We're on Android now!

Hi friends,

We're excited about the launch of Karpool on the Android platform today! The team is pleased to announce their first android release - Karpool 1.0.1 which will bring the car-pooling initiative of Korpool even closer to your fingertips! Now you can set/view your schedule, search for other karpoolers in your city and view your Korpool profile through this app.

We have focused on simplicity of design and efficient use of network bandwidth. As such, the program has no background services (which would have led to hidden consumption of processor/battery as well as network resources) and has very simple menus/sections that will help you glide through the app. This light-weight app has been engineered to use minimal resources and deliver optimal performance so that you actually enjoy it :)

Download: Open the below link in your android browser to download and install. Alternatively, you can download the file to your PC, copy to the phone's SD card memory and open to install. Click on  this link to download.

Note

The user needs to have a Korpool profile to start using this app. Going further, the app will also permit a new user to register on Korpool through the app. As of now, if the user does not have a Korpool profile prior to using this app, he/she would need to goto the Korpool website and create one. Click here to register on Korpool today!

Walkthrough

       When the app loads for the first time, you need to set your username & password in the preferences screen. Once entered, the app will save it and use these credentials everytime you open the app, until you reset the credentials at a later point in time.

      Each time you set/reset the login credentials or restart the app, you will see this screen which is when the app tries to connect to the Korpool server and attempt a login. If login is successful, the home screen shown in this image will display you Korpool name (instead of the text "Please set login credentials in preferences and login."). 

     This is the home screen. Most menus and buttons on the home screen will not be accessible unless you login. However, the preferences and about screens will be accessible in either case.

     This is the search screen that helps you search for karpoolers in your city. You can perform a search for two adjacent days - current date and next date. This is to reduce the chances of members setting a permanent schedule and cancelling at the last minute. While the date field is required, the From, To and Mode fields are optional. If matching karpoolers are found, the app will redirect to the search results screen.

     The about screen gives a brief introduction of the app and about the concept of Karpool & Korpool. Clicking on the website/blog will redirect the user to the respective webpages. Clicking on the email id will open up the phone's email client.

Android Market
The app is not available on the android market as yet because the market levies a heavy joining fee which we can't afford at the moment. As such, users have to download the app from the Korpool website link given at the beginning of this article.


Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all our friends and members who have dropped in their ideas and helped us bring the Corporate Pooling idea to this stage. We are grateful to our patrons who have tested the website and/or app and helped us refine the concept over and over again. With  your help, we strive to continue to do so. Thank you all!

Regards,

Team Korpool

Korpool explained

The WHAT

Korpool is a concept born out of the need for a restricted medium of communication between the employees of different companies in a city. Korpool is to bulletin boards, what LinkedIn is to Facebook. It restricts content creators to corporates from select companies across select cities which creates a network of a corporate audience for you to reach out to. It is a homogenous community of employees from multiple firms with similar needs and problems. It promotes sharing of information in the form of classifieds that lets you find, for starters, buyers/sellers for your new/used items. But that is not all that Korpool is; it is a corporate pooling network that lets you post classifieds about jobs, apartment rentals/offers/purchases, find buyers for your car/mobiles/apparels/books/furniture/gadgets and anything that you don’t need. Just as car-pooling is a solution to a greener planet, so is ‘Corporate Pooling’. Now each time you buy a new gadget, you don’t need to dump the existing used yet very much functional gadget into unreachable corners of your wardrobe – recycle it, resell it – join the Corporate Pooling effort!

The WHY

The team behind Korpool hit upon the idea of a corporate pooling network when they faced logistical issues related to relocation. The team has been quite mobile thanks to their hectic work responsibilities and each member has been through the ordeal of relocating to a new city alteast once over the past few months. While dragging themselves through the unrelenting Sun & dust, from one broker to another during their weekend quest for an apartment, the team came across a group of guys working in another firm in the city. They got chatting and turns out – the group hadn’t yet found tenants for their current apartment. As a result of simple interaction and information sharing between these two groups from two different companies, our friends were able to rent an apartment without any more hassles and moreover – no sunk cost in the form of a heartache rendering brokerage! Plus, due to recommendations from these current tenants, they even clinched a bargain on the deposit!

It’s amazing how simple experiences can inspire a novel idea, if we are just looking for one. Some companies have an internal bulletin board/discussion forum medium that allows employees to post classifieds in their search for jobs/apartment rentals or even reviews about new products/schemes. Korpool identified the need to take this one step further and create an inter-company online community as opposed to the existing intra-company media.

Our concept has received validation in the form of the exhilarating response that we have received since the inception of this concept. Korpool boasts of more than a thousand members with more joining us everyday and more than a hundred classifieds already!

The WHO

Korpool is short for “CORPorate POOLing network”. We often get asked as to why Korpool begins with a K as opposed to a C if it stands for Corporate. Synonymous to the simplicity behind the idea of Korpool, the reason for this lies in the restrictions of the domain hosting world – the domain “corpool” was already taken by another firm and so we had to christen our concept as Korpool J

What differentiates Korpool from other domains for classifieds is its membership criteria. Membership is restricted to 'select' 'companies' in your city. So you are connected to corporates whose identities are verified. This ensures that brokers and other individuals with commercial interests do not clutter the network with ADs about their offers and services. How many times have you searched for something in commercial bulletin boards like Sulekha.com, only to find out in the end that the seller is a broker who will charge you fees for even visiting the apartment? 

So as an apartment hunter, lets say, whether you are looking for tenants who are working in reputed companies or are looking for accommodation in an area where most bachelors working in similar companies stay, Korpool is the network for you!

The HOW

Before you join the Corporate Pooling Network, we need to verify your identity. We need to ensure that you are working for one of the Korpool identified firms. This step is crucial to the integrity of the network. We don’t want brokers/traders getting through in sheep’s clothing now do we? To confirm your identity, Korpool sends a registration code to your official email id. Using this code, you can then complete registration and create your Korpool profile.

At no point in time, is your official email id shared with other members or used by Korpool for contacting you. Please refer to the faq for complete explanation on how Korpool treats your official email id.

Korpool has uploaded extensive details about its processes in the faq, privacy policy and terms of agreement on the website. We have left no stone unturned into ensuring that you have complete control over your privacy.

Why should you join Korpool

• Links you to like-minded corporates in your city
• Get to know about jobs directly from a company employee (job referrals) and get referred for the profiles, thus increasing your chances of successfully converting a job interview
• Find individuals with a penchant for similar gadgets & trade with them
• Its FREE! No Brokers, no fees! It’s just you and your corporate audience. We created Korpool because we simply had the talent and resources to bring the idea to life! It's as simple as that.
• Go green; each time you pass on your used mobile/apparels/furniture or car-pool, you are saving another tree from being mowed down or another lot of harmful chemicals being irresponsibly disposed into our environment.

So come join us at the fast growing Corporate Pooling Network. As a responsible eco-caring corporate you started carpooling; now, reduce your carbon footprint further through Korpooling . Click here to get started!

Regards,

Team Korpool

Email: support@korpool.com

Introducing Korpool

Korpool is a new service that launched some time ago and was in a stealth mode for some time while we tested it with select people. Now, we have decided to showcase it to the world. It's an elegant solution to a problem which many face, but are hesitant to discuss. 

Corporations have internal social networks, which are strictly private to the employees and have a strict code of conduct. Sometimes freely expressing one's views on such intra-corporation networks costs employees their jobs. What if the employees of the company wish to freely communicate without worrying about their employers eavesdropping? One solution is using external social networks, but Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are too large and too open a networks to be entrusted with such a responsibility. There are just too many unknown and untrustworthy people out there. There is a need for a solution which is pro-employee.

Korpool is our attempt at solving this problem. We want employees from different corporations to trust worthily communicate with each other about anything, like buy/sell, befriending people from other corporations whom you can trust on their identity, leveraging referral programs, looking for alternate employment, carpooling for employees from same neighborhood etc., you name it and you can do it on Korpool; it's open communication with real people from corporations similar to yours. Korpool verifies each member for their identity. Though Korpool is for now open for employees of select companies, we are fast expanding and adding new features. Our engineering and marketing team is hard at work for allowing official yet private communication between people of same careers, but different cultures and employers.

We recommend you to give it a try. Access Korpool and request a sign up. Please feel free to leave a feedback onfacebook and follow us on Twitter.

Thanks,

Team Korpool

Email: support@korpool.com