Peoria's Leap Frog Solutions

'unites the geeks'

By Ben Lambert
TimesNewspapers

December 22, 2004

In the ‘90s, companies bought semis when they needed bicycles, said 27-year-old Robert Delano, president and co-founder of Leap Frog Solutions (www.LeapFrogNow.com).

The landscape of business has changed in the past 10 years. Today, companies can barely afford the proverbial bicycle, but Bruce Padmore and Delano said they want to help business discover that it might be all they need, while providing secure jobs for information technology employees at the same time.

“A long time ago, I realized that technology can take people anyplace they want to go. Unfortunately, I observed people have a hard time determining where they need to be,” Padmore said.

A former student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Padmore describes himself as a chronic, serial entrepreneur. He started seven companies, including the multi-national EchoMail that managed and analyzed email for large companies.
“If you sent an email to a big corporation, chances are it passed through one of my servers,” said Padmore, who claimed Nike, AT&T and the United States government as clients.

Padmore retired in 2000. Delano graduated from Georgia Tech and fixed computers for the school. Employed by Caterpillar Inc., their wives brought the pair to Peoria. After meeting at a St. Patrick’s Day party, Padmore and Delano created a reason to stay.
Leap Frog Solutions sells technological solutions, not products. In fact, Delano said, IT companies that sell products operate in a fundamental conflict of interest – selling solutions based on what is in stock or by the brands they carry, instead of the most beneficial solution.

Leap Frog’s objective is to provide business with technology solutions while supporting IT professionals. “Uniting the geeks throughout the city,” Delano added, laughing.

Businesses, Padmore said, cannot hire an individual to care of its computers anymore. The lucky ones that do find that job, he continued, are often overworked and underpaid.

After one year, Leap Frog has built a client list of about 300 small business and individual clients.

IT trust
“IT guys are one notch below car salesmen,” Padmore said, when it comes to customer trust. “We’re working our way up toward the lawyer level.”

Customers who did not receive what they expected from IT experts in the past become gun-shy, and reluctant to hire another one.
“The customer doesn’t now if we’re telling them something because it’s good for them or because we want to make a profit,” Padmore said.

Padmore and Delano said they want to expand, based on trust, and, so far, have done just that.
With most of its customers coming through referrals, Leap Frog Solutions is rebuilding trust in the “computer guy.” Padmore said trust and service is the key to small business’ future. Before the competitor was than a mouse click away, he said, businesses could slack in the service department and still maintain a customer base. Today with all the duplicate service providers, if companies don’t perform, they will fail.

Still, Padmore said he not optimistic for the business future of America.
“Unless America finds a way to energize small business, we will slip into second or third world status,” he warned. “We consider cities like Peoria the battleground for America’s future.”
Seeing the future

Peoria has been snuggling up to the “warm body” of Caterpillar Inc. for so many years, Padmore said, that everyone is content with economy never being great, but never being too bad.

“The innovation spirit has somewhat been stifled.”
He said, unless Peoria’s small businesses can stand on their own, Peorians won’t be ready for the day that body goes cold.
“Peoria used to be the whiskey capitol of the world. Now that’s a Trivial Pursuit question.”

Practicing what they preach
Padmore and Delano take 20 hours each month and donate them to local charity organizations in need of computer solutions.
“The impact of what do is addicting,” Padmore said. “A group may have been struggling with a problem for years and we can fix it in 10 minutes.”

Delano agreed that seeing customers’ eyes light up in the reflection of a computer screen can be infinitely rewarding.
Last week he was helping a 74 year old woman setup an online community for the Moss-Bradley neighborhood association.
“An instant message popped up from her niece and if I wasn’t there she wouldn’t know where to click or how to communicate.”
Leap Frog’s basic $37.50 rate per half hour is often charged according to what Padmore refers to as “common sense billing.”
“I’ve worked for cookies,” Delano said. “Yesterday I got some homemade toffee. It was good.”
Services

Computers have long been viewed as the savior and the bane of small business existence.
Leap Frog got a call from a small business owner with three PCs. He wanted a server, but really didn’t know why. He heard the term, “server,” and knew it could link his computers, but besides that, had no idea what it could do for him.
Delano said this is a common problem and costs businesses untold amounts of money. What the small business owner actually needed cost much less than what he wanted and would suit his needs just fine.

Delano said Leap Frog will help business and individuals define what they need and give them the tools to accomplish that end. Padmore added that the IT professional who can define business needs are the employees Leap Frog wants.
“The guys who know how to do (IT works) are a dime a dozen, but finding people who know why they’re doing it – that is a different story,” Padmore said.