Help for using defpro.com

§1 About us

A really short introduction

defpro.com offers individuals, companies and organisations as well as conferences and trade shows multiple opportunities for a first class presentation inside the international defence and security community. But defpro.com is more than “just” leaving an entry in the yellow pages. There are a lot of interactive tools that single users as well as organisations can easily use in order to enlarge their network and intensify their business relations.

So just take a few minutes to learn more about the innovative defpro.com features.

What is defpro.com all about?

The internet-based defence & security business network defpro has grown into the leading professional online network platform of the entire branch. Defence professionals use defpro.com to find useful contacts, important information, new business opportunities, employees and ideas. The platform is run by Germany-based defence.professionals GmbH.

The defpro platform can be accessed all over the world via Internet, all smart phones including the iPhone, PDAs and Blackberrys.

Who is the platform aimed at?

defpro.com is aimed at entrepreneurs, decision makers, leading professionals, freelancers of defence related industry, associations, communication agencies, event organisers, research institutes, ministries, procurement, military and media.

How members benefits from defpro

defpro.community is used predominantly for effective searching for new business partners, initiating new business contacts, opening up new markets, finding partnership opportunities and for setting up and managing existing business relations.

Beyond that defpro.daily and defpro.news are one of the main used defence related intelligence resource on the globe.

defpro.index is the first interactive defence business directory with hundreds of companies, associations and official organisations. Members can benefit from the high quality index.profiles delivering detailed corporate information including the organisation’s trade fair participations, connected members and press releases.

defpro.confairs offers a complete listing of all relevant trade fairs and conferences of the defence branch. Members can connect themselves to a specific event and so manage to build their network, also far from the office.

defpro.groups offers multilingual groups and forums and give members access to industry-specific expertise and allow them to exchange ideas and perspectives. Members can start up and moderate their own group and thus share their interests with an open or personally defined user cluster.

What defpro offer

defpro.com provides its members with a social infrastructure and other applications needed to enable professional networking. defpro is an open network, meaning that members benefit from its full business potential.

defence.professionals GmbH operates in full compliance with the strict data protection and privacy regulations set by the European Commission and the German Law.

§2 My defpro: Your first steps

Registration

After you confirmed your registration you were redirected to your my.defpro page. This page is literally your “headquarter” at defpro.com. Complete or edit you profile data here in order to be searchable for possible business contacts.

Network

Your network consits of persons you have added to your network. You can view and manage your direct contacts here.

Groups

After pressing the “groups” button, you will see which groups you have actually joined and manage your memberships. Open a group by clicking the “Groups” button at the top of the page. After that you can easily open up an own group according to a topic which you are interested in.

Appointments

defpro.com offers you to link your profile to specific trade shows and conferences so you can signalise possible business partners that you are there and ready to “meet”. Therefore you simply have to visit the specific trade show or conference profile at defpro.confairs and link yourself to it by clicking the “I’ll be at” button. You can add comments to these appointments which will be visible to the community. Feel free to create your own appointments (e.g. press conference, etc.) and make it public.

Career

You can easily add military or/and civil stations of your career to your profile here.

Account

Here you can view your current membership status. Whit registering at defpro.com we gave you a free premium account so you can test all advantages of our new platform. This premium membership will expire and converted into a free basic membership automatically . You don’t have to do anything and – of course – will not be charged.

Messages

Here you can find your message center. You can easily read and reply to messages that have been sent to you.

Memberships

You can link your profile to your companies/organisations or associations profile. Therefore, just search for the specific entry at defpro.index. Then press the button “I’m a member of this company/organisation”. An employees request will be sent to those responsible. If your request will be confirmed the logo and name of your company/organisation will be displayed at your profile and at the premium profile of your employer or association.

§3 Data security

Is the security of my data guaranteed?

Use of the platform is made secure with 128 bit SSL encryption. defpro treats all user data in the utmost confidence in line with strict European data protection guidelines and German law and guarantees that this data will not be transfered to third parties.

Personal contact details

All defpro premium members can view your personal information. However, this information is not visible to any third parties.

How can I report unwanted messages on defpro?

§4 Search features

How does the search feature work?

defpro.community, defpro.daily, defpro.news, defpro.index, defpro.confairs, and defpro.groups all have a separated search function on the respective entry page. Different search boxes offer specific search options as well as keyword search. The results returned are precisely those which contain the terms you searched for. Using the Advanced Search button, you can search in specific categories, such as Last name, Title, Company, Country, etc. You can also combine a search for specific keywords with a search in specific categories.

As with the Search box, the Advanced Search scans for all terms you enter. In effect, this means that if you enter four search criteria, and a profile contains only three of these four, it will not appear in the search results.

§5 Information about your network

What exactly is my network on defpro and how do I manage them?

The sheer number of defpro members makes it very likely that you will find many of your business partners, co-workers, customers and service providers from your everyday working life on defpro. Try out the community feature and find out which people from your business and friendship circles have already registered on defpro.

You can add other members as a contact. A contact only becomes active once the person you have added as a contact confirms this contact. In the same way, somebody may add you as a contact, which you then have to confirm in order to create this contact. You will receive a message from every contact request you received. Contacts can either be confirmed or denied. Their status is "unconfirmed" so long as the contact remains one-sided.

You can build up an extensive network of contacts in this way. The contact paths are displayed on the profile of the user you wish to contact. You can see very clearly here, just how many "degrees" really separate you from this person.

How can I add someone as a contact?

You can add any member of defpro to your contacts. Click on the "Add this person to your network" button in the top right-hand corner of the member's profile.

How can I manage my network and delete one of my contacts?

You will find all your confirmed contacts in my defpro > network. Select the "Delete” option next to the contact to delete this member from your network list. The deleted contact will not be notified as a result.

What happens if I delete a contact?

If you delete a contact, the connection path will be deleted for both parties involved. In other words, you will no longer appear in their network list, and the deleted contact will no longer be listed in your network.

§6 How to get yourself found

How do I enter terms correctly?

Under my defpro > profile you can add any information to your personel profile. Having more information on your profile allows other members to find you using the search engines.

§7 How to expand your network

What are the advantages of recommending defpro to others?

As soon as you have fully registered you can begin building up your own network. Recommend defpro to your contacts. Invite business partners and friends you know will benefit from the networking features provided by defpro as well. Introduce your business partners to specific existing contacts. Add people to your network who attach importance to professional networking.

How can I recommend defpro to others?

Invitations can be made directly via the platform by email or by using the personal invitation link on the starting page in the upper right-hand corner.

§8 8. More help needed