How Simplanner successfully shifted her approach to Azure

Thousands of people use Simplanner every day. A planning tool that helps users keep on track of their (production) processes. And makes sure that everything meets the quality standards. The tool is not only used in Denmark, where Simplanner is situated, but also in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Ukraine, Norway and China.

With a clientele that widely spread, it is almost evident to have a cloud based solution. However, Simplanner only started to explore this path in 2019. “Before, we would travel across the country to show potential customers our tool. And thoroughly consult on options to make the customer’s work more time efficient. A valuable, time consuming approach. Which resulted in a high startup price”, explains web developer Michael Korsgaard from Simplanner.

Introduction to Azure

When the market shifted, Simplanner changed along with it. “Customers started to ask for an online version”, says Michael. Therefore, Simplanner introduced a new ‘do-it-yourself’ approach and three new pricing plans. In which customers start with the basic solution, and put in requests for extra features. In order to create this new, easily accessible and scalable version of the tool, Simplanner explored her hosting options.

Michael soon found out that hosting the tool on Azure, could be the solution. So he and his colleagues visited a presentation in Copenhagen, from Intercept. “Our main concern with Azure was that we needed to have an in-house expert. Who would spend all his time on the platform, instead of on our projects. But in the presentation we learned that Intercept does all of this for you.”

Advisor and safety net

With his concerns taken away, Michael was ready to dive into the world of Azure. But first he needed to pick a fitting pricing model. And that wasn’t as easy as it seemed. “It was like they were just showing me random numbers. I had no idea what I was going to pay each month”, Michael explains. “So I wrote to Intercept. They offered me three options. One of them was the best solution for now, another was already a good solution for the future.”

Then it was time to move the first customer to Azure. “We thought: how hard can it be to copy the server? So we did it ourselves. That didn’t go as planned. We ended up corrupting their server. We were panicking. Luckily Intercept was able to help. They saved our asses”, says Michael. “Intercept is now our safety net, when it comes to Azure.”

Advantages and aspirations

With Azure in place, Simplanner’s customers do not have to host the tool themselves anymore. “That pleases our customers, as well as other benefits such as backups and accessibility. Now production managers can see from home that everyone is doing their jobs. Which is a big advantage in this time of Corona.”

Simplanner plans to move more and more customers to Azure. Michael: “In 2022 more than half of our income will come from our solution in Azure. Eventually 95 percent of our customers will end up in Azure. The final 5 percent are organizations that have policies against the use of online solutions.”

“If it wasn’t for Intercept, we would not have gone for a cloud solution at all, they were our guiding hand. Their help and advice has been tremendous. To have that security and partnership is priceless.” Michael Tot Korsgaard Web Developer at SimplannerMichael Tot Korsgaard Web Developer at Simplanner

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