Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions we often get asked at NovaFori.

Marketplace features

What payment and settlement methods can be adopted?

We have worked with more than a dozen payment bodies, including the most popular providers. Where settlement is high value, or regulation requires a separate clearing and settlement process, we can work closely with the client’s own payment partner. Additionally, we can recommend an international clearing house. NovaFori has payment and settlement experience in more than 25 countries and is familiar with local tax jurisdiction and VAT challenges posed by local marketplaces.

How do I decide which trading model is best for my business?

At the beginning of our engagement, we will analyse your business in-depth and adopt a consultative approach. Once we have gathered enough insight from your market, we start the process of suggesting alternative market structures for you to evaluate and consider. Our knowledge is codified into a framework for structuring marketplaces from the bottom-up. We consider which trading events and transactional mechanisms are best-combined to concentrate liquidity, ensuring that the greatest volumes are traded at the best possible prices, on a systematic basis.

Our approach to structuring and implementing marketplaces is rooted in our experience of implementing marketplace across many different industries and products. This experience underpins our understanding of what is likely to work, where and why.

Is NovaFori's technology a product with a set feature list or is it a customised solution?

Our marketplace services offer the best of both worlds: A constantly evolving roadmap of features built with the B2B world in mind, but delivered with a B2C user experience. Every marketplace has its own unique challenges to overcome. Our services are flexible, scalable and modular and can be optimised to help you achieve your business goals.

I want full control of my listings without referring to support every time. How do you manage that?

The user admin module provided to our customers is the most comprehensive in the industry. You have the ability to list the duration, the bid increments, the type of listing (including a wide variety of auction models) and opt for a different settlement process for individual lots.

Can I add new features to my marketplace once it was deployed?

Our marketplace doesn’t stand still – and neither do we. Our product roadmap is constantly moving forward to ensure that your investment is future-proof. Our technology platform provides the flexibility to test and use multiple auction and trading mechanisms as trading intensifies and the dynamics of different inventory and buyers evolve. And our machine learning capability ensures that it is continuously improving.

Pricing

What is your pricing model?

Our pricing model consists of a one-time diagnostic engagement to understand your requirements and design your marketplace, and a marketplace configuration fee for the construction and deployment.

Once we’ve delivered your marketplace, you will pay an annual license fee (that includes maintenance, hosting and support) that scales with your market. During our first engagement, we will work with you to understand your business goals and how your new marketplace delivers value against these.

You will then receive a high-level proposal indicating an accurate price range you can expect for the build. However, only after our diagnostic workshop, can we provide precise estimates and delivery times.

Hosting

If I’m specific about the jurisdiction my marketplace operates from, can I specify this?

Our services are optimised for the AWS technology stack. During the marketplace design phase, our experienced system’s admin team will advise on the optimal jurisdiction to service your business’ needs.

Can I use NovaFori's technology on premise?

Our products and services utilise the AWS technology stack to ensure your marketplace uses best of breed features for security and scalability. We understand you might want to integrate our product into your secure eco-system and as such, have developed design patterns to enable our cloud based services to do so.

Industry and verticals

My business occupies the whole value chain from both buy-side and sell-side. Can the same application be used for both?

Yes. The work flow is customisable for every listing. It is entirely possible for our clients to set up an invitation to tender process on the buy side. The activities and the administration of the buy-side can be kept entirely separate.

Does NovaFori's technology work in my industry?

NovaFori's technology is industry-agnostic. Therefore, workflows, inventory attributes and buyer/seller behaviours can be applied across various verticals. Each vertical can have separate categories of products, buyers, sellers and trading venues. If a vertical or category is not currently supported by our product, then this is usually added. The technology works for your industry either out-of-the-box or specifically configured for you, then made available out-of-the-box.

Does it matter where in the supply chain or value chain I am?

Our product and expertise is optimisation of price, which can occur at any point in the value chain, from initial production all the way through to the endproduct. Some areas of the supply chain benefit more from our product - this is more related to specialisation, the number of buyers and / or suppliers capable of delivering a product, asset, inventory or service. We provide consulting services and have analytical tools to help articulate specific, quantifiable benefits or, indeed, to ratify that your current approach is optimal.

Integrations

Can I integrate with 3rd party software?

Yes. We can integrate with third-party technologies to minimise disruption to your business processes.

Can I integrate single sign-on with my existing system?

Our technology allows you to integrate industry standard single sign-on (SSO) and authentication (for example Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0; SAML 2.0). Additionally, we can support custom authentication providers if you have a specific requirement.