Meet our Tenants: Simoda

We sat down with Daniel and Jason, directors of Simoda, to find out more about the business and why they chose to locate themselves at Sheffield Technology Parks.   

What is Simoda?

Simoda stands for Simplify, Modernise, Accelerate. We provide data intelligence and digital transformation solutions and services, to both IT and business leaders, that help them get the most of out their data and move towards ‘Cloud’.

Who makes up the Simoda team?

We (Daniel and Jason) have known and worked with each other for around 15 years and decided to form the business together about a year ago - we’ve now been a company since April.

In addition to the two of us we also have an Operations Director (John) and a very experienced Chairman (Craig). We also have a raft of additional partners within our business.  Another member of the team is Tom, who works for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) - to enable Cloud for businesses we work with an ISP directly. We also have a software developer joining us in February who will be working on software implementation projects, design projects and ERP solutions. 

So, all in all there are currently five of us, soon to be six ! 

What makes Simoda different to other companies who offer similar services?

We’re a small team, so we’re agile. What makes us different is that we learn what technologies our clients need for their challenges, issues and objectives, rather than finding a technology and trying to make it fit our clients.

What are you working on at the moment?

We are currently working on a digital transformation project for a department of the NHS, the project is to enable mobile working and access to cloud services in a secure manner. The ‘modernise’ part of our name is huge in terms of this project. For example, we are modernising the workflow, what they do, how they work and how they operate as an organisation, in addition to how data flows through that business. 

How did you end up at STP and how are you finding it?

I (Daniel) did some work with Sheffield Digital, and after chatting to Chris Dymond, Co-Founder and Director at Sheffield Digital, about needing office space, he gave me Tom’s details.

After meeting with Tom and seeing the location of the building, it just felt right! We wanted to be right in the centre of Sheffield and be part of the whole tech community. But the critical part about being in the centre was to be able to access different events and network with other businesses.

It’s been great working here; we’ve enjoyed working with Tom and everyone has been really welcoming. Although we’ve faced several business challenges, STP has been really good to us.

Any plans for the future?

We’re passionate about continuing to enjoy working and making it fun. We both come from businesses which stopped being fun a long time before we left. We’ve got to the point where we’ve got the opportunity to do something for ourselves that we enjoy, and we want to continue that. We’re keen to bring people in, and use their energy, to perpetuate that.

Being located at STP means we’re across the road from the university, an idea for the future is to be taking on the new students and getting them involved in software development. That’s the direction we want to be going in!

In that last six months we’ve changed direction several times through outside influences and I’m sure that will happen again in the next six months. We’re just going to roll with it and enjoy it.