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Synergon Solutions leverages its strengths and expands into new areas
High standards and extensive abilities define international help-desk company's competitive edge

by Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

Mike Hanner, Director of Technical Services, Synergon Solutions, Inc. with the TEN-4, a digital recording solution used for phones, radios, 911 systems and homeland security. Photo by Tim Shortt, © 2003.

Synergon Solutions Inc.'s core business is in offering technical help-desk services, but that's not its only business.

The Melbourne firm is leveraging its strengths to expand into new areas, including a manufacturing partnership that might be the first of more such arrangements. The deal has increased the company's employment from 34 last year to 46 today.

The company got its start in 1994, when three Dictaphone managers acted to fill a need they saw for small and medium-sized businesses to have access to technical help they couldn't afford from the options available at the time. The company offers a variety of services and lets customers choose the ones they need. Synergon operates a 24-hour help desk, offers on-site consulting and training and can quickly dispatch technicians for repairs nationwide.

Through an agreement with IBM, Synergon can send IBM technicians to sites nationwide to address problems help-desk experts can't solve over the phone.

It's that turnkey approach coupled with high standards for performance that has made the company successful, said chief executive Gary Bradley. Synergon recorded $500 million in revenue last year, and forecasts higher results this year. Its growth landed the company on the 2001 Deloitte & Touche Florida High-Tech Corridor Technology Fast 50 list of rapidly growing tech firms in Central Florida.

The growth continued even after the Sept. 11 tragedy slowed the economy: Many companies chose to cut back by eliminating their information technology departments and outsourcing those services. "We almost were able to pick and choose" new customers, Bradley said.

Synergon's TEN-4, used by law-enforcement agencies, commodities brokers and air traffic controllers is designed to record and track phone calls. The hardware and software is installed beneath a convevtional monitor and keyboard and is capable of supporting up to 144 phone lines. Photo by Tim Shortt, © 2003.

He attributes much of the company's good reputation to the standards Synergon set from the start. Many of the company's early customers were in the medical field, an area that demands a high level of quality for support services. "Our default parameters were stringent right out of the box," Bradley said.

Synergon guarantees that hold time on calls to the help desk won't exceed two minutes; the average is 15 seconds or less. That service standard requires that the company overstaff the help desk, but the investment has proven worth it.

"We're not the cheapest game in town," Bradley said. Still, most new clients come from referrals and the company tends to develop long-term customers. "Most that started with us are still with us today," he said.

One of those companies Stancil Corp., a Santa Ana-based maker of voice recorders. Stancil contracted for technical support for its products and Synergon "did a great job," said Guy Churchouse, director of marketing.

The company's nationwide service and extensive abilities give it a competitive edge, he said. "They just took care of everything," Churchouse said. Stancil officials were impressed by the integrity they found at Synergon. "They do it whether they have to do it by contract or not. They get the job done," he said.

Stancil gradually began using Synergon in assembly of its TEN-4 digital logging recorder and now has turned over manufacture, service, maintenance and installation to the company. Synergon is adding 2,000 square feet of manufacturing space at its Melbourne facility to accommodate the work.

TEN-4 is used primarily by law enforcement agencies to record 911 calls, and also by anyone who needs to record and track calls, such as commodities brokers and air traffic controllers. The company now has a single-digit share of the overall digital logging recorder market and expects that proportion to grow to more than 10 percent in the next few years, Churchouse said.

The product is experiencing large demand and could lead to Synergon hiring another eight to 10 employees, sales and marketing director Brian St. Ours said.

That's a workable proposition in Brevard County, where Bradley finds a well-trained workforce. "I don't think we could be in a better area as far as a pool of quality people at reasonable cost," he said.

The company launched local tech-support services in the past couple years. It also is an Internet service provider and sells a couple dictation products. It also has customers that could mimic the Stancil model for a more involved business relationship. But that will take some time, as Bradley wants to guard Synergon's reputation before it launches another venture.

"I want to make sure we have all the kinks worked out and everything is going very, very smoothly," he said.