EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Kanso Software, a company that develops software for tribal and public housing authorities, recently went through a company rebrand and launched a new software as a service (SaaS) platform called Doorways. Their CEO worked with Lumen Marketing & Communications to create a new company website that combines the company’s tech savvy with their people-first ethos.

THE CHALLENGE: READY FOR A REBRAND

Housing Data Systems (HDS) was founded in 1991, at a time when the use of computers and software in the public housing industry was a new idea.

When Doug Chapiewsky joined the team at HDS as its CEO in 2011, he visited more than 100 Native American reservations in one year. He wanted to fully understand the unique issues they faced when it came to managing tribal housing, and to build a software platform that met their specific needs.

When Chapiewsky found himself in need of a designer to build a new company website after a recent rebrand, he wanted someone who would do the same for him as he did for his clients: go the extra mile to understand his company’s unique needs. He found that partner in Lumen Marketing.

“We’re in a market that’s pretty unique, but we had no brand presence in the public housing world outside of a three-state area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan,” Chapiewsky explains. “We realized it was time for a name change — an entire brand change, really.” After a lot of brainstorming and introspection, the team decided on the name “Kanso.” Kanso is the Zen principle of simplicity and the elimination of clutter, which is exactly what the company aims to achieve for its clients.

Kanso’s previous websites were all created internally, often by Chapiewsky himself, but he wanted something more polished and professional to launch the rebrand and their new software platform, Doorways. Lumen Marketing came highly recommended from business colleagues, so Chapiewsky met with Lisa Moore, Lumen Marketing’s President and Owner.

“Lisa really listened to what we wanted,” Chapiewsky says. “And she obviously spent a lot of time researching our industry and what we do, because what she came back with was spot on. We all felt like she just got what we were trying to do, so we gave her some basic concepts and some blueprints and let her take it from there.”

BLENDING TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY

As with any website project, there were multiple goals. The first was taking Kanso’s technology and making it understandable to the average visitor.

“We’re technologists, and Lisa did an awesome job understanding our business. Right out of the gate she created visuals and copy that resonated with everything we were trying to accomplish,” Chapiewsky says.

The team also wanted a website that would be easy to update and maintain and that would allow them to start marketing their software in a way they hadn’t before.

“We hadn’t attempted to market our company in the past, but now we’re starting to move into the sales- and revenue-creation stage,” Chapiewsky says. “Lisa understood that shift and aligned it with the new website.”

But for Chapiewsky, the most important aspect of the new site was blending the company’s technology with its mission, which is to serve tribal, public housing, homeless, and non-profit agencies with best-in-class, user-friendly, and affordable software.

“We serve the underserved, so our main objective is to help the people most in need and the people who help them,” he explains. “We needed a technical solution paired with a human approach.”

Lisa understood that concept implicitly. “The real heart of Kanso is that it’s a for-profit software company that operates more like a non-profit,” she says. “There’s such a human element to public housing. So, we had to think of a way to talk about software from a marketing perspective while telling the human story, too. It was a challenging and incredibly fun project to work on.”

“Lisa has a big heart,” Chapiewsky adds. “She’s done a great job of rendering our core purposes of product, purpose, and accessibility in a website.”

LAUNCHING INTO NEW MARKETS — WITH LUMEN MARKETING

Chapiewsky couldn’t be happier with the results. In addition to the successful messaging, he says the new website is already generating more activity than the previous site and that he’s received several positive comments on the new look and feel.

“We are super busy on our end trying to make a dent in very complex problems in American society, and we’re not necessarily creatives or marketers by nature — we’re engineers,” Chapiewsky says. “Lisa did a spectacular job taking everything off our plates.”

Chapiewsky says he hopes the new website will help launch Kanso into new markets. And he looks forward to continuing to work with Lumen Marketing as that happens.

“We’re transitioning our company from a very tight Native American focus to a more mainstream public housing focus and a new emphasis on homelessness,” he says. “As we build out the website, using Lisa’s resources, we expect it will have a lot of power in contributing to the expansion in our markets, the creation of revenue, the attraction of talent to our company, and exposure at the local, state, and even national levels.”

“Lisa’s work is just exceptional,” Chapiewsky concludes. “She’s great at what she does, and she makes our team better and more efficient.”

ABOUT LUMEN MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Lumen Marketing & Communications specializes in inbound and account-based marketing, WordPress websites, branding, and creative for B2B and B2C businesses. Our strategy-first marketing programs help clients generate demand, attract better leads, engage more effectively, and increase qualified sales opportunities that lead to measurable revenue.

Whether you need to augment your existing team on a single project, or a completely turnkey, outsourced marketing solution, Lumen Marketing can help. Our Denver-based team serves clients in a diverse set of industries, including: startups, high-growth companies, technology, software (SaaS), resorts and attractions, banking, finance, real estate, professional services, HR and talent management, and more.