Proof of Concept

Dateline: Tel Aviv

After seven months of active trading on The Receivables Exchange I can say that a number of significant “proof of concept” questions have been answered in the affirmative; both at the level of the Exchange operations and from my own point of view as a Buyer. Some questions are still open, of course, and will be answered with more time and experience (and money).

This will not be a long post, partly because I’m here to visit family and not to write blog posts, and partly because I’m writing on an HP Mini that has a keyboard that is friendly only to fingers the size of my 4-year-old granddaughter Emma’s.

But this has been my first opportunity to run a significant test of an important (to me) attribute of the TRE platform and process.

In my normal business of buying invoices it is important that I be in close contact, frequently in person, with those I’m buying from. An attraction of the TRE process for me is that it shouldn’t matter whether I’m in New Jersey or Tel Aviv (except for the circadian disruption of a 7 hour time difference). I ought to be able to do anything I need to do to be an active and effective Buyer from any location, or from a different location every day, if I should choose.

I’ve now proven to my own satisfaction that that element of the concept is valid.

I’ve bought two auctions in the last two days using a wireless high-speed internet connection and this almost toy-like little netbook.

Admittedly, the administrative part of things is a bit more cumbersome than if I were in my office with all of my files and support equipment. But the short-term essentials, including buying, record-keeping and moving money around can be done quite readily via wireless connection.

If my business were strictly TRE-based I would have no problem making a permanent location change over a week-end, whether I was moving across the street or from one continent to another.

That’s cool.

May 2010 be a healthy, happy and prosperous year for us all.