In this video blog, President and Co-founder of Onsharp, Joe Sandin, reflects on how Onsharp got started 10 years ago by 2 college interns with a passion for web-based solutions.  Joe also comments on how Onsharp has come to be the company it is today, as well as his vision for the next 10 years of growth and success for the company.  Check it out to see where Onsharp has been, where Onsharp is now, and where Onsharp is going.

Onsharp, a professional web consulting firm in Fargo, is celebrating its 10^th year of business this month.  Located at 474 45^th Street South in Fargo, Onsharp was founded in July of 2000.

The company was started by two college interns, Joe Sandin and Matt Hardy, who shared a passion for the web and yearned to share that passion with businesses in order to help them reach their full potential and remain competitive in a dynamic business setting.  Through the several local and nationwide projects Sandin and Hardy received, they realized the full potential and power the web held as a communication tool, channel for sales, and more.  Sandin moved the company to Fargo, ND in 2003, and since then Onsharp has expanded its service offerings, skilled team of professionals, and its client base.

Onsharp continues to grow with an energetic and passionate determination to help businesses create web-based solutions.  The core values of innovation, an unparalleled customer experience, and measurable results are behind every project and interaction with Onsharp, and the company has both an experienced staff as well as a proven process model to ensure growth and success for their clients. Onsharp now offers six core services: web strategy, web design, web development, web marketing, web optimization, and web hosting.  Onsharp also offers a hosted service, SmartPay, which provides web-based billing and payment integration for businesses to help them save time, money, and the environment.

“The key to our success at Onsharp has always been and will continue to be our talented and energetic team,” comments Sandin.  “Without their collective expertise and passion for what we do, the results that we have brought to our clients would not be possible. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the Onsharp team members that have worked so hard in pursuit of our vision of driving success. I would also like to thank all of our clients, past and present, who we have been fortunate to serve.  We are extremely grateful for your business and we look forward to long-lasting partnerships with all of you for many years to come.”

At Onsharp, the overarching vision is simple: Drive Success. Whether it be for clients, employees, their families, or the community, Onsharp strives to create success in the lives of all people, businesses, and communities it serves.  Offering a full array of services, Onsharp is here to ensure your business is making the most of the web to leverage measurable results.  For more information about Onsharp or SmartPay, please visit www.onsharp.com, www.gosmartpay.com, or call toll-free at 1.866.ONSHARP.

At Onsharp, we are continuously working to provide our clients with the most innovative solutions for their business while offering them an unparalleled customer experience.   That’s why our talented team of developers recently made enhancements to SmartPay to make it an even better overall experience for all involved.
As we let you know in a blog a few weeks ago, SmartPay is now PCI Compliant.  On top of that important update, SmartPay is now even more feature-rich than before.  These new and improved features include:

• Expanded help documentation for all types of users answers questions immediately
• Easier navigation on payments report makes daily and weekly reporting faster
• Load a custom invoice format as a default invoice template for enhanced customization
• More search and reporting options give merchants the information they need to help their customers
• Import line items for further customized invoices
• Easy reference of refunds provides a meaningful payment history
• Printer-friendly receipts make record-keeping and customer service easier
• Entering manual payments is quicker with the new bulk entry option
• And more!

To learn more about SmartPay’s new and improved features, check out the rest of our website.  If you still haven’t learned as much as you’d like about SmartPay, take a short and sweet virtual tour here.

Questions about these new features or what exactly they mean? Contact us right now, or leave us a comment to let us know what you think about the improved system.

The number of households using electronic billing and payment is quickly growing.  In fact, “According to the financial information management company FISERV, the number of American households paying bills online has doubled …up from 15.3 million in 2004 to more than 36 million last year.” Source. With the number of people using electronic billing and payment increasing year to year, it isn’t a surprise that security becomes a forefront concern.

Even though electronic billing and payment is now very secure (SmartPay is PCI compliant; if you missed our blog on that, check it out here). It is still important to take extra precautions when securing your personal information online.  Here are 5 simple steps to ensure extra security.

1. If you print off statements for your records, shred them.  Even users of electronic billing and payment may print something off every now and then—and sometimes it is hard to remember to shred the information if you aren’t used to paper bills anymore.  But it is important to make an effort to do this, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates about 9 million Americans are affected by identity theft every year .   Learn more about identity theft here. 

2. Never respond to e-mails requesting important personal information.  Phishing and hackers are major, valid concerns in today’s Internet-driven society, and any legitimate company with which you do business will never request important personal information via e-mail.  If you receive a suspicious e-mail, be sure to contact a representative of your bank or of the business for which the hacker may be pretending to pose.

3. Check your online accounts regularly.  It is important to keep an eye on your bank account, as well as any online shopping accounts or other online accounts.  Staying on top of your purchases and information will help you notice right away if there seems to be any tampering with or fraudulent purchases toward your accounts.

4. Keep your computer secure.  Make sure your computer and information is kept secure, and try to do all of your online financial business and bill paying at your home.  Don’t take your laptop to a public place (i.e.; a restaurant, the local coffee shop) to do your bill paying, as there is more risk if you are connecting to a network you don’t know is secure or if you are around a lot of people.

5. Make your passwords strong.  Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts, and don’t write your passwords down.  Make them long in length and very unique; using special characters and a combination of upper and lower case letters helps.  Change your passwords regularly.  Every 3-4 weeks is an ideal span of time, and be sure it isn’t a password that someone would easily be able to guess.

Following these and other simple guidelines will help you keep your information more secure, and will make the use of online accounts and online bill paying much more enjoyable!

As mentioned in our blog called “Web Marketing Strategy”, one third of businesses have a strategy for online marketing. That leaves two thirds without an online marketing strategy let alone a complete web strategy! If you have a strategy, there are probably measurable elements such as your bounce rate, cost per online conversion, and maybe even savings from electronic invoicing and bill payment. 

Why is having a web strategy important? You have goals and objectives for your business; you must have a strategy for each part of your business to be effective and efficient in reaching those goals and objectives. Web strategy is important because it is a very powerful, often overlooked resource that will help you reach your objectives and become successful in your ventures.

Just like a marketing strategy or an operations strategy, a web strategy has a very important role in mitigating risk, increasing value, and aligning everyone involved. Similar to building a house, you want to know before you begin building which parts of the house you want and where as well as how you want the house to look. A contractor will begin by asking you pertinent questions regarding your lifestyle and what you hope to achieve by having a custom built home.

Just the same with a web strategy, our strategist begins with asking you what your business objectives are for your business and your requirements for a web solution. After determining goals and objectives of your business as a whole, the Onsharp 3D process continues with the Discovery phase. Knowing your objectives and requirements, Onsharp researches the available web technologies and presents possible solutions. The deliverables that result from the Discovery phase include weekly status reports, sitemaps (blueprint for web sites), wireframes for each page, and a statement of work that outlines implementation costs and time estimates for development.

After Discovery is the Development phase where Onsharp’s talented team of developers create the actual solution from the materials created during Discovery. Deliver is the last phase of the 3D process.

A great web strategy includes measurable results. During the Deliver phase we work with you to determine a reporting schedule based on your set metrics that determine the success of your web solutions. For example, if you want to increase the number of web leads you receive, then a number will be determined to help you measure the results your site is producing. Without the measurements, how do you know if your web technologies are successful? Without a web strategy, how do you know what web technologies can do for your business? Not all business owners are web experts and getting a little help from Onsharp in Fargo can help you get the best value from your web technologies.

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of EarthDay, celebrating and raising awareness of our natural surroundings and theimportance of sustainability.  Wonderinghow to celebrate this popular, nationally-observed day?  One way you can, on Earth Day and any otherday, is to use electronic billing.

Put simply, SmartPay is a green choice because it savespaper.  However, there is more to thissimple fact than appears at the surface. Let’s consider everything that goes into the process of traditional,paper-ridden billing and payment.

As we learn from a young age, paper comes from trees. Yetover 70% of the trees used to make paper are not trees grown in tree farms forthat purpose[1].  Instead, these trees are forest-harvested,chopped down from their natural ecological and biological habitats. In turn,these trees take away the health of the environment, as well as for otherplants and animals.  The papermanufacturing industry is also the third-largest user of fossil fuels aroundthe world[2]and is the single largest industry in its amount of water consumption[3].

Emissions from vehicles also must factor into this equation,since vehicles are used to transport the original paper itself, as well asbills and invoices.  As the end user notonly receives their bill or invoice online but also pays online, vehicleemissions are further reduced because a run to the post office, bank, or bothis cut out from the process.

With Americans using over 85 million tons of paper per year[4],the impact on the environment proves to be a substantial one.

And all of this is simply skimming the surface; that’s notto consider other elements of traditional billing, such as the number ofresources needed for ink for the invoices and bills, nor the paper used forenvelopes.  A change in the way you doyour billing and payment means a change in the amount of paper used anddemanded yearly, which means a change in the state of the overall environment.

On this Earth Day, choose to celebrate by considering achange in your daily lifestyle.  Chooseelectronic billing and payment.  Theenvironment will thank you.

Rep. Pomeroy recently spoke here on the importance of small businesses in job growth. Small businesses have created over 22 million new jobs in the past 15 years, so it's no surprise that experts on both sides of the aisle agree that small business is the growth engine for jobs.

There's also widespread agreement that the web is the growth engine for small business.

How can the internet help you grow your small business?

First, you can open your doors  online for much less than what it costs in the physical world. Even if you plan to grow someday to the point where you need a big building downtown, a business can get started with a good website. As you grow, your website allows you to communicate with customers, get the most for your marketing dollar, and maintain a 24/7 presence where your customers are.

 Second, you can save time and money with web applications. Onsharp offers electronic billing with SmartPay, customer relationship management with SugarCRM, and a myriad of services with the Onsharp Core,including email, calendar management, geocoding, content management, e-commerce integration, and much more. Beyond these basics, Onsharp's crack development team can create solutions just for your company. 

This robust functionality lets a small company look and feel like a bigger company to clients and prospective clients. With the savings in time and money that result from having so many of the basic business functions take place on the web, your company can concentrate on growth.

Call Onsharp today to begin the conversation about what our business can do for your business. 

Onsharp offers a range of web 2.0 solutions for your business, including Sugar CRM and our own SmartPay e-billing solutions. Our goal is to offer you the best online tools to keep your business running smoothly.

Recently, we've made some changes to our pricing structure that we think you'll like.

First, we've made changes relative to merchant accounts. Your merchant account allows you to accept ACH debit and credit card payments through your SmartPay system. We still recommend our partner, Intercept EFT, for your merchant accounts, but we've adjusted our system to work with your current merchant account if you prefer it. You won't have to make changes if you already have a merchant account.

Second, we offer a new tier of services for those with smaller numbers of invoices. You can send out as many as 35 invoices for the low price of $19 a month.

This means that consultants, freelance professionals, and small companies can have thecustom look and power of SmartPay at a very affordable rate.

It offers larger companies a chance to try SmartPay out, too. Some businesses like to use SmartPay with a segment of their customers first, to let staff become accustomed to the system before making changes across the company.

Since there's just one low set-up fee and you're charged simply for the number of invoices you send out each month, you can ramp it up and roll SmartPay out for all your invoices as soon as you're ready, with no additional set-up or changes.

The first pricing tier is also great for seasonal businesses, since your monthly fee automatically adjusts to your needs.

Call us today to discuss your needs, and to learn how SmartPay can work for you, or visit SmartPay for more details.