Syntergy Starts 17th Year – 3 Keys to Success

Syntergy started business in 1997 with the goal of providing Synergy through Internet Applications to customers - Syntergy. The customers in the beginning were companies such as AT&T Wireless, Sprint and Motorola and the applications they needed were Livelink customizations. Syntergy was in a unique position to provide what these customers needed because the company was founded by people that had been Livelink customers themselves. "Having just come from the same position that our customers were in was a big advantage." stated Tyler Lawton, a founder of Syntergy. "When we decided to take the leap and start our own company we wanted it to be a company that provided what we were looking for when were implementing Livelink. We came up with what we now call our three keys to success."

The three keys to Syntergy’s longevity, many successful products and many happy customers are Responsiveness, Value and Technological Superiority. Providing all three of these to customers takes a special effort but it is one that sets us apart from the competition.  Each of these success factors was developed because we realized how important they were when we were implementing and supporting software applications at other companies.  There was nothing worse than needing help from support and going through three people over 5 days before you finally got to the person who understood the problem.  Another big problem was working with a product that was poorly developed or had limited functionality.  If the product had better technology behind it the time savings on the implementation side would have been tremendous.  Finally, nobody likes getting a bad deal when they buy something.  Investing in software can be quite expensive so you need to get good value for your purchase.  Let’s look at each of these keys and see why they are important for your organization.

Of the three keys Responsiveness is probably the most important.  Time is money and when you need support on a software product you don’t want to waste time waiting for the vendor to get back to you.  When Syntergy started the internet was just catching fire and the mood in business was that every second counted.  To be first to market was critical for many companies and everything was moving at a rapid pace.  The era of rapid application development was in full swing.  It was obvious that customers wanted answers immediately and they didn’t want to waste time explaining their environment to a new person every time they had an issue.  To provide the most responsive support possible Syntergy tries to have the same support person respond to a customer.  The support person is already familiar with the environment and knows if there are any special issues associated with this customer.  If the customer is working weekends we are too so we can get them the answers they need to do their job.

Technological Superiority is the second key to success.  When Syntergy started in 1997 there were a lot of companies and people jumping into the fast paced internet world.  Many of them didn’t have much experience developing quality software solutions.  Syntergy has always understood that a solution created with good technology is going to make a huge difference for the customer.  We have spent many days fixing other companies poor products.  To develop a superior solution you need experience, a strong understanding of the technology and good creative thinking.  These are hard skills to come by so we are always on the lookout to hire the best and brightest people. Our Replicator product is a great example of a technologically superior solution.  A customer in Australia came to us and asked us to develop a replication solution for them.  They had talked to other companies that said it couldn’t be done.  We sat down with them for two weeks to understand what they needed.  Then we spent some time looking to see if it was possible.  This involved some prototypes, some deep knowledge of Content Server and tapping into knowledge gained from many years of experience.  The solution we delivered to them was recognized by OpenText at their annual user group as the outstanding enhancement of the year.

The final main key to success is Value.  You can be responsive and provide great solutions but if you are not providing value to the customer they will go somewhere else.  For Syntergy value is created by delivering superior solutions at a fair price.  When Syntergy started many companies were funded with venture capital money.  They used the money for fancy office buildings, big parties, first class travel and other things that had nothing to do with creating the product.  Syntergy was funded by the founders.  We made sure the customer knew the price they were paying, that the customer approved any travel expenses and that the price they were paying represented good value to them.  A great solution at a high price or a poor solution at a low price is not what customers want.  They want a great solution at a great price and Syntergy has always been focused on delivering that.  The way we do that is to spend wisely.  It is better to get a developer a really nice computer than to fly first class to a meeting.

Responsiveness, value and technological superior solutions are Syntergy’s three keys to success.  They have steered us through seventeen years of providing solutions for Content Server.  It is a proven success strategy that we continue to focus on as we move forward in today’s extremely competitive environment.  To find out more about Syntergy and our products visit our website at https://www.syntergy.com or email infosyntergy.com.