter of the circle is shaded. A fully shaded circle represents that four pieces of information within that category have been independently validated.

What information is included in a business's profile?

The Framework

We have developed a simple framework that allows a comprehensive set of relevant information about businesses to be aggregated from numerous sources in a concise and easily accessible way. Accessing this aggregated data enables businesses to easily make informed judgments about the suitability of a potential trading partner before deciding whether to make contact. This leads to faster and more informed decision making and reduces the risks associated with trading with online and offline trading.

The framework developed by us has four principal dimensions:

Financial Perspective
Covers the key financial information such as revenues and associated accreditations. Also includes a pay-per-view service for more sensitive financial data such as credit risk ratings.

Quality Perspective
Covers the key information relating to the operation of the business, including quality and service standards.

Customers Perspective
Covers relevant case studies and customer feedback, with hot links to the B2B directory for those organisations which are referenced.

Skills Perspective
Covers the skills and knowledge of the organisation, including any associated certifications and qualifications.

Examples

The following example could be listed under the Customers Perspective:
Company A (The English Tea Company in London, UK) registers in the directory and as part of their profile, to try and prove that they are a credible business, enters information to claim that they have recently signed a prestigious new contract to export £100,000 worth of English tea each year for the next 3 years to Company B (The Boston Tea Shop in Boston, USA). The English Tea Company can then invite The Boston Tea Shop to authenticate that the information is correct. In addition, The London Tea Company could also invite their Lawyer (Company C) to register on the directory and authenticate that such a contract has been signed thus providing even more credibility and a greater level of trustworthiness.

The following example could be listed under the Financial Perspective:
Company A (Rapid Software Company in Bangalore, India) has only been trading for 8 months but their revenues have been increasing by an average of 34% every month since they opened for business and the business is now profitable and continuing to grow. They have also secured an external investment of $1m. This means that the business is now in a good position to win and service larger contracts. Rapid Software Company enters this information into their profile and invites their Accountant (Company B) to authenticate that this information is correct thereby increasing their chances of winning larger contracts.

The following information could be listed under the Quality Perspective:
Company A (The Australian Surfboard Company in Adelaide, Australia) has recently won an award from Company B (The International Surfboard Association of Hawaii, USA) for building the best quality surfboard of the year. The Australian Surfboard Company enters this information into their profile and invites the International Surfboard Association to register on the directory and authenticate that they have bestowed this award.

The following information could be listed under the Skills Perspective:
Company A (Canadian Maple Syrup Inc. in Toronto, Canada) wants to start exporting its products to Russia. To help service potential new customers in Russia the company has trained two of it's customer support staff to speak Russian and has also recruited a third person, a Russian national, to it's customer support team. Canadian Maple Syrup Inc. enters this information in their profile and then invites Company B (The Canadian Language School, Montreal) to register on the directory and authenticate this information.

The more validated information a business provides the higher its level of trustworthiness becomes.

On accessing the data of a given business, an organisation is provided with a visual indicator of the value of each element of the data through a graphical system of colour-coded ratings. This allows organisations scanning the directory for potential partners to gain a rapid overview of the level of trust built up by any business in the system. Once a level of trust has been built up, barriers to trade are reduced.

Our unique rating system enables the business to benefit from referral marketing. Every business that wants to improve its rating is required to provide validated references from third parties, these in turn need to be registered to be allowed to rate a company. To get a full rating a business needs to have at least four other businesses' references within each of the four categories

Examples of usage within framework categories: