BOULDER — The new chief executive of Symplified Inc., a Boulder-based startup developing security tools for cloud, web and mobile applications, said his goal for Symplified is to quadruple its customer base within a year.

Shayne Higdon has taken over the CEO position and joined Symplified’s board of directors.

Higdon will focus on accelerating the company’s growth and strengthening its position in the identity and access management, or IAM, market.

“Symplified was an early disruptor and could be even more of a disruptor,” Higdon said. His focus will be leveraging Symplified’s early position in the market into something bigger.

“It’s really about how do we put fuel on the fire in the right places to grow the company,” he said.

Outgoing CEO and co-founder Eric Olden will become Symplified’s executive chairman. Olden will remain involved in day-to-day operations regarding product strategy and development and Symplified’s overall corporate vision, Higdon said.

Higdon said Symplified’s strategy is to help companies feel comfortable and secure as employees use more cloud- and web-based applications such as Salesforce and mobile devices and apps. Symplified provides security tools such as single sign-on capability, which gives users one secure identity across several programs and devices

Symplified’s near-term goal is to expand the services it offers, Higdon said.

“Today the market really is about single sign-on,” Higdon said. “I see us continuing to grow our portfolio to allow customers to move from single sign-on to auditing and compliance to (other services),” he said.

Higdon declined to discuss Symplified’s revenue, its number of employees or number of customers.

In January, Symplified announced it had 3.8 million subscribers and had tripled revenue during 2011. IDG News Service recently reported Symplified had 80 employees in a question-and-answer story with co-founder and chief technology officer Darren Platt.

Symplified raised a $20 million Series C round in January. In total, Symplified has raised $38.8 million since 2009. The company was incorporated in 2006.

Higdon joins Symplified after working at Quest Software Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), an information technology-management company. Higdon was a Quest senior vice president and general manager, and was in charge of mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy and investments for Quest.

Higdon’s time at Quest made him well acquainted with Symplified. Quest was a strategic investor in Symplified’s Series B round, and Higdon became an advisor to Symplified’s board of directors.

“I’ve been intimately involved with the company and seen its skyrocketing growth,” Higdon said.

Higdon will relocate to Boulder from California to take the job, he said.