Read BaanboardTerminology for explainations on key terms and common words.

Introduction

This document is targeted at profit and non-profit organizations that wish to sponsor the most successful Baan-related website of recent times: http://www.baanboard.com. In return for their sponsorship the participating organization will receive benefits in terms of on-site advertising.

Baanboard.com's mission is to provide a well maintained, easy and free-to-use online forum/wiki for Baan professionals. In the first 4 months of its existence Baanboard.com has managed to attract +1600 Baan professionals and continues to grow daily and appeal to Baan users worldwide.

Motivation

Why consider sponsoring Baanboard.com?

• First of all, we bear the service charges that are involved with Baanboard.com ourselves. As the website continues to grow under its mounting success some of these service charges are becoming (too) big.
• Secondly, sponsoring will help to keep Baanboard.com free of obtrusive banners and membership fees. The sponsoring schemes Baanboard.com is offering are a discrete, low-cost yet effective way for an organization to profile itself on the website.
• Thirdly, sponsoring will enable us to build on future projects with Baanboard.com and will enable us to look for paid expertise. All of these will be aimed at providing more and better services for each Baanboard.com user.

Sponsoring can have profitable results for your business! Read the testimonial of Bader Mansour, CEO of Nazareth Data Quest Ltd (Nazdaq):

Nazdaq is a provider of Added-Value Utilities for the Baan market, and therefore, sponsoring Baanboard was very attractive to us - since it is ultimate virtual meeting place for all Baan professionals, from all around the globe.

What makes Baanboard special is the contribution of so many people. Every question receives several answers and all together creates a great knowledgebase for others to use as a resource.

Personally, I visit the Baanboard more than once a day and try to check all new messages and read what interests me. When I study a certain subject, I search the board and get lot of new ideas for launching new products.

Sponsoring Baanboard gave us exposure to the hundreds of Baan users. It matches our marketing objectives in such a unique way.

Bader Mansour General Manager NAZDAQ, Nazareth Data Quest Ltd.

Sponsors signing up will receive following benefits:

• the option to have the sponsor logo with click-through facility placed on either a forum category header, individual forum (Baanboard.com home page) or to have a larger sized logo (+ text description) on the Sponsors page. (for full description of options see below)
• an announcement in the Baanboard.com public calendar and Today's Events section (announcement will last 1 week)
• an announcement in the next Baanboard.com newsletter . Newsletters are sent out to all members and appear typically once every quarter (no fixed publication date)

For pricing please see the Baanboard Services topic

Sponsors signing up for a yearly sponsorship will receive free Baanboard Merchandise!! See the Sponsor Merchandise for more details.

Sponsors must adhere to the standard Baanboard.com Disclaimer statement and to the specific Sponsors Disclaimer statement.

Setup

Option 1: sponsor page listing

Description

This option entitles the sponsor a listing on the general Sponsors page page at www.baanboard.com. The Sponsors page can be accessed directly via link, which is shown on every page of the site.

An example of the Sponsors page:

Following items are placed on the Sponsors page for a sponsor:

• Sponsor logo: size max 402 pixels x 96 pixels, format JPEG
• Click-able link of URL to sponsor homepage
• Sponsor's business activities description: max. 15 lines (content is determined by sponsor)

sponsor listings and the location on the sponsors' page are allocated on a first-come first-serve basis.

Advantages

• Sponsors page is accessible from any page on the site
• Sponsor listing displays bigger sponsor logo
• Sponsor listing comprises click-able URL link
• Sponsor listing details sponsor's business activities

Option 2: forum category logo

Description

Forum category sponsoring allows a sponsor to place its company logo next to the header of a main forum category on the baanboard.com homepage. Currently the following main forum categories are present on www.baanboard.com:

• General Topics (discussion & chat, board questions)
• Baan Job Market (recruiters and job seekers)
• Baan Quick Support (covering all Baan modules)
• BB Language Forums
• Baan SIGs -- Special Interest Groups (e.g. EURO, archiving, source codes)
• Local User Groups and Software -- Home for local user groups and your place to talk about localized software components
• Various

The sponsor logo will visible on the main index page (home page) and forum index pages.

Requests for forum sponsoring will be dealt with on a first-come first-serve basis. Only 1 sponsor can be assigned to each forum category.

An example of a sponsored forum category:

Following items are placed next to the forum category header:

• Standard prefixed text of proudly supported by
• Sponsor logo: size max 94 pixels x 32 pixels, format transparent GIF 89a, logo is a click-able link to sponsor's URL.

Baanboard.com reserves the right to make alterations to the supplied logo for formatting and layout reasons. Sponsors should deliver their desired logo in vector format (Postscript or Adobe Illustrator)

Advantages

• Sponsor logo is instantly displayed on main index/home page
• Sponsor logo has a click-able URL link

Option 3: forum logo

Description

Forum logo sponsoring allows a sponsor to place its company logo next to the description of an individual forum on the baanboard.com homepage.

The sponsor logo will visible on the main index page/home page only.

Requests for forum sponsoring will be dealt with on a first-come first-serve basis. Only 1 sponsor can be assigned to each individual forum.

An example of a sponsored forum:

Following items are placed next to the forum description:

• Standard prefixed text of supported by
• Sponsor logo: size max 64 pixels x 22 pixels, format transparent GIF 89a, logo is a click-able link to sponsor's URL.

Baanboard.com reserves the right to make alterations to the supplied logo for formatting and layout reasons. Sponsors should deliver their desired logo in vector format (Postscript or Adobe Illustrator)

Advantages

• Sponsor logo is instantly displayed on main index (home page) and forum index page
• Sponsor is able to connect its logo to a forum that has a direct relationship to its own business.
• Sponsor logo has a click-able URL link

Reporting

Baanboard.com sponsors will have access to a set of on-line reports that will show the activity on the sponsor links from baanboard to your company website (click-through):

Currently 2 types of reports are available:

• forumhome/sponsorpage click-thru's: shows on a monthly and yearly basis the number of clicks originating from the sponsor page (see option 1) and from the forum home (see option 2).
• guests/members click-thru's: shows on a monthly and yearly basis the ratio between click-thru�s made by baanboard members and guests (non-registered or not-logged-in users).

The sponsor reports can be queried on-line at all times and are only accessible by authorized people: the baanboard.com administrators and a group of users designated by the sponsoring company.

Disclaimer

• Request approval: Baanboard.com reserves the right to accept or refuse the request of any organization to engage in the Sponsoring scheme(s).
• Data protection: sponsors will not receive direct access to the forum database unless specifically permitted by a Baanboard.com administrator. Baanboard.com runs a daily, single-point-in-time backup of its forum resources. Backups are stored both on-line (for fast recovery) and off-line for at least 30 days.
• User privacy: sponsors will not receive access to private information of the Baanboard.com members except for those informations publicly made available by members either through forum messages and/or user profiles.
• Information availability: Baanboard.com provides access to its forum resources at a 'best-effort' basis only. Baanboard.com cannot be held responsible for any type of unscheduled server/application downtime, network outages or any accidental loss of information including those caused by malicious hack attempts.
• Outages: Baanboard.com reserves the right to plan, schedule and execute hardware and software upgrades as it sees fit in order to ensure maximum availability and security of its resources. Scheduled outages will be announced by e-mail at least 2 working days in advance. Sponsors must provide at least 2 (technical) contacts to receive downtime notifications.
• Indemnifications: Baanboard.com will indemnify the sponsor in case of unscheduled outages by extending the duration of its contractual agreement with Baanboard.com for no extra charge for the amount of days the outage occurred. Under no circumstances will Baanboard.com provide financial refunds.
• Termination: at termination of the contract the logo and/or sponsor listing will be removed from its original locations. The statistics found in the sponsor reports will be saved and remain accessible to the authorized members.