World’s Largest Internet Consulting Firm Honors Kansas Consultant for Exceptional Website

Internet Consultant Marybeth Fruge produces winning Best Product Showcase site for 2007 WSI Web Awards.

October 16, 2007 – Overland Park, Kansas. Marybeth Fruge, a certified Internet Consultant with WSI (We Simplify the Internet) has been honored at the second annual WSI Web Awards at WSI’s Excellence and Innovation Conference in Orlando, Florida. Marybeth was responsible for developing the winning website in the category of Best Product Showcase for the 2007 Web Awards, www.sagegardenstyle.com.

The Best Product Showcase award was presented to Marybeth Fruge and the WSI e-Marketplace Production Center, Gratus Business Solutions. The site represents Sage Garden Style’s online outdoor furnishings boutique. This online store offers products for outdoor living sourced throughout the world. Many of their products are handmade in small artisan shops showcasing an appreciation of the history and tradition of skilled crafts and cultures.

Marybeth Fruge stated, “We are honored and privileged to accept the 2007 WSI Web Award for Best Product Showcase. WSI has played a vital role in changing the way Internet Consultants develop online business solutions for our clients. ICs together with our clients benefit from WSI's global reach and technology leadership. Our partnerships established through WSI allow us to deliver a more comprehensive Internet experience for our clients which in the end benefits their clients experience as well.”

Serving businesses throughout Kansas, Marybeth is helping local businesses develop an effective online presence by providing leading edge, robust, scalable and affordable Internet solutions. Marybeth assesses clients’ business needs and opportunities by using WSI’s patent pending Internet Solutions Lifecycle™ System, an Internet solutions delivery framework. The client’s Internet Solution is then customized through personal consultation on design, functionality, hosting options, online traffic optimization, site registration and Internet marketing support - to both reduce business overhead and increase the customer’s return on investment. A WSI solution is designed to draw qualified traffic to a website leading to more customer conversions online.

The new www.sagegardenstyle.com site, which features the use of flash, elegant colors and tasteful images, is a product focused website that clearly and effectively demonstrates the Sage Garden Style’s offerings and purpose.

Karen Badalucco of Sage Garden Styles said, "The challenge of being an online retailer of outdoor garden furnishings is that so much of the beauty of my product is visual and tactile. Therefore it was very important to me to that the website display my product line in a way that conveyed that beauty. I also needed to be able to manage the product changes internally on a day to day basis without having an IT person on staff. Marybeth and the WSI team were great to work with and helped translate my design vision into a technical reality which performs beautifully as well!"

WSI introduced the WSI Web Awards to showcase the very best of thousands of the Internet solutions created each year by WSI Consultants in their local markets around the world. Several hundred sites were submitted by Consultants to be considered for the 2007 WSI Web Awards. Each site was scored and ranked by a team of WSI site auditors, who created a short list of the top sites, resulting in 38 nominations. Sites were then voted on by the global community of 1500 plus WSI Consultants to determine the winners of the 6 categories, including Best Industry Application, Best Product Showcase, Creative Excellence, Best Non-English Site, Best Business Edge Site and Best Overall Website.

About WSI:

Through its network of over 1500 offices in 87 countries, WSI delivers thousands of e-Business solutions to small and medium sized businesses annually. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, WSI provides affordable Internet related services and technologies that deliver maximum return on investment for businesses. As the world leader in providing profitable Internet solutions to SMEs, making information accessible for all via the Internet is an essential component of our offering.