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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ'S): Network Marketing, Party Plan, Direct Sales & MLM Software

Q: Can you please provide specific details about your structure?

Structure:
• iMATRIX Software, Inc. is the exclusive sales and marketing entity for iMatrix Software International.

 

Q: Where are you located?

Location:
• Office:
1. iMATRIX Software, Inc. is located in Southern California-Aliso Viejo, CA
2. iMatrix Software International is located in Dallas, Texas


Southern California Office - Sales & Marketing

Dallas Office - Operations, IT, Tech Support & Data Center

 

Q: We are concerned because many of the MLM software providers that we reviewed and spoke with don’t appear to have a lot of experience.


Viability:
• Our team members have over 100 years of combined experience in the Direct Sales/MLM software industry.
 

Q: Who are your main competitors?

Main Competitors:
There are certainly a lot of companies offering MLM software, too many! But most of them don't do what we do. In short, our team handles various day-to-day administrative and technology related actions for your MLM, Party Plan, or Direct Sales company. Many of our “competitors” will simply send you a CD through the mail or have a hosted system that is not adaquate for your needs, then begin charging you tech support fees. Most SaaS (Software-as-a-Service also called hosted systems) service providers charge enormous tech support fees. Many companies, especially start-ups, do not realize how expensive this can be each month. We’re in a completely different business whereby your success is our success. Make sure you do your proper due diligence and ask many questions. If you can visit the company, that is always a good thing. Most MLM software companies are very small mom and pop operations. This is not optimal because most of the time they will go out of business at some point or do not have the resources to support you if your company grows. You want to have a good feeling about the staff and confident you made the correct choice.

We have a high market share of our two main target markets. One is what we call “intelligent start-ups.” The other is existing MLM companies. Our clients are more than clients. We don’t just process a client, check it off and go to the next one. We pay attention to each client’s processes and needs. We question anomalies and look out for abnormal occurances. We also check for trends. If we see something that may be a problem or may become a problem, our team will contact the client to discuss it. Your problems are our problems. We’re here to help you resolve your problems.

Our data center is state of the art. Our team members were the pioneers in this industry for building a data center and providing a SaaS service. Most competitors don't have a comparable data center that process’s their clients systems. It's requires a large capital investment and expensive ongoing costs to keep it all state of the art and running smoothly.

Some important Questions to ask MLM software companies about their system:

If their system is less than 10 years old there are innumerable things that the iMatrix system handles that companies designing a new system haven't even thought about much less programmed.

 

Q: How many successful MLM and Direct Sales companies are using this code or system?


This system and code has been in existence for a long time and continues to evolve every year. Hundreds of companies have used it. Household names such as TupperWare, Reliv, NuSkin, WIN, Rexall, Quorum, Nikken, Neways, SkyBiz, Enrich & many others have used this system. Many of our current clients were start-ups and are today successful and stable companies. Whether you are a start-up or an existing MLM company, we can accommodate your needs.Many of our new clients are existing MLM companies that need to change mlm software providers because of many different reasons. Ask us more about our client list & references.


Q: Why exactly are your software solutions and services great? Why are you so confident?

• We are known for rock solid stable systems. We have clients that have been using the system for many years.
• The system is very robust and mature, which limits the customization for most projects. Ninety eight percent of our clients are Direct Sales/MLM companies. The software was developed specifically for the MLM industry. Our non-MLM clients can use the same software, but not all features may be activated. We also provide corporate hosting.
• The system works. Our team knows what they are doing and they are very good at it.
• Almost every system available in our industry will handle the basic processing requirements of order entry, distribution, and commissioning. What differentiates the iMatrix system is the functionality that comes from years of use and experience in the industry. Our team is familiar with the exceptions, nuances and peculiarities of the MLM industry. The system handles situations and circumstances that new clients have not even yet considered or have had to deal with thus far.
• The iMatrix system is a proven and tested commodity. It has been deployed in over 300 countries. It was designed from the start to support multiple languages, multiple compensation plans and multiple currencies. It has processed clients with over 2,000,000 distributors, more than 50,000 new online distributor sign-ups with orders in a single day, and 300+ simultaneous client-side users.
• This system is very flexible. We recognize that different companies have different business models and business models evolve over time. The system was designed to handle differences and changes without requiring extensive customizing and re-programming.


Q: Tell me about some of the features and functions of the system.

1. Some Example Functionalities – Corporate System:
• Order entry – online, shopping cart, operator entry, email confirmation of order, backorder processing, auto-ship.
• Payment – multiple types, online credit card authorization and verification, automated processing settlement of distributors’ individual merchant accounts if processor is a host based system, multi-currency.
• Distribution – shipping, manifesting, box sizing, multiple warehouses, interface to common carriers, email confirmation of shipment, inventory updates.
• Commissioning – all types of plans, combinations, worldwide tree, support a different plan and qualifications for each country, separate qualification and volume trees maintained.
• Distributor maintenance – status, rank, renewals, removals, profile.
• Genealogy - reporting, tracking, maintaining, historical, purging, orphan resolve, and real time order volume pushed up the tree.
• Reporting – online, hard copy, email.
• Inventory – committed, shipped, received.
• RMA – returned merchandise authorization.
• Distributor services support – contact tracking, commission research tools, one page information screen that provides answers to most of your distributor service calls.

• There are thousands of features and functions.

2. Some Example Functionalities – Distributors Web Pages:
• Signup new distributors, place orders using shopping cart.
• Retail Customers of distributor can place orders using shopping cart.
• View genealogy, commission recap, sponsor and order data in our standard format.

• Company product or service promotions.
• Update personal profile information.
• Includes email confirmation – standard format (company paid fee for customizing content).
• Confirms order received.
• Confirms order shipped if company has manifest system.
• Signups are automatically linked.
• Retail orders are automatically credited.
• The presentation format and content of data can be customized at the request of the company for a fee.
• Notification of personally sponsored new sign-ups.
• Notification of personally sponsored rank advancements.
• Notification of orders of a specific product by personally sponsored.
• Business analysis tools for distributors.
• Filtering capability of distributor’s organization.
• Bar graph and comparative presentations of distributor’s information.
• Contact manager

• Preview of qualifications and commissions
• Gift cards
• Event and training scheduler

• Document section

• To do list

• Personalized reports that distributors create.

Q: What would the typical use of the iMatrix system be for a customer?

• Full system use for back-office corporate administrative functions.
• Distributor back-office functions through a self-replicating website and/or corporate website.
• Retail customer access through distributor’s website.
• Commission processing and genealogy/downline.
• Hundreds of other important uses – ask for a demo.

Q: Will the iMatrix system support party plan and MLM Hybrids?

• The iMatrix system is designed to be highly flexible for just about any type of pay plan or party plan or hybrid. As such, it can and has easily accommodated various combinations of compensation/pay plans.

Q: What types of compensation plans will the system support? Can you please describe some of the advantages of this system with regards to compensation plan technology?

• This system supports most MLM commissioning plans. We have clients that use a combination of plans such as a Unilevel with a Binary component plus a Quick Start  or Matching Check feature. This system is parameter based. That means parameters can easily be changed, such as number of levels or percentages, to run “what if” scenarios or make pay plan changes typically without expensive and time consuming programming effort.

• The client can have a worldwide tree yet have different qualifications and plans in different countries. The country of origin of the order determines the pay plan to be used. Commissions can be paid in the home currency, a selected currency or a standard currency.

• The system maintains a ‘snapshot’ of the tree at each commission run thereby providing support for commission payments should a situation occur that questions the commission/tree in a prior period.

• The system has the ability to re-run commissions in live.

Q: We are a products based company and we have a need for an advanced inventory system. Please can you describe how the system handles this area?

The System handles inventory on a real time basis. When an order is placed for an item, the system parameter can be set to either accept the order indicating the item is backordered or reject the order indicating the item is out of stock. A ‘nightly calibration’ would simply be a comparison of physical versus system calculated inventory quantities. As the inventory system is real time, the system will be accepting and processing orders 24 hours a day and updating the inventory quantities as the orders are processed. The inventory item ordered is in a ‘committed’ status until actual shipment. The indication of an estimated delivery date would be a customization. The System has the ability to print the order, picking ticket and shipping label at whatever location(s) desired. When the order is ready for shipping, the order can be scanned and the system will ‘ship verify’ the order. This will deduct the items from inventory. The system reporting indicates inventory on-hand and inventory committed, thereby providing the quantities of what items should be physically on hand and, of that, what are committed for shipment. The system has the ability to account for kits (a single item number with numerous components) in a variety of ways that are parameter settings and easily implemented and changed, if so desired.

Q: I’m a self-confessed propeller head & I want to know some details about the technology infrastructure and the data center?

• The iMatrix Data Center and is an enterprise class state-of-the-art facility. Your system is hosted on the servers in the Dallas iMatrix data center with processing services provided by our team members. This is not a co-location, it is owned by iMatrix Software International. There is an N+1 Redundancy on all critical systems to ensure no single point of failure between your application and the Internet.

• The system architecture is multi-tiered with separate data, business logic and presentation layers. This system is very scalable as has been demonstrated by its actual use in companies with over 2,000,000 distributors, over 50,000 sign-ups in a single day, and 300 plus simultaneous company users. The system was designed with flexibility in mind. It is modular and parameter driven.

Installation:
• The setup time is dependent upon discussions, decisions, and changes regarding your business rules and processes. This is what determines the parameter settings and if customizations will be required. Customizations and integrations can delay the set-up time for numerous reasons, especially working with 3rd party companies. Closely related is, of course, the modification of our standard design for order entry and distributor entry forms to meet the specifics of your company. The compensation plan is typically completed after receiving the final specifications from client, normally it is one of the last items programmed.

Language:
• The system utilizes a hybrid of languages which include ASP, Flash, Ajax, Pearl, Visual Basic, Java, C++, Cobol, and various other MacroMedia products. We provide customization services and in most circumstances we will already have a program or solution that will not require additional customizing.

Q: What are your future development plans for the platform?

As technological advances make new tools, languages and techniques available, we have the resources to acquire and test them to determine if they can be applied to the mlm market and the system. Our team of developers and researchers are concerned with providing our clients and their distributors with tools and access to better manage their business, increase profits and attract new distributors and customers. Our business model is quite simple – if our clients succeed, we succeed. This product is deployed in a SaaS environment, which allows us to have continual updates. As new technologies become available we determine if they can be applied to our industry and clients. Our team adds functions, features and reporting on a consistent basis to keep our clients competitive.

Q: Okay, so something strange is going on here. I’ve talked to three or four other mlm software companies & they all claim that their system handles international transactions, payments, & currencies as standard. Now, I’m no dummy & I know this stuff is not easy; something’s not adding up here. Can you please tell me the truth about this?

This system accommodates multiple currencies as it's standard. It has multi-lingual capabilities with the client providing the translations. It was designed to be deployed internationally and it has multiple jurisdiction capabilities for taxation purposes. The client must provide their interpretation of the tax laws in jurisdictions outside the U.S. as we do not provide any legal advice. I would beware of any software provider who claims to have code in place to accommodate tax laws outside the U.S. as these are subject to interpretation (as are many inside the U.S.).

Q: You have a U.S.-based team. How do you propose working with us in London, Singapore, Stockholm, Munich, Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York, & Dublin during the implementation period?

This system is very robust and mature, which typically enables our team not to have to do a lot of customization, however, this depends on the business model. We propose working with you via the iMatrix ticket system, telephone, internet remote access, and email. This is the same way we have worked and currently work with all our clients, many of which are large companies and have very complex compensation plans. We can have one of our technical people come to your location in extreme cases if absolutely necessary. We have found over the years that if you can't explain a compensation plan issue over the phone or in writing, how are you ever going to explain it to distributors worldwide?

Q: How does the system handle payments?

Payment Methods Online
a. The iMatrix online system supports credit card and debit card transactions. It can support other payment methods should the company so desire.
b. The payment of demonstrator commissions through bank transfers can be automated. These are generally ACH transactions. Our team will need to review your company’s bank specs for their particular requirements and protocols. This could be customization depending on the bank.

Q: The UK has a special VAT rate. How have you solved VAT-issues, account transfers in the UK banking system and 70% compliance rule with these clients?

The iMatrix system has custom tax routine modules by country and special circumstance. It has an UK tax routine that handles VAT. Since VAT is a tax on a tax it is not always applied. The system has tax routines that not only calculate the tax, but also determine taxability based on the VAT rules.


The iMatrix system was designed for international use and it accommodates multi-currency effectively. You can have a home currency for a country or another currency for a country, you can pay commissions in the home currency or another currency for each country, conversions can be applied, as the company so desires. For the 70% compliance rule, it can be handled it in a variety of ways. You can use a special form that comes up at order placements and requires an agree click before proceeding to just a pop up window reminder. Some clients have even had an item code called 70% acceptance rule that was required for each order. The system handles product returns, refunds and credits, which are standard rules.


Q: Some items on our website will need frequent updating (general area, news for distributors, catalogue items, costs, etc.). How does your system handle these?

You can use a software tool called Contribute along with other methods. We also have an iMatrix Design Center that allows you to replicate your distributor websites and make many changes, additions, etc. It is very easy to use. These various methods allow you to update the content of your web site and replicated distributor sites. We actually prefer not to do these type of updates, which makes it more convenient for you.

Q: Our current software provider insists on a year or multi-year contract with no opportunity to bring the software in-house in case we in the later years decide that IT should be one of our core competencies. How would it be any different with you?

We do not have multi-year contracts. Our initial contract is for one year; however, you may terminate at any time by giving us sixty (60) days written notice. We have several potential options for bringing the system in-house in future years. We require you to use our service for a minimum of 18 months to gain experience and be familiar with using the system. This will significantly reduce training time. First option, once you are proficient with the system, you may be able to do the processing in-house on iMatrix servers in the iMatrix data center. This would require you to hire in-house IT staff. This is our software hosting option. Second, you may be able to bring the software in-house and process on servers at your location. This requires hardware and third party software (such as SQL servers) and a license to the iMatrix Vista System. You would need to have a knowledgeable IT staff, redundancy in connectivity and hardware, backup procedures and a disaster recovery plan. Third, you may be able purchase a license to the source code for the iMatrix Vista System. Please inquire if your interested.