Platform credibility
Former SmartSimple team experience
Senior delivery and architecture backgrounds that include direct SmartSimple implementation work, not just adjacent consulting language.
Technical depth
Configuration, architecture, and SmartConnect API support
The team covers workflow design, technical troubleshooting, integration details, testing, and administrator readiness.
Sector fit
Public-sector, foundation, and research funding experience
The work stays close to high-accountability funding environments across Canada and the United States.
Published proof
NCAGE and CCPC status
NCAGE L0NX7 and Canadian controlled private corporation status are published publicly alongside team bios.
Longeron & Rotors helps foundations, grantmakers, Canadian and U.S. public-sector funding teams, research programs, and mission-driven organizations implement software that fits the realities of program delivery. Our work stays close to operations: configuration, workflows, integrations, testing, and administrator readiness.
The best version of a grantmaking system is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that helps administrators, reviewers, program officers, and leadership run the program with less friction and more confidence.
How we organize delivery
Roles built around implementation quality, not generic digital-transformation language.
We organize the work around the parts of delivery that actually change outcomes: configuration quality, solution structure, testing discipline, and the ability to keep program operations aligned with the platform over time.
SmartSimple Configuration Specialists
Configuration specialists translate day-to-day program requirements into forms, fields, permissions, statuses, notifications, and review experiences that make sense to end users.
Lead SmartSimple Configuration Specialists
Lead specialists coordinate complex builds, resolve edge cases, guide QA and UAT, and keep delivery aligned with how client teams actually need to operate.
SmartSimple Solutions Architects
Solutions architects shape the overall application model, workflow structure, integration approach, and governance decisions needed for long-term stability.
People
The team behind the delivery work.
Zohra Sheikh
Founder and SmartSimple Solutions Architect
Zohra is a former SmartSimple team member and a senior SmartSimple solutions and architecture leader. Her implementation background includes work on a low-code platform that earned FedRAMP authorization and Department of Defense cloud security accreditation at Impact Level 2 for U.S. military use. She has also advised U.S. government agencies and works with foundations, grantmakers, government funding teams, research programs, and nonprofits to shape delivery models, implementation plans, and operationally sound platform designs.
Ted Lapkin
Co-Founder and SmartConnect API Specialist
Ted brings seven years of SmartSimple configuration experience backed by a computer science background. He is a veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force who served as a traffic technician and crew member aboard the CC-130J with 436 Squadron out of 8 Wing Trenton. He specializes in SmartConnect RESTful API work, technical troubleshooting, and the delivery details that connect configured systems to the rest of a client's environment.
Vu
Platform Director
Vu leads Longeron's bench of Lead SmartSimple Configuration Specialists. His background includes SmartSimple Software implementation and delivery work from 2017 to 2022, and he focuses on keeping complex builds aligned across configuration, testing, and client operations.
Badzu
Chief Morale Officer
Badzu remains responsible for morale, presence, and maintaining a healthy sense of perspective across the team.
Working style
What clients should expect from the engagement.
Clients usually come to us because they need sharper platform judgement, clearer execution, or help reconnecting software decisions to program realities. That only works if the delivery style stays direct and grounded.
What clients should expect
Direct communication, platform-specific guidance, and delivery work that connects requirements, configuration, testing, and operational support instead of treating them as separate projects.
Platform scope
SmartSimple is our main consulting focus. We also support Villagely for organizations that need a no-code grants and application platform backed by hands-on implementation help and realistic fit assessment.