Simple Products for Complicated Lives
October 6, 2003

By James Klein, Larta VOX Editor

Writing teachers tell their students to "write what you know," to draw their stories from experiences in their own lives. Entrepreneurs should be told the same thing, to think of the problems they need to solve in their own lives and come up with solutions everyone can use.

Tareq Risheq, Simpliciti's CEO, came up with the idea for his company's Home OrganizerTM product as a solution to real problems in his own life. He was holding his youngest child at the time, when the phone rang. He needed to take a message, and couldn't find a pen or paper. While shuffling through a mess of papers on his home desk, the idea for a simple electronic organizer was born.

"Most of us discuss the need for simplifying and organizing our lives," said Risheq. "The Home OrganizerTM is a great way to actually make it happen."

Many companies have thrown overly complicated and expensive products at this problem -- products that most people can't afford or would find difficult to use. His idea was for a device the whole family can easily use that costs less than one hundred dollars.

"There are no affordable consumer electronic products today that a family can use to get organized," continued Risheq. "Home OrganizerTM is so simple to use that everyone in the family immediately benefits."

Simpliciti's flagship products, the Home OrganizerTM, which is currently available, and the Home Organizer PlusTM, which will soon be available, are targeted to the more than one hundred million families who want to be more organized. It is the first compact, electronic organizer designed for multiple users, such as a busy family.

The products bridge the gap between expensive, business-oriented handheld personal digital assistants and single-user, tiny screen electronic organizers. The devices allow up to five people to share all organizer functions, such as scheduling, phone, shopping and to-do lists. For example, a master schedule can be updated by all users so that conflicts can be quickly noted. Microsoft Outlook users can easily import their events into the family schedule through a PC synch.

The Home OrganizerTM also features an attachable printer for convenient printing of family schedules, shopping lists, phone numbers, etc. The Home Organizer PlusTM will include Voice Notes, an integrated Phone Dialer and the Home Organizer CompanionTM, an optional credit card-sized device with a touch screen for easy input and display that synchronizes data with the main unit.

At 5 ½ inches x 9 ½ inches (5 ½ inches x 12 ½ inches with printer), the Home OrganizerTM can easily be carried around the house, used on the kitchen counter top, the kitchen table, or mounted on the wall. The eight-line screen is larger than organizers and PDAs and the type is large enough to easily read without eye strain. The Home OrganizerTM adheres to strict "one-button simplicity", giving users quick and easy access to their information.

The products have received many favorable reviews since their introduction in January, 2003. Handheld Computing magazine featured the Home Organizer PlusTM in its February/March 2003 issue. "Remember 3Com's Audrey, one of the many casualties of the "Internet Appliance" era?" wrote Handheld Computing. "At least one aspect of the idea was sound: give everyone in the family an electronic gathering point, a place to store schedules, phone numbers, notes, and shopping lists. Simpliciti has taken that idea and, well, simplified it. The aptly named Home Organizer PlusTM is a wall-mountable, PDA style device designed specifically to help families stay organized."

In January, 2003, Time Magazine included the Home OrganizerTM in its "Hot Housewares" section. "Folks who never saw the need for a Palm Pilot but could still use more order around the house might like the $90 Home Organizer PlusTM from Simpliciti," wrote Time. "The size of a wall-mounted phone, it features over size buttons that make it easy to enter grocery lists, reminders and phone messages."

Simpliciti's Home OrganizerTM was chosen by 2003 CES International for the "Technology is a Girl's Best Friend" showcase, which displays products that help make women's lives easier, more connected, more secure, more organized and more entertaining.

The Orange County Register included the Home OrganizerTM in its review of the Consumer Electronics Show. "This was designed by women for women," said Ruth Doering, Simpliciti's vice president of marketing in the Orange County Register article, which also reported that a Discovery Store representative had stopped by the Simpliciti booth to ask whether the company could have products ready in time for Mother's Day.

Good Housekeeping chose the Home Organizer for its "Smart Gifts" list in their November, 2003 issue.

From this first product idea came the concept for Tareq Risheq's whole company. Simpliciti, Inc. evolves all its products around the "Simpliciti Promise": to make family-oriented electronic devices that are practical, easy-to-use, and affordable. The company is committed to providing products that customers can learn to use in a couple minutes and that will pay for themselves over and over again in the time and money they save users. Simpliciti has several more accessories and follow-on products in the planning and development stage.

Simpliciti is led by an exceptional team with more than eighty years of retail experience representing multiple product launches and close to a billion dollars in sales. The company employs an outsourced business model, which allows them to maintain very low fixed overhead costs, and uses proven technologies that result in affordable price points and controlled R&D costs. By targeting its products to overlooked market segments, the company minimizes competition and maximizes margins.

The company's sales and marketing team works closely with its manufacturing and distribution groups, so products can come to market in a shorter and more cost-efficient manner. Total time from design to market has been much shorter, and with lower costs, than other similar consumer product offerings.

The company's marketing strategy leverages women's expanding role in the purchase and use of technology. Simpliciti's branding efforts, including its tagline, "Your day just got easier", positions the company to provide innovative products that help women manage information in practical ways.

Simpliciti can be contacted through Rocky Springstead, their representative at Fidelys, an investment banking and corporate advisory services company, at 213 765-4832 or rspringstead@fidelys.net.

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