January marked the beginning of something exciting. Simpliconnect joined forces with Ackroo: a loyalty marketing, payments, and point-of-sale tech and services provider. 

The acquisition was officially complete at the beginning of 2023 and, ever since, both companies have been working at ensuring it is a seamless transition.

However (and understandably) change can be scary, and brought with questions and unknowns. Well, being a few months into this transition, we wanted to ease any unknowns. 

We spoke with Steve Levely, CEO of Ackroo, and Brent Harms, previous Founder and CEO of Simpliconnect, now VP of Sales and Marketing for Ackroo, about what this acquisition means for both businesses and more importantly - you as our client.

Q: Why did Ackroo see Simpliconnect as a company they’d want to acquire?

Steve: We saw a great opportunity to stabilize and optimize their business through our operations leading to a better experience for their growing clients.  We were eager to further expand our business in the US through a vertical like convenience and petroleum that we have seen success with here in Canada.  We saw many ways Ackroo’s current offerings like Gift cards, Payments and even our loyalty marketing solutions combined with our focus on data and self-serve tools can really enhance their current offerings leading to better success for our merchants and our business.    

Q: Brent - how did you feel about Simpliconnect moving to Ackroo?

Brent: I felt the move to Ackroo was a great fit for Simpliconnect, both from a product offering as well as a team/culture fit.  

“We saw a great opportunity to stabilize and optimize their business through our operations leading to a better experience for their growing clients.” - Steve Levely, CEO of Ackroo

Q: What benefits did you see with Simpliconnect being acquired by Ackroo?

Brent: We can offer a broader set of product offerings as well as leverage the deeper set of skills and experience of the Ackroo staff to build and improve our solution for clients.  In addition, with Ackroo's strong background in adjacent industries like restaurants and other product offerings like AckrooPay, our clients will see new tools and solutions that will improve the products that Simpliconnect offers, and also address their growing need for support of food ordering and payment processing.

Q: Steve - what benefits can Ackroo bring to Simpliconnect and its clients?

Steve: Ackroo brings a larger team, financial stability and a large focus on transparency and simplicity that we believe the clients will benefit from as well.  

Q: Are there any changes the Simpliconnect clients will feel/see over the next year during this transition?

Steve:  The first half of the year will be spent on normalizing the financial and general operations of the business while the second half will be focused on optimizing the product and client experience.  Clients will have already seen changes like the removal of advanced monthly deposits and pricing standardization and a larger support staff infrastructure leading to more frequent communication to better support their growing needs.

Q: Brent - what impacts do you see the clients will experience over the next year?

Brent: They will continue to see and hear from several of their current client support team, so no big changes there. To complement that, they will be introduced to some new faces and staff dedicated to supporting their program and ultimately,  achieving greater results from their program.     

“Our clients will see new tools and solutions that will improve the products that Simpliconnect offers.” - Brent Harms, previous Founder and CEO of Simpliconnect, now VP of Sales and Marketing for Ackroo.

Q: Looking to the future - where are you hoping to take the Simpliconnet product? What does the future look like for Simpliconnect?

Steve: We are in the early stages of product planning however as we combine the platforms we see areas like mobile, data, expanded rules and integrations, self-serve tools and expanded CPG offers as the low hanging fruit to focus on.

Brent:  As the year unfolds, the clients will begin to see critical enhancements to our current product as well as new offerings. [Plus]  continued focus on expanded support of scan data solutions, new CPG support options, and enhancements to our mobile app solution; to name a few.