POOL OF EXPERTS
The Pool of Experts is the online directory for experts in internationalisation and export.
The Pool of Experts is part of Osec's product portfolio and allows businesses from Switzerland and Liechtenstein to find an expert for their internationalisation or export needs quickly, simply and at no charge.
SMEs from Switzerland and Liechtenstein can use the online directory for a precision search, thanks to our categorisation by region/country, by industrial sector, and by services offered.
Users can choose precisely the expert they need with the help of a profile giving contact information, career history, and testimonials.
The online directory contains around 500 experts from 43 countries (as of October 2010). Except for Official Osec Experts, they have not been certified by Osec but merely fulfil the minimal requirements for inclusion in the directory.
Osec offers the Pool of Experts as part of its mandate to promote exports under a decree of the Swiss Parliament, 1st January 2008.
HISTORY
Osec, working with the internet agency MatchingNeeds, sets up the first version of the Pool of Experts online directory in March 2003 as part of its mandate from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). 32 experts are listed in the database to begin with. In the first version, the expert profiles are anonymised for display in the database, since contacting these experts incurs a fee and firms are put in touch by Osec.
Parallel to the Osec database, the companies Fargate, Flare International, Media Taskforce and Headwire set up the joint venture Businesswiss. The joint venture aims to allow Swiss SMEs direct, easy access to international-export experts via an internet database. The Businesswiss.com website goes live in August 2003.
To support the Pool of Experts further, improve functionality and increase the number of experts, in February 2005 Osec takes over from Businesswiss the license for the internet database which they developed. Osec joins with Fargate, Flair International and the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce to make up a monitoring committee.
The second version of the Pool of Experts goes live in October 2005.
By the end of 2007, visitor numbers to the website have risen five-fold from 2005, and the number of registered experts has risen to 350. The monitoring committee is dissolved at the end of 2007 by mutual agreement, and the Pool of Experts is brought back wholly into Osec's product portfolio.
At this point, Osec wishes to thank the monitoring committee members from Fargate, Flair International and the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce for their active and valuable engagement in the process of setting up the Pool of Experts together.
In order to bring the Pool of Experts up to the latest technological standards, and to make further quality improvements that benefit both client users and our experts, in 2010 the Pool of Experts online directory is being totally redesigned in cooperation with Agentur kunst://wort. The third version of the website goes live in February 2011.
OSEC
Osec is the competence centre for Swiss foreign trade promotion.
Osec informs, advises and supports firms from Switzerland and Liechtenstein in their international business ventures.
To this end, Osec networks companies, specialists and private and public organisations all over the world, enabling effective foreign trade promotion.
SPONSORS
Osec offers various possibilities to place yourself as a sponsor for the Pool of Experts.
These range from adding your logo to our website and to corresponding print material, through bannering and membership in the Pool of Experts, to the chance to write editorial articles in the newsletter which goes out to our experts.
The Pool of Experts website receives around 22,000 visitors per month.
Our newsletter reaches around 500 experts from an international background.
Are you interested in becoming a sponsor? Then contact us for further information.
AGENTUR KUNST://WORT
The current Pool of Experts webpage (V3) has been developed in cooperation with Agentur kunst://wort.
Agentur kunst://wort is a fullservice agency for all kind of On- and Offline-Communication: Websites based on Content Management Systems, TYPO3 Solutions, Social Media Solutions, Online Marketing, digital Branding and digital Animation.
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