With several posts now on the ‘What’ of Simplaris, you may now be wondering about the ‘Why’ and ‘How’.

Technology is undergoing a period of accelerated change. Software delivered on-demand over the Internet, often called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Web 2.0, has made small business technologies more intuitive and better at solving real-world problems. In turn, it’s widening the gap between these solutions and their underlying technological components so that the end user, who ultimately benefits, needs to worry less about the ‘nuts and bolts’ behind the scenes.

To quote a fantastic blog post by Mike McDerment, CEO of FreshBooks, a leading SaaS application provider, “SAAS is a great model for so many reasons (access from anywhere, automatic updates, outsourcing of security, uptime and backups…), but one reason I think it’s so much better than any form of software delivery before it is that the delivery model itself breeds better software.”

Furthermore, ‘Web 2.0′ has reached a level of maturity where great web-based products already exist to solve most business problems. The challenge for the small business owner, however, is that these solutions usually come in small packages, so a level of technical expertise is still required to coordinate them all. Each individual product and service must be researched and ultimately sourced from many different places, and custom programming is typically required to make them work together.

While developing the Simplaris concept, it resonated strongly for us that a significant gap still exists between technology offerings and the real needs of typical small businesses. Tech companies are aggressively competing to offer more features at a lower price when, for the small business owner, practical applicability, a simple user experience, trust and support trump features, technology and price. Microsoft Office and QuickBooks are just two examples of products that experienced massive success early on by bridging this gap “offline”.

Simplaris, on the other hand, is all about simplicity – more specifically – simplifying the technology user experience. We set out to find ways to help small businesses leverage their good ideas into great companies by bridging this gap online and aligning our offerings with the real needs of small business: saving time, marketing to a global audience, operating productively and profitably, and growing. Additionally, we wanted more personalized service and less ‘geek-speak‘, cost and complexity.

Our vision of a new level of maturity for Web 2.0 delivers a comprehensive suite of easy-to-use, business-friendly solutions that small businesses really need – from website development software, web page builders and basic accounting software to e-commerce Internet solutions, customized marketing solutions, higher search engine rankings and project management tools – all through a centralized system and a single relationship with a real person, and for a low monthly fee. For more information, check out our short video.

Back in late 2007, we asked 400 small business owners in the US and Canada for their feedback on the Simplaris brand and concept, with fantastic results and helpful direction.

Simplaris

Identifying the need for a product is satisfying. Conceptualization is exciting. But the greatest reward comes when it jumps off the drawing board and onto your monitor. Then you know it’s real.

The initial stages of Simplaris involved a flurry of research, market testing, brand and collateral development, intellectual property protection, project planning, establishing key partner relationships, and initial promotional, community and awareness efforts (including a brand video, this Launch Blog, social media activity and sponsorships). Cramming into one sentence the work done over the past year is a bit like squeezing 40 clowns into a compact car. It’s an impressive feat that shouldn’t be underestimated, but it’s merely background to the main event; the realization of Simplaris.

Actual software development began in July, 2008 with the design and development of the product architecture. This included the web-based interface, account and data synchronization among all the components of the Simplaris offering -

- in addition to the database, internal CRM, analytics and billing systems. The development environment (code version control, documentation systems and a functional testing framework) was also implemented.

We then began work on the core of Simplaris’ offering and the focal point of development to-date: the Business Acceleration Dashboard (or ‘Dashboard’ for short).

The Dashboard is a ‘business-friendly’ hub from which Simplaris’ customers will be able to centrally access their comprehensive suite of SaaS business solutions. Designed to look and feel like a familiar ‘desktop’, it features intuitive drag-and-drop interaction with the interface, providing inherent flexibility to customize screen real estate according to individual workflow. Additionally, with powerful tools like the Getting Started checklist, Account Status bubble, personalized Business Acceleration Report Card, video tutorials and your PIC just a click away, the Dashboard is far from a technical administration tool. Rather, it’s a dedicated ‘home base’ for small business owners and team members to manage and grow their business.

The following slideshow offers a glimpse at the progress of Simplaris development to-date:

We are very excited to be able to share our progress over the past several months, and will be sure to provide further updates as each day brings us a step closer to realizing the vision of freedom from technology for small businesses.

Simplaris began because of the desire of a technology company to be, well, less about technology. We wanted to find new ways to help small businesses succeed on their own terms, and focus on their true passion and expertise, by utilizing new technology to its fullest while freeing them from its complexities.

The company that Simplaris is built upon is LFC Hosting, established in 1996 to provide rational online technology solutions. Headquartered in Canada, LFC serves 10,000 small businesses in over 70 countries worldwide. It’s profitable, award-winning and has an ever expanding following of loyal customers, but that only served to inspire us to do more for the businesses we work with every day. Because, most importantly, LFC is an ever-evolving business that’s focused on the work and highly passionate about what we do.

To quote modern marketing guru Seth Godin:

The challenge for organizations is this: the easiest projects to start and fund are those that go after existing icons. The search for the “next” is easy to explain and exciting to join because we can visualize the benefits. But success keeps going to people who build new icons, not to those that seek to replace the most successful existing ones.

And so Simplaris was born. Simplaris represents our vision to leverage our core expertise and experience in online technology, web hosting and understanding small business needs, while reinventing our brand to give small businesses a distinct advantage through the wide availability of on-demand software.

Stay tuned for more on the evolution of Simplaris.

Rob Sauchyn
Simplaris

In May ‘08, The Toronto Star published a fascinating article citing the results of a 2007 Dell survey of twelve countries (Canada, U.S., France, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Brazil, China, Britain, Japan, Germany and India) related to their small business technology needs.

On a broad level, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are coming into their own, currently representing one-third of the global market and growing. They’re aware of technology, with 66% acknowledging that IT is extremely important to their business and 88% of small business experts believing that SMB owners would reap financial benefits from greater awareness of their IT options.

The majority agree IT is important, but a real ‘day in the life’ of an SMB owner is typically anything but simple on the technology landscape. SMBs generally possess the basic hardware, with over 91% of US-based small businesses recording the use of computers. However, hardware without effective and efficient software is useless. Software needs may seem manageable at first:

Then the business grows larger and an employee is hired who also needs the same software:

Time passes, and new editions come out at an incremental cost.

New needs develop, more employees are hired, collaboration and coordination challenges compound, new software is published and the cycle snowballs. Questions come from all directions; people need centralized access to the company’s resources and each other’s work, and there just isn’t the time to research each new technology direction to determine the right next steps for the business.

Technology can be one of the greatest financial, time and management burdens that the SMB owner will encounter, and running software on individual desktops creates overly complicated, fragmented systems that tie each employee to a specific computer.

How Can the Cycle Be Broken?

On-demand software or software-as-a-service (SaaS) has entered the technology arena in response to this problem. As Ridgely Evers, Founder and Chairman of NetBooks explains in his blog post, “SaaS is one of those marvelous things that’s nearly 100% upside. It is far more secure, and far easier to manage, than desktop software, and the fact that it lives on the Internet means that you can use it from anywhere. Best of all, it can tie together everyone in an organization, no matter where they are or what they do.” The software is centrally housed, and the service provider takes care of everything including maintenance, upgrades, etc. The SMB only pays a small licensing fee each month for the latest version of the solution, eliminating the up-front investment.

The next evolution to bridge the gap for SMB owners is the Personal Internet Consultant (PIC). Much like it sounds, a PIC provides guidance on how to get the most out of your time and IT dollar along with advice on next steps to optimize your business’ marketing and performance in the online arena. The PIC and SaaS eliminate two of the greatest impediments to SMB owners; cost and command of the technology. With both taken care of, the SMB owner has a head start in maximizing their growth and return through the use of technology.

You’re not alone and there is a solution.

Simplaris

“Less is more” has never been as relevant as it is today. As a company, we at Simplaris believe in delivering needs-based services with an emphasis on business value over pushing technology, features and price.

That is why when our marketing team discovered what was known as ‘Flog Blog’, a simple and effective application we could use to deliver our blog content to Facebook, we immediately became fans. When Flog Blog guru Jeff Wiens was looking for a sponsorship home for his product, we jumped onboard because it was important to us that this service remained available for those who value well planned and efficiently executed products that do exactly what you would expect.

Today, we are pleased to support Simplaris Blogcast, and through our sponsorship provide a means for its continual development and operation. Since our involvement, the popularity of Simplaris Blogcast has increased from 12,000 to 50,000 users which is a testament to the product that we not only support as a company but use ourselves!

For more information or support, please visit http://blogcast.simplaris.com