tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912500958964324912024-03-05T03:54:07.732-08:00Moving ForwardHosted by GRIP Inc. co-Founder Ryan Keintz, focused on the international relocation industry and GRIP's innovative procurement platform: PricePointAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-24413997518406981992015-02-26T13:33:00.000-08:002015-03-09T06:48:30.474-07:00Productivity Wormholes<span style="color: #4d4f51; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23.9999980926514px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How did the Oscars get me thinking about productivity... and wormholes??</span></span><br>
<span style="color: #4d4f51; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23.9999980926514px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br>
<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2015/02/productivity-wormholes.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-20732949496779185192015-01-26T10:24:00.001-08:002015-01-26T10:24:57.174-08:00Recent PricePoint Enhancements<div class="MsoNormal">
We are continually seeking ways to improve the experience
for our PricePoint users. With this in
mind, we’d like to announce recent enhancements we have made to PricePoint:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2015/01/recent-pricepoint-enhancements.html#more">Read more »</a>Brandon Donnellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18006950945241174102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-21518535250021379532014-12-01T07:53:00.001-08:002014-12-02T09:38:14.313-08:00Rate Analyst Position<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As an international moving company, consider the situation you may occasionally find yourself in, needing to fill a "Rate Analyst" position (i.e. the person whose role is to respond to email rate requests from other movers). Imagine a CV/resume comes across your desk with the following highlights:</span><br>
<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2014/12/rate-analyst-position.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-88692090533434629062014-11-20T11:03:00.000-08:002014-11-20T11:25:40.386-08:00Why Gross?<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the key decisions we had to make when designing PricePoint was how to handle net vs gross basis for pricing, an area where our industry has historically lacked uniformity. The overriding consideration for PricePoint was to focus on simplicity, with the conclusion to therefore treat all sizes as gross.</span><br>
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<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-gross.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-80998798955697503842014-09-22T17:01:00.001-07:002014-09-22T17:01:40.584-07:00New Privacy Controls<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has long been a top priority to provide PricePoint users with confidentiality protections that far exceed the traditional unsecured pricing practices of email quotes and spreadsheet/document tariffs. Furthering that objective, we have now added a couple more dimensions to your privacy controls.</span><br>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Agents who file tariffs in PricePoint are now able to choose between three levels of automated privacy control: Moderate (recommended), Strict, or Open.</span><br>
<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2014/09/new-privacy-controls.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-30922363778487941922014-08-18T11:42:00.000-07:002014-09-25T16:55:53.648-07:00Corporate RFP Responder<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have recently approved development of an ambitious new tool to add to PricePoint's growing list of features. The working title of this project is "Corporate Proposal Responder" (CPR for short), and we are aiming to unveil it at the upcoming IAM Annual Meeting in Orlando.</span><br>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br>
<a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2014/08/corporate-rfp-responder.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-19528542867452482162014-03-05T09:32:00.002-08:002014-03-05T09:59:21.447-08:00Why Save Quotes?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PricePoint's core purpose is to offer instant price quotes from agents, as opposed to the norm of waiting for overnight email quote reply. Although you could simply record the price quote into your file management system, <b style="font-style: italic;">it is highly recommended that you take the simple step of formally saving your quotes within PricePoint, </b>even for non-booked competitive moves. This provides a variety of benefits as follows:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <b><i>Tariff Lock</i></b>: The agent's current tariff is locked in place for that specific quote/customer. Even if the agent later raises their tariff pricing, you can come back and update the quote at a later date with new weight/volume, and PricePoint will still apply the prior locked tariff which has been archived.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <b><i>Courtesy email notifications</i></b>: Your assigned agent will receive a courtesy email notification of the quote. This helps support your various agent relationships, including reciprocal trading interests, <a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2014/01/pricepoint-boosts-reciprocity.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">as more fully explained here</span></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <b><i>Prevent invoice disputes</i></b>: Only you and your assigned agent can view the saved quote, which displays full detail on how the quote was calculated. This helps prevent invoice disputes by showing both parties the expected invoice amount, rather than manual calculations which are prone to human error.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <b><i>Easy retrieval via Quotes Dashboard</i></b>: All saved quotes are accessible via your company's private Quotes Dashboard. This is particularly useful when covering for employee illness/holiday absences.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-11977712576347096692014-02-06T13:33:00.000-08:002014-02-07T09:19:31.626-08:00Competitive Agent PricingHow competitive are OA/DA rates in PricePoint?<br />
<br />
This is a fairly complex topic to be considered from a few different angles.<br />
<br />
First, price levels and strategies are of course at the sole discretion of each agent user. PricePoint is simply a tool which provides a more efficient, effective, and confidential approach to manage pricing.<br />
<br />
Second, regarding confidentiality, those who understand PricePoint's <a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/search/label/privacy" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">privacy protections</span></a> should be comfortable offering competitive rates. That said, "competitive" does not necessarily mean absolute lowest price. A competitive price can be regarded as a reasonable "retail" price, possibly with a gray area of discretionary margin which may allow for some discounting on a case-by-case basis.<br />
<br />
So if an agent is not offering their absolute rock-bottom rates in PricePoint, does that mean it's a waste of time? Of course not. Let's think it through, say you are trying to book a private transferee shipment, with a total door-to-door cost around $10,000, of which the destination cost in PricePoint is $2000. Even if the agent may potentially be willing to grant a 5% discount if requested, that comes to $100, which represents only a 1% discount on the total move cost of $10,000.<br />
<br />
It's fair to say that a 1% price differential is not going to be a deal breaker for the transferee. A booker can be confident using the agent's "standard" PricePoint rate for initial quote, then on the limited instances in which the transferee seeks further negotiation, the booker can seek a possible concession from the agent. Tip: use the PricePoint Message Board for such instances, which is privately accessible to only the agent and booker, and keeps a convenient record of dialogue for both parties.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiip4jr43G7WuB7zdzuLoQ1K1N9iLYhwLy_wHNteglCtvn6X-H8ZXjeYB8UceG8X0sXDnOzKzWqvV4n99quG3eyBG5K0l4wwMd6HNf7zOjo9z9r82Ve1IFgaafoKVW1c5EPtI25tnLr3bGQ/s1600/Discount+message.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiip4jr43G7WuB7zdzuLoQ1K1N9iLYhwLy_wHNteglCtvn6X-H8ZXjeYB8UceG8X0sXDnOzKzWqvV4n99quG3eyBG5K0l4wwMd6HNf7zOjo9z9r82Ve1IFgaafoKVW1c5EPtI25tnLr3bGQ/s1600/Discount+message.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PricePoint password-secured Message Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This is a rational and efficient approach in which PricePoint enables the booker to produce competitive initial quotes as quickly as the same day of survey, without wasting time on composing agent quote request emails and waiting for overnight reply. It is then only a minority of cases that may require further negotiation, at which point the booker has better qualified the quality of the lead, warranting more direct negotiation if necessary.<br />
<br />
In sum, a booker of course only wins a fraction of the opportunities quoted on. Therefore a key to success is to minimize time spent on the bids which are not won (aka "losing quickly"), allowing for more time and focus on potential winning bids, and secured customers. PricePoint perfectly supports this winning approach.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-28409744498842525402014-01-24T10:38:00.001-08:002014-01-24T10:39:00.966-08:00FCL container size specification<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
As part of the soon-to-be-released freight quote capability, we have also added a container size selection to the calculator. Previously PricePoint would assume the container size based on volume input. That is still the case, but you can now manually override the container size if necessary. </div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
We've tried to be thoughtful with the UI in terms of preventing potential conflict between the assumed size and the override, but let us know if any frustrations arise in daily use. Basically, once you manually select a container size, it will remain in place unless you go back into the volume field, which can re-trigger the automated size assumption. This is why we placed the container size field on the far right end.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdUxavr0cfl5rSa83L_q9pXX_VblxUDntFj1IPPUJNvuDb4rHkPYF6_agEPYSnBQZHTUQ9oOBYYNLxDqbwa6lay5lECDQZxxH4yVvwcBirUzRMfUamaswt9RHTUBQiHOF9SzuZlUqrmP6/s1600/FCL+container+size.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdUxavr0cfl5rSa83L_q9pXX_VblxUDntFj1IPPUJNvuDb4rHkPYF6_agEPYSnBQZHTUQ9oOBYYNLxDqbwa6lay5lECDQZxxH4yVvwcBirUzRMfUamaswt9RHTUBQiHOF9SzuZlUqrmP6/s1600/FCL+container+size.JPG" height="371" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: all prices altered to protect agent price privacy</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-21614731180198940372014-01-24T10:17:00.000-08:002014-01-24T10:17:23.532-08:00Destination THC Exclusion<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PricePoint clients now have greater pricing flexibility with managing the somewhat variable detail of Destination THC, which is typically excluded from the cost of freight and paid at destination. However sometimes the DTHC is prepaid with the freight, which is the purpose of the new upgrade.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Originally we always automatically added DTHC into the PricePoint DA cost quotation. The DTHC amount was visible on the the formal quote detail screen, so the Booker could manually deduct the DTHC amount from the quote.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now we have a toggle switch on the Price Calculator page which allows the Booker to easily include/exclude DTHC from all quotes. The only exception is if the agent has treated the DTHC as a base rate inclusion rather than specifying the amount separately on their tariff (we prefer and request the latter). In such cases, the exception is highlighted as per the following screenshot.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpz8dgSAxY0ewqsJFLcNHZXGReNvNwfc9Et0j0zl6IZP6C0KTHEGYz332OWWG6i9L5Thw9mvImljWwFUBbF-RdQ7dnwwQV6TdQarOid8z3QM3IX3B3uZs2bvA5Pv92Ne-1NaGvwQ3YlgiI/s1600/DTHC+exclusion.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpz8dgSAxY0ewqsJFLcNHZXGReNvNwfc9Et0j0zl6IZP6C0KTHEGYz332OWWG6i9L5Thw9mvImljWwFUBbF-RdQ7dnwwQV6TdQarOid8z3QM3IX3B3uZs2bvA5Pv92Ne-1NaGvwQ3YlgiI/s1600/DTHC+exclusion.JPG" height="320" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: all displayed prices are altered for agent privacy protection</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lastly, the quote detail screen will still display the DTHC amount for reference purposes, but will note it as excluded from the total cost.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwcqBaUP4LOA0-d6mUMQvRSgJJkPDedPsqmEMZh4Udhh1sHXzvxxVf2RV5E_QgkNHthYQgiq05kS1jl5gTm4hWcoXLAHFo5VLIC6Lc4VqnqpQ6qEMbN4XT-9JclaKJ3BxgYFjmKJyMdCcS/s1600/DTHC+quote.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwcqBaUP4LOA0-d6mUMQvRSgJJkPDedPsqmEMZh4Udhh1sHXzvxxVf2RV5E_QgkNHthYQgiq05kS1jl5gTm4hWcoXLAHFo5VLIC6Lc4VqnqpQ6qEMbN4XT-9JclaKJ3BxgYFjmKJyMdCcS/s1600/DTHC+quote.JPG" height="287" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-38630029548649880922014-01-14T15:02:00.001-08:002014-03-05T09:30:29.626-08:00PricePoint boosts reciprocity!<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think we all agree that reciprocity is a pillar of the industry. We therefore took reciprocity into consideration with PricePoint's current design (and we have big ideas on future enhancements as well). Currently, PricePoint provides advantages to our client-users in terms of boosting reciprocity opportunities from agents. This is partly based on the reality that reciprocity is not solely based on booked tonnage, but also on the influence of quotation activity, booked or not.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, let's consider the reciprocity limitations of the traditional pricing processes of email quotes and static tariffs (spreadsheets, pdfs, etc.).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Email quotes</i></b> are typically responded to by a pricing analyst/coordinator position. Such positions are usually not management-level, however, reciprocity is of course predominantly controlled by management. This means that the individuals who control reciprocity are often unaware of the full scope of agent quote activity. Making matters worse, email is a poor platform for monitoring, tracking, and measuring activity (see below, PricePoint is far better at this).</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #444444;"><i>Static tariffs</i></b><span style="color: #444444;"> suffer from the same lack of visibility and measurement as email, but even more so. When an agent provides a static tariff, they will have almost no sense of how often the tariff is being used. I suspect this is one of the reasons that traditional static tariffs are not very popular (among </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2013/08/agent-tips-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">other reasons</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In contrast, PricePoint provides tangible reciprocity-boosting benefits where traditional methods fall short. When an PricePoint client generates and saves a quote, PricePoint automatically sends a courtesy email to both the selected agent's listed Management contact as well as the applicable import or export coordinator contact (see example image below), as per the Agent Profile. In other words, even though you already have the instant price quote, PricePoint actively informs the agent that you are quoting shipments with them, without the time-consuming email quote request or having to wait for overnight reply. This activity as a booker helps keep your company more top-of-mind with agents who in turn have reciprocal tonnage.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4cnk0Z7a0xJM9xobhIuXKYWMgKUzUDY-UDfoQtzVv_t4ZRKxFXwjM-d_oKALo63q9wzF2PP8Xr73S-Wy4JeEdQ5AuEZ0fjuibGinywXUyigoYQ_LbiK1NeaXDE1awg_JbDwHuBrxTvJn2/s1600/OFS+email+notification.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4cnk0Z7a0xJM9xobhIuXKYWMgKUzUDY-UDfoQtzVv_t4ZRKxFXwjM-d_oKALo63q9wzF2PP8Xr73S-Wy4JeEdQ5AuEZ0fjuibGinywXUyigoYQ_LbiK1NeaXDE1awg_JbDwHuBrxTvJn2/s400/OFS+email+notification.JPG" height="225" title="OFS auto-email notification" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Quote auto-email notification</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By the way, savvy PricePoint clients may rightfully choose to issue multiple "pending" quotes to more than one agent on the same competitive move, which multiplies the top-of-mind influence factor. If the move becomes booked, they can then choose the actual agent to award the move to, and Book/Cancel the existing quotes accordingly.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, PricePoint keeps track of all quotes on the "Quotes Dashboard" (see image below). Clients can see all their quotes issued to various agents, and agents can see all quotes issued to them by various client bookers. The Dashboard can be easily searched and sorted for higher-level summary reporting purposes. Good luck trying to doing that with an email inbox!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wqWvoF7HCf42CkWWv0vZN9X1fmj-ssz34O2xqEdl8PfVDyiV39ImBZ0KgEuWKWIUOITrpgT-6yGpBD2jTdVQzYUu_Kkj73lmlbkaopcKbQDJsCoW98n3mS71r1eJc_Yh4fHJW59xihux/s1600/OFS+Dashboard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wqWvoF7HCf42CkWWv0vZN9X1fmj-ssz34O2xqEdl8PfVDyiV39ImBZ0KgEuWKWIUOITrpgT-6yGpBD2jTdVQzYUu_Kkj73lmlbkaopcKbQDJsCoW98n3mS71r1eJc_Yh4fHJW59xihux/s400/OFS+Dashboard.png" height="400" width="340" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Quotes Dashboard</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One final side note on the prior point that unbooked quote activity can also positively influence reciprocity. Obviously actual bookings are more important, which raises the topic of closing ratio. If there is an overly large gap between number of quotes and number of actual bookings, a likely reason may be </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">agent rates are too high. In such cases, the client can utilize </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2013/12/revolutionary-price-analysis-tool.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">PricePoint's revolutionary price analysis tool</span></a><span style="color: #444444;"> to discuss and negotiate better rates with their preferred agents. </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile at the very least, PricePoint is saving everyone the time of manual quote request/responses on unbooked opportunities. Savvy agents are learning to use PricePoint as a pricing analyst that draws no salary!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-21816025295741034902013-12-11T07:22:00.002-08:002014-02-11T16:23:37.684-08:00Revolutionary Price Analysis Tool<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have added an incredible new tool to PricePoint which allows clients to easily compare tariff price levels between multiple agents. Having manually performed such analysis in the past using tedious spreadsheets, I can personally attest this reduces many hours of work into a matter of seconds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, since this touches on an sensitive element of price privacy, allow me to remind the following precautions in place as agent safeguards:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Agents can restrict any clients from accessing their rates/identity, including on the analysis tool.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clients are restricted by default from other agents' pricing in the same country.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Only clients can access the analysis tool.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All clients have signed a strict non-disclosure agreement prohibiting them from sharing any agent pricing with any other agent.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The following explanation is paired with the below screenshot. The Client user is able to select any Market location within PricePoint (e.g. Singapore, London, Chicago, et al.). Upon doing so, PricePoint's algorithm performs thousands of calculations within a few seconds and produces a chart (upper section) of all available agents' tariff price rankings, per shipment type. The ranks (1 is lowest cost) are a composite based on a broad array of shipment sizes per type.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the lower section, the user is able to specify any of the available agents for a detailed breakdown of price differentials compared to 1) Market Leader, and 2) Market Average. Example: the selected agent's Destination FCL Loose pricing is 1.78% higher than the market leader, and 15.96% below the market average.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With this information, the client can determine if their preferred agents are offering market-competitive pricing. If not, the client can request an exclusive tariff discount from the agent, which the agent can easily apply on their Privacy/Discount settings page.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All data displayed on the analysis tool is specific to the client user, including exclusive discounts from agents.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-14726133213435872062013-10-18T12:02:00.001-07:002014-11-26T06:44:09.487-08:00Breakpoints - defined and justified<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the years I've occasionally encountered Agents who have been resistant to honoring tariff "breakpoints", but I'm not sure how widespread the resistance is. I'm going to explain the reasoning on why we believe breakpoints should always be honored, and why we therefore apply breakpoints in PricePoint.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, let's be clear on what a breakpoint is (some may have a different name for it). A breakpoint is simply applying a larger chargeable weight/volume than actual, because the larger size actually creates a lower price due to the tiered structure of the tariff. For example:</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5800 lbs @ $75.00/cwt = $4350</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6000 lbs @ $70.00/cwt = $4200</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the above scenario, the higher weight / lower cost breakpoint should be applied. Why?</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most importantly, it's simply the practical thing to do. All things being equal, <i>what justification is there that a smaller shipment should cost more money than a larger shipment?</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a more academic level, breakpoints simply provide a more rational price curve, which is beneficial to sales efforts in terms of not senselessly overpricing a competitive quote.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Consider the following hypothetical tariff:</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOU9jL1LEpBu5U4upvpQ642fZVDuJKY6x-RD2pEZ4lqak7d1yLX58QvNp-LacFFvtEuYyq7fKOIutkk_cGWfQQ7mEVUS3UVU_8z81vp-TslzNmCauFDo-76lvLEYC2GW7xZ1SzFLBuOkLm/s1600/Breakpoint+tariff.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOU9jL1LEpBu5U4upvpQ642fZVDuJKY6x-RD2pEZ4lqak7d1yLX58QvNp-LacFFvtEuYyq7fKOIutkk_cGWfQQ7mEVUS3UVU_8z81vp-TslzNmCauFDo-76lvLEYC2GW7xZ1SzFLBuOkLm/s200/Breakpoint+tariff.PNG" height="200" width="173" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now see the following price charts of that tariff, based on breakpoints being applied vs. not applied.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnns8iHMFnWEJ7KaaKn6s-ZHpDOdCN278bYlGGIDkCshmkm6MxJ1622l5o6qLpjmu-13XWaLebzY9pHZC1eus_G5kHwK5B3ZGQlgMMYed4ZSBtdGmbNahzWLnF_EP4BxIYLOLCRZCWRJ2/s1600/Breakpoints+-+yes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnns8iHMFnWEJ7KaaKn6s-ZHpDOdCN278bYlGGIDkCshmkm6MxJ1622l5o6qLpjmu-13XWaLebzY9pHZC1eus_G5kHwK5B3ZGQlgMMYed4ZSBtdGmbNahzWLnF_EP4BxIYLOLCRZCWRJ2/s400/Breakpoints+-+yes.png" height="240" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_mrO7ZiRUJDy6aLTfTEYVXX-UD9cMBMRLhTE1ChIbz7d9tfSzh8g904NNfUCfIDjXHpfJM69Jnnn4vx-MuM4Ljx52uIGVv2YYZbRwDakBbpJkuQuudVBHqf_komU0_M42RS7kcmT0mo1/s1600/Breakpoints+-+no.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_mrO7ZiRUJDy6aLTfTEYVXX-UD9cMBMRLhTE1ChIbz7d9tfSzh8g904NNfUCfIDjXHpfJM69Jnnn4vx-MuM4Ljx52uIGVv2YYZbRwDakBbpJkuQuudVBHqf_komU0_M42RS7kcmT0mo1/s400/Breakpoints+-+no.png" height="240" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breakpoint application provides a smooth upward trending price curve, which is rational to increasing shipment size. Without breakpoints, prices erratically jump up/down as the shipment size increases.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of these reasons, PricePoint automatically checks for and applies breakpoints on quotes (preventing costly human error oversight). When applied, the quote detail screen displays the higher "Chargeable" shipment size, directly below the actual "Declared" size. A random study of PricePoint quotes revealed that breakpoints are applicable in roughly 1 out of 3 quotes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCRyLvCiqo0EUPHWVxJqW34k_0mSlp5jvnUvvBLVXyxTHA1CNMdNZ6xecAcJkl0O5r78wojblexpBzvHDXCAglU8CcpQoNcwlHTIkX1d3dC_7zAetTfA8emSfVXX9SqJxoe3STiD8kDatc/s1600/Breakpoint+PP+example.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCRyLvCiqo0EUPHWVxJqW34k_0mSlp5jvnUvvBLVXyxTHA1CNMdNZ6xecAcJkl0O5r78wojblexpBzvHDXCAglU8CcpQoNcwlHTIkX1d3dC_7zAetTfA8emSfVXX9SqJxoe3STiD8kDatc/s400/Breakpoint+PP+example.PNG" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-75109610699148767632013-08-29T11:44:00.000-07:002013-08-29T11:44:39.138-07:00New feature -- FCL THC clarification<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A minor upgrade to announce: within the quote details on the OFS for FCL shipment type, the destination THC line now stipulates whether a 20' or 40' container is being assumed.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Towards the objective of simple and unconfusing design, we do not require agent tariffs or quotes to specify container size. Instead we apply a quote assumption based on an over/under threshold of 1100 cubic feet. The new THC clarification is simply to help avoid any incorrect assumptions.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-2745419758777734642013-08-28T16:02:00.001-07:002013-08-29T08:54:28.280-07:00Top 20 locations<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About 2 years ago we started a count on how many times price quotes were calculated by PricePoint users for each city location. Here are the current top 20 out of nearly 300 total city locations:</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 178px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 4039; mso-width-source: userset; width: 85pt;" width="114"></col>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt; width: 85pt;" width="114">London</td>
<td align="right" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">10885</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Singapore</td>
<td align="right">9415</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Houston</td>
<td align="right">9273</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Beijing</td>
<td align="right">7430</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Sydney</td>
<td align="right">7185</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Dubai</td>
<td align="right">6524</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Shanghai</td>
<td align="right">5721</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Perth</td>
<td align="right">5208</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Brisbane</td>
<td align="right">4642</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Hong Kong</td>
<td align="right">4351</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Paris</td>
<td align="right">4268</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Frankfurt</td>
<td align="right">2662</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Guangzhou</td>
<td align="right">2299</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Madrid</td>
<td align="right">2232</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">New York City</td>
<td align="right">2175</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Amsterdam</td>
<td align="right">2046</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Abu Dhabi</td>
<td align="right">1880</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Tokyo</td>
<td align="right">1734</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Calgary</td>
<td align="right">1662</td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">Geneva</td>
<td align="right">1530</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The top 20 alone totals 93,122 quotes. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's consider that further and <i>conservatively </i>estimate that the average traditional quote process via email request/reply requires 5 minutes of shared processing time between Booker and Agent (not to mention overnight wait time, potential for human error, etc.). </span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's also assume the average PricePoint quote requires 1 minute (although 10-20 seconds is more likely). That means PricePoint has saved over 6200 combined man hours for the top 20 alone.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition, rather than getting one quote per traditional email, PricePoint provides 5-10 company options per location on average.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-25540591583744740032013-08-26T10:11:00.002-07:002013-08-26T10:46:41.613-07:00New Feature - Preferred Agent Highlights<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just in time for the upcoming IAM convention in Vancouver, we've added a great new feature for Bookers to better manage directing tonnage to their preferred agent network.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To explain, consider the typical convention environment in which you have meeting after meeting to explore or continue reciprocal trading agreements. Those management-level good faith discussions have the potential to not be followed-through back at the office, simply due to disconnect at the coordination/ops level who were not in attendance at the convention.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Therefore, PricePoint now allows Client Bookers to specify their preferred Agents within our database, which will in turn highlight those agents when the Booker's coordination/pricing staff are assigning moves via PricePoint. See image below, with </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">preferred Agents highlighted in dark blue (all displayed pricing on this image has been randomized to protect Agent privacy). This new feature enables you to always keep your staff on the same page of who your company's preferred agents are.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIZH_2iuQ4LBbW6GY0y-Ul8XXmQO4MsY6Xn4ZZbfsuJL3V-XdHdOLKKBUHfUvboFjo1yQjL-ELLCMFcc3KKujyV3uLk2Ajelfrz9FFQqsyZKsXXYMLQ3Wcd7paQrRlN2SGtjTG6PME4Lt/s1600/preferred+agents.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIZH_2iuQ4LBbW6GY0y-Ul8XXmQO4MsY6Xn4ZZbfsuJL3V-XdHdOLKKBUHfUvboFjo1yQjL-ELLCMFcc3KKujyV3uLk2Ajelfrz9FFQqsyZKsXXYMLQ3Wcd7paQrRlN2SGtjTG6PME4Lt/s640/preferred+agents.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Client Booker Usage Instructions</span></h4>
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simply email a list of your preferred agents to <a href="mailto:admin@griprocure.com">admin@griprocure.com</a>, or download a current copy of PricePoint's active Agent list (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/PP-agentlist"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">http://tinyurl.com/PP-<wbr></wbr>agentlist</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">)</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to mark your preferred Agents, again emailing to <a href="mailto:admin@griprocure.com">admin@griprocure.com</a>. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your request will be processed within 24 hours, with confirmation of completion.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-34854301369886818052013-08-19T09:06:00.000-07:002014-02-06T11:35:14.467-08:00Privacy!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"<i>A marketplace is a good idea for privacy-enhancing technologies.</i></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Ari M. Schwartz - </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Internet Policy Advisor </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">@</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The National Institute of Standards and Technology</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Contrary to the initial assumption that some people have, the online marketplace of PricePoint actually enhances confidentiality, compared to traditional pricing methods of published tariffs, spreadsheet, and email quotes. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">A number of my blog posts make reference to PricePoint's privacy structure (see </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/search/label/privacy" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Privacy label</span></a><span style="color: #444444;"> for other posts), which is appropriate as privacy is the most essential design consideration which makes PricePoint work so well. This post will be an overview of our core privacy features.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Passwords/Firewalls</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beyond the landing page (<a href="http://www.griprocure.com/">www.griprocure.com</a>) PricePoint is entirely ID/password-secured application. Each user ID is governed by strict firewall protocols. i.e. No agent can access any other agent's data, pricing, etc.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Privacy/Discount Settings</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When an Agent signs-in to PricePoint, the first thing they see is their Privacy/Discount settings page. This shows the Agent all of our Client/Bookers who <i>potentially </i>have access to the Agent's pricing. That access permission is directly controlled by the Agent. The Agent can apply "Restricted" status to any of the Clients, which applies an immediate and complete firewall so that Client will have no access to that Agent's pricing. Alternatively, the Agent can discreetly apply percentage price discounts/increases to any of the Client Bookers. These settings are of course entirely confidential to the Agent.</span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tariff (in)visibility</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">As addressed in </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2013/08/agent-tips-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">another post</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">, traditional tariffs are often price-inflated because the Agent does not want their truly competitive pricing to fall into the hands of a competitor. To safeguard against this (and in turn encourage competitive pricing), PricePoint's firewalls do not allow </span></span><b style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>ANY</i></b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> other companies to view an Agent's tariffs except for the Agent themselves. Not even our Client users can view the tariffs, who instead use our Price Calculator tool for specific shipment size quotes. This protection prevents a Booker's potential rogue employee from taking screenshots of any Agent's tariff and distributing to unauthorized parties. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confidential discount/increase application</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since Bookers cannot see your Tariffs, nor your Privacy/Discount settings, they will not know if your are applying a percentage increase or discount to them, unless you choose to tell them of a favorable discount. Any increase/discount will be automatically applied to any price quotes for that Booker via PricePoint.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">10 day waiting period</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whenever a new Booker joins the PricePoint Client Group, an announcement email is sent out by PricePoint Admin (admin@griprocure.com) to all Agents. The Agents then have at least 10 days to adjust their Privacy/Discount settings <i>BEFORE </i>that new Booker is granted any pricing access.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Geographic privacy protocols</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During that 10 day period, PricePoint Admin will apply default Restricted status on behalf of any Agents who are based in the same country as the new Client Booker. This is based on the presumption that the Agent and Booker are competitors in that country. This serves as a precaution in case the Agent did not see or failed to act on the 10 day wait period announcement.</span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confidentiality/NDAs</span></h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, all our Client Bookers must sign our User Agreement before receiving access to authorized Agent pricing. A central highlighted provision in the Agreement is their acknowledgement that <i>all Agent pricing is to be treated as highly confidential and cannot be shared with any other moving companies</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">~~</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In sum, we expect any participating company would agree that this array of security measures provides far better privacy assurances than any traditional methods of tariffs, spreadsheets, emails, etc.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-82215879444142441742013-08-15T12:07:00.000-07:002013-08-21T09:43:23.769-07:00Agent Tips #2<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I happened to be cc'd on an email correspondence between one of our Bookers and their Agent. The Booker had requested a price quote from an Agent via email, even though the Agent had rates available in PricePoint (more on that practice below). The email quote was higher than the PricePoint quote. When the Booker questioned this, the Agent explained: </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"<i>In the future, if you’re using PricePoint, please don’t ask for separate rates or most likely you’ll get higher prices than PricePoint.</i>"</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This comment highlights a departure from traditional pricing methodology which is central to the international moving industry. PricePoint is designed to help evolve the industry towards this mutually beneficial better practice, as demonstrated by the above agent's mentality.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First let's address the common practice in which traditional "published" tariffs are typically priced higher than a "spot quote" from the same agent via email. Why is this? I can think of a few reasons:</span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) Price Privacy</span></h4>
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The industry is very sensitive about not disclosing pricing to competitors. Since <i>traditional </i>tariffs can easily find their way into the hands of a competitor, the rates are published at somewhat inflated levels.</span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) Price Fluctuation / Tariff Distribution</span></h4>
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The industry is of course highly cyclical in terms of peak vs off-peak seasons. Meanwhile traditional tariff creation and distribution is rather tedious, and therefore only done once per year, or even less often. Hence it is sensible to set tariff prices at the "high water mark", because an agent would not want to be held to lower published rates in the busy season.</span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3) Booker-Price Variations</span></h4>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is common for agents to agree to different price levels for different bookers, so again the agent would not want to publicly distribute pricing which is lower than any of those agreements.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">~~</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">All that said, PricePoint resolves all of these concerns. A number of features (addressed in </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/2013/08/privacy.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">other blog posts</span></a><span style="color: #444444;"> - see </span><a href="http://griprocure.blogspot.com/search/label/privacy" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Privacy label</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">) provide much greater price privacy security than any traditional pricing methods (published tariffs, emails, etc.). These security measures includes the ease of discreetly offering different price levels to different Bookers. Regarding fluctuation/distribution, Agents are free to easily update their tariffs whenever they choose, which effectively provides truly instant "distribution" of the new rates to our Client Booker group, without having to deal with tedious email distributions.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In sum, having neutralized the traditional reasons for inflated tariff pricing, it is sensible to offer truly competitive pricing upfront via PricePoint. Why? First, PricePoint serves as a no-cost member of staff who flawlessly quotes OA/DA rates on your behalf. If you have to pay a staff member to manually respond to quotes via email, vs PricePoint quoting those rates for you automatically, clearly the latter scenario creates admin savings which can be shared with Bookers/customers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Taking that thought process further, the traditional approach is to offer a high price via tariff, then discount upon request. That tactic is in some respects irrational because you are reducing your price for a more costly sales process. Hence the agent comment above is essentially saying "please don't waste my time with email quotes since I am giving you a better rate via PricePoint."</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lastly, there's also a strong correlation that time-sensitive quote opportunities are also more cost-sensitive. Considering global time zones, PricePoint enables the Booker to provide much faster same-day quotes to their sales leads, rather than waiting overnight (or longer) for the agent's time/cost-consuming email quote reply. Again a </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">more efficient process and </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">higher closing ratio helps to justify lower tariff rates for these cost-sensitive sales opportunities.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-81578210363105915692013-07-17T10:07:00.000-07:002013-07-18T10:42:11.506-07:00Agent Usage Tips #1<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought it could be useful to offer a recurring series of usage advice to Agent users of PricePoint. These are not meant to absolute recommendations, but rather considerations of how you can make use of the unique capabilities which PricePoint offers, compared to traditional pricing methods.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since this is the first post on this topic, let's focus on a couple items for first time users: Quote Basis and Rank.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quote Basis:</span></h3>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An important design feature of PricePoint is that it allows the Agent flexibility to customize their tariff structure, including unit of measure (cubic foot, cubic meter, pounds). <b>Understand this is for YOUR preference</b>. You do not need to worry about the Booker's preference, because they will not see your actual tariffs (in fact no one but you can see your tariffs, as this is a privacy/security measure). Bookers can only access your pricing via specific price quotes which they can enter in their own preferred units of measurement, and PricePoint performs all necessary conversions automatically.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rank:</span></h3>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After you have submitted tariffs, you will notice a Rank column on your Tariffs Overview page. This is a algorithmic calculation of your tariffs' price competitiveness for that specific location and shipment type, compared to all other agents in PricePoint (1 is lowest price). Important to note this is entirely anonymous, <b>no competing agents will know each others identity or rank</b>. We created the Rank feature because in my past as an Agent, I found it difficult to determine how competitive my tariff pricing actually was. Therefore the Rank feature provides instant constructive feedback. Based on that feedback, you are free to adjust your tariff as many times as you wish. The Rank will instantly update every time you re-save a tariff.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-74783545076845184242013-07-12T11:41:00.000-07:002013-07-17T10:15:21.298-07:00Why invitation only?<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you may know, Agents are only allowed to file rates in
PricePoint if they have been explicitly invited/endorsed by one of our Client
Bookers. Certainly the value of PricePoint
is largely based on its geographic scope and population of participating Agents,
so one might think we should maximize scope and population by any means necessary. However there are a number of reasons why we
created the invite-only policy early on and continue to apply it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1) Startup scaling / beta testing</span></h2>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We founded GRIP as an independent “bootstrap startup” (i.e. no outside or
industry investors), which requires being careful with use of limited resources
and not bite off more than we could chew.
Therefore we didn’t naively plan to on-board the whole world into
PricePoint at once. Likewise all
software is subject to bugs and ongoing improvement, so it’s best to start the
user population relatively small and have it grow in pace with
enhancements. Meanwhile we allowed our
Client users to determine which Agents and countries should be on-boarded,
according to their needs and preferences.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">2) Integrity to Agents</span></h2>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was important to us that we do not falsely represent opportunity to
Agents. By allowing Clients to control
Agent invitations, it means that there is definite booking/tonnage available to
an Agent who is asked to submit rates.
In other words, we would not want to waste the time of Agent in Zimbabwe
(or our time for that matter) until a Client has actual bookings that can be
offered to that Agent/location.
Therefore PricePoint’s scope of coverage grows organically according to
the real needs of our growing Client base.</span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">3) GRIP neutrality</span></h2>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As detailed in other posts, GRIP’s independence and neutrality is
critically important. As an industry
veteran, I did not want there to be any real nor perceived bias according to my
own industry history or relationships.
Only Clients can invite Agents into PricePoint, GRIP does not.</span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">4) Quality control</span></h2>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is an ongoing industry concern over “rogue movers”, and quality is
certainly a gray and complex topic. We
have ongoing plans to enhance the quality dimension within PricePoint. Pending those developments, we felt the invitation-only
policy would serve as a practical quality control mechanism. If a Client Booker sees pricing is available
from an Agent they are not familiar with, they do have at least the basic
assurance that the Agent has been implicitly endorsed by at least one other
Client user.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As
a natural follow-on point, if you are an Agent who wants to offer rates to our
Client Booker group, you simply need to obtain approval from one of those
Bookers and have it communicated to admin@griprocure.com</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-9763345109100256262013-06-21T14:12:00.000-07:002013-06-21T14:16:53.644-07:00Facebook vs. PricePoint (on privacy)<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t trust Facebook …in a sense. To be clear, I’m not
saying that Facebook is evil. In fact, I’m on Facebook, I like Facebook, and I
often defend it against critics.
However, throughout Facebook’s ever-evolving design, I've been more or
less uncomfortable with their privacy controls – which are a common public
criticism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Facebook co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said of his
intentions “I’m trying to make the world a more open place.” I appreciate that, but in my opinion
Facebook’s (mis)management of privacy control UI hinders Zuck’s objective. A well-known
</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3afZip4BTRc" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Seinfeld-ism</span></a><span style="color: #444444;"> of “</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPG3YMcSvzo" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">world’s colliding</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">” is good example of the issue. What people are willing to share with one
group (e.g. friends), they may not be willing to share with another (e.g.
business colleagues).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since I don’t fully trust Facebook’s ever-changing privacy
policies and UI to keep my world’s from colliding in ways I don’t want, I
personally apply a more simple firewall of rarely connecting to business
colleagues on Facebook, instead utilizing LinkedIn for that sphere of
networking. This is clearly undesirable
for Facebook’s business model as a significant portion of my networking (and
value as an advertising audience) goes to a rival platform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Facebook’s privacy control shortcomings (or my perception of
it) served as a direct inspiration in PricePoint’s design towards privacy
controls. Facebook and PricePoint face a
parallel responsibility towards our users, and I dare say we've done a better
job of it with PricePoint. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This began with founding GRIP as a completely independent
company, and within PricePoint allowing all suppliers to directly control privacy
settings in a simple, clear, and intuitive interface. Furthermore, we proactively guard supplier
price privacy by strictly enforcing a 10 day waiting period for all new
clients, beginning with a new client announcement to all participating
suppliers which gives all ample time to modify their privacy settings. Going further, during that 10 day period GRIP
applies geographic privacy restrictions between any client and supplier based
in the same country (presuming they compete against each other), saving time
for those suppliers or in case they didn’t see/act on the announcement for any
reason.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be fair, we face a less complex privacy challenge than Facebook, but nonetheless our realization was to place the highest emphasis on creating a trustworthy environment in PricePoint, realizing that pricing is a particularly sensitive area in which users would not want their “worlds to collide”.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391250095896432491.post-1383123568946586822013-06-08T11:16:00.001-07:002013-06-08T11:16:55.330-07:00A bit about myself and my intentions<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello, I’m Ryan Keintz, co-Founder of GRIP Inc., creator of
PricePoint. It’s fair to say I’m also a contrarian. However, I would like to believe I am not the
breed of contrarian that I’ve encountered elsewhere – one who rebels for the
sake of rebellion, who simply aims to cast an image of being different, or is a
naysayer merely for lack of genuine opinion.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In fact, in my early school years I was a very obedient
Catholic school boy, usually the least likely among my peers to break the rules. But over time I gradually came to realize
that some authority figures often didn’t really know what they were talking
about, or at least were more confident in their beliefs than I could see
justification for. This developed within
me a healthy questioning of authority and conventional thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our company GRIP springs from that fundamental willingness
to question the traditional way of looking at things. With the innovation of PricePoint, we aim to
be a progressive force in the international relocation industry. It’s the type of platform that may be
described as disruptive, which naturally inspires both supporters and
detractors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This blog will serve as a forum for perspectives on the
international relocation industry. Some
posts will highlight and question conventional thinking and assumptions which
have caught my attention. I will also
share various insights regarding our design intentions with PricePoint, as well
as some usage recommendations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All are welcome to advance the discussion by posting your
comments in support, disagreement, or a candid “I’m not sure.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ryan Keintz<br />
co-Founder, GRIP Inc.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10890333083467114444noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001