Well I certainly wouldn't call it simple but this is what I came up with:
=LEFT(A1,IF(LEN(A1)=0,0,MIN(IF(1*ISNUMBER(1*MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),1))=0,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),LEN(A1)+1)))*(ISNUMBER(A1)=FALSE)-1)*RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-IF(LEN(A1)=0,0,MIN(IF(1*ISNUMBER(1*MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),1))=0,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),LEN(A1)+1)))*(ISNUMBER(A1)=FALSE))
Where A1 contains the value.
How it works:
=IF(LEN(A1)=0,0,MIN(IF(1*ISNUMBER(1*MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),1))=0,ROW(INDIRECT("A1:A"&LEN(A1))),LEN(A1)+1)))*(ISNUMBER(A1)=FALSE)
Will get you the first alpha character index of a string.
And then its just a matter of plugging that index into:
=LEFT(A1,(alpha index) -1)*RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-(alpha index))
to parse out the numbers on the left and right side and then multiply them together.