Crowdsourcing has been big news for a few years now. A lot of business ventures and entire businesses have got their start from crowdsourced funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, while other businesses get large and tedious admin tasks done quickly and efficiently by members of “the crowd” contributing a little work each. But still other businesses have got very creative in offering useful crowdsourced services, such as crowdsourced testing services for software, and these can be both interesting and useful for businesses and individuals alike. Crowdsourcing is one in which you can fund a startup business or perhaps a particular project but it is important to consult with your Cheltenham accountants to ensure that you are choosing the best option for your business. Randall and payne are accountants in cheltenham who can help with a variety of your accounting needs.
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Some of the more interesting and more useful alternative uses of crowdsourcing include:
Crowdsourced Software Testing
Software businesses benefit a lot from thorough testing. Otherwise, even major companies can have releases that are nothing short of disastrous. Bugs are not good for the usability of software, and this consideration is arguably more relevant now than it has been for a long time following the rise of the mobile app and the wave of small and independent developers trying to make a name for themselves in this fairly new area.
Companies such can find and eliminate bugs in code. Instead of relying on one or two testers, they put code before the crowd to offer a faster, more thorough and more effective debugging service. When many eyes are examining and testing a piece of software, it is a lot harder for bugs to hide.
Crowdsourced Property Investment
Investment is something that appeals to individuals and businesses alike in order to make the most of capital, with varying levels of risk, and it is the primary activity of many businesses in the financial sector. Property is one of the more popular kinds of investment at present, but it is out of reach of many individuals and smaller businesses because the cost of a property is so high. Perhaps surprisingly, this is another problem that some businesses have started to tackle through crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourced property investment is essentially a form of crowdfunding. However, instead of funding business ventures in exchange for rewards, people club together with contributions of as little as £500 to fund the purchase and refurbishment of a property. The property will then be let out for a time and resold, with profits distributed among the crowd according to their original contributions.