WEB REVOLUTION: Chuck Thomas, left, and Tim Ransom are co-founders of Firefly, a new application that makes it easy for small-business owners to manage Web sites. -- PHOTO COURTESY WWW.FIREFLYWEBSITES.COM

The co-founders of Firefly, a new system that makes editing Web pages easy for the computer-challenged, filed their patent application two weeks ago and have landed their first clients.

Chuck Thomas, a software developer, and Tim Ransom, a Web site marketing specialist, have launched fireflywebsites.com.

“This is revolutionary technology coming out of Memphis that is going to change the way people interact with the Web,” Ransom said.

The application allows small business owners to do WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing directly onto a Web page without the aid of an information technology specialist.

“Currently, people usually hire a Web developer and they don’t actually have the ability to interact hands-on with their Web site,” Ransom said. “So what happens is they are communicating through a second person or else they have to focus on the technical aspects of building a Web site instead of focusing on the content. What we have built is a total one-stop solution for a small business.”

New venture

Firefly is a trademark of The Ransom Group Inc., which is based at 3674 Canada Road in Lakeland. The business employs three people. The new venture stems from the firm’s work in designing Web sites and other marketing products.

“I’ve had a business called The Ransom Group for 20 years,” Ransom said. “One of the major things we do is we build Web sites for customers. What we are doing now with fireflywebsites.com is a totally new business that has evolved from the roots of the service business of building Web sites for others. What we have done is we have taken a learning from all those years of what people wanted and we’ve created the tool to allow them to do it themselves.”

The Ransom Group will continue in business, but the firm will put most of its focus into the Firefly venture. The Firefly Web sites range in price from $99 to $399 a month.

“There are a lot of mom-and-pops out there or people in their garages or startups – especially executives that are newly on the market looking for solutions to start their own businesses – I think there is a huge demand at this point simply because of the economy. That opens up a lot of doors for us,” Ransom said.

In control

The Firefly application is as easy to use as Microsoft Word or any other office program, Ransom said, allowing business owners to create their own Web sites in less than an hour.

“There’s two ways to create this type of software,” he said. “One is called CMS, which is a content management system. The other is a Web builder.

“Both of them require complex administration forms and tools. It’s usually called an admin-section. What we do is we eliminate the admin forms. That is why our technology is unique because you can actually edit directly on the Web page and changes are being made and updated and saved in real time.”

Firefly’s target customers are small-business owners who require e-commerce capability.

“We start them off with a complete Web site with text and images that are centric to their specific business so they don’t have to start from scratch,” Ransom said. “Using tools that are familiar to them, they can simply edit the Web site and customize it to their specific needs. It can be as simple as adding in your business card application or as complex as making changes 24-7 as long as you want any time you want because you are in total control. You don’t have to call your tech support. You don’t have to pay for tech services. You just do it yourself.”

The Firefly Web sites can have different looks because the user can change and adjust templates.

“You can do amazing things,” Ransom said. “You can change background colors anywhere at will. You can add images wherever you want. You can quickly drag them and reposition.”