nineMotion, online services marketplace for SMBs

Usha Prasad

BANGALORE, INDIA: Buyers and service providers in India, as well as abroad, have a reason to smile. A new online services marketplace, nineMotion, has come into being to provide a superior 'relationship' oriented experience as opposed to 'transactional' approach of a products marketplace.

Small businesses and freelancers can find each other, negotiate terms of their project nineMotion offers services such as software development, Web site creation, graphics design, language translation, e-publishing, typesetting, legal services, copy writing, proof reading, logo design, animation, industrial and concept design, etc.

"We believe that we address the services marketplace requirements 'as it should be', rather than trying to copy a product marketplace model (like eBay), which is more of transactional in nature. Our services depend much more on relationships than products," says Bala Girisaballa, vice president. nineMotion has gone live for over three months now, and is well suited for knowledge-based services that can be outsourced, and managed electronically via the Internet.

"We realised that outsourcing had become a hygiene factor. Outsourcing for small and medium businesses (SMBs) cannot be high touch. It has to be relationship-oriented. Holding high on to this reality, we both thought of putting up an online services marketplace," says Girisaballa.

"We are in the right time for people to take advantage with the market through online services, which will see an explosion in the next three to five years," says Deepak Vinchhi, CEO, nineMotion. "Presently, we have 600 providers from 20 countries across the world, of which 50 percent are from India. By next month, we are planning to cross 1,000 providers and close 15 to 20 transactions on the whole. We are looking for a big opportunity ahead," he adds.

Apart from providing online services, founders of nineMotion also speak of educating the SMBs, who will be benefited from nineMotion. "SMBs in the US are educated enough to know what is required for an online services business and how to reduce risks. We want to educate Indian SMBs about the usage of online services," says Vinchhi.

 Reaching out overseas

Though the company's primary focus is on India, it is planning to reach out to places like Russia, Canada and the US, which have lot of SMBs. "In the beginning, we spoke to a lot of providers in India for understanding and feedback. We are becoming more stronger day-by-day in our confidence," he says.

"To start with, we have targeted a smaller market, and we want to take our learnings seriously. We believe that we have a good value proposition to scale up. We want to keep focused on the four domains and get good traction," says Girisaballa. At this juncture, nineMotion's focus is on software development, engineering services, product design, language translation and automation, Girisaballa adds.

How does a transaction take place on nineMotion? The registration is free for both buyers and providers. Whenever a transaction takes place, 5 percent of the transaction value is levied on the provider. "It is a win-win-win situation for all the three of us," he explains.

"Our actual work begins after we connect the provider and the buyer. We take the layout forward till the project is executed. This is the unique differentiator of nineMotion," says Girisaballa.

Vinchhi adds: "Providers are getting an additional low-cost revenue through our online service. In fact, we are taking away his pain points. SMBs do not have the bandwidth to look at the non-critical issues on their own, and this is where we can play an important role."

So, what does nineMotion stand for? According to Girisaballa, nineMotion stems from a Sanskrit word Navagathi, which means connecting different worlds. nineMotion operates out of California, USA and Bangalore, India.

By using nineMotion project management tools, you can –

* Minimize risk of services delivery.

* Leverage best practices, templates and processes.

* Maintain transparency