Synergy began providing project management services at its inception. Early projects were focused on implementation of “back-office” software packages primarily to support payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger. Software included Microsoft Dynamics SL and Dynamics GP as well as Sage 50/Peachtree and ACCPAC.

Our business model expanded to providing custom engineered applications predominately for International Labor Unions headquartered in the DMV. Management of implementation projects at multiple local affiliate offices across the US followed. Thereafter, similar services were expanded to mid-sized businesses across multiple sectors of the commercial space.

Synergy provides comprehensive project management services spanning all aspects of the systems development life-cycle. Many past project management contracts followed consulting engagements or software development efforts as was the situation with several of the project management engagements detailed below.

Business Process Re-Engineering & Legacy Systems Replacement. Retained by a government contractor, Synergy was tasked with enhancing a legacy system to build and improve upon its HR function. A major revenue stream had been threatened when a new hire was sent to a secure customer site, before his drug test had been processed, and was arrested for smoking marijuana in its parking lot by facility security.

An initial quick-study was performed to answer executive management’s question, "Given the controls in place, how could this have happened?" The results found departmental silos had been built around three independent legacy systems which relied on communication via email to enforce checks and balances delineated in corporate policies.

Lack of integration undercut all internal controls enabling a breakdown in communication which allowed new hires to be scheduled at a customer site prior to HR having fully vetted each; and, it allowed product to be shipped to customers prior to contracts having been fully executed. Further, vast inefficiencies existed due to significant data being reentered multiple times across the departmental systems.

Synergy recommended replacement of the legacy systems with an integrated solution designed to eliminate the issues found. Integration of, and enhancement to, the three independent systems was not possible as each was programmed using Microsoft Access which prohibited scaling to the degree necessary to support enterprise-wide use of Access. Further, we recommended a business process re-engineering process be dovetailed with the effort to eliminate all vestiges of the department silos and thus leverage its IT investment to a maximum extent.

Executive management adopted that recommendations and retained Synergy to manage an enterprise-wide effort to replace the legacy systems, integrating and enhancing the existing base functionality of each. Subsequent to the successful conclusion of the project, the organization has been able to reallocate administrative resources to its sales and operations areas thus fueling its growth.

Implementation Union Affiliate Membership & Cash Management System. Subsequent to developing a custom engineered software package for Sheet Metal Air Rail & Transportation International (SMART), Synergy was engaged to manage the implementation of the system in local union affiliates scattered across the US. Of note, the system was designed to assist the smallest local unions, having the least resources, with membership tracking and services as well as with cash management. A tightly coupled two-way interface with the DC based headquarters was necessary.

At Synergy's recommendation the initial project plan was revamped to include development of a training program dovetailed to the requirements of locals representing three distinct market segments. Additionally, the plan was expanded to include scrubbing and converting historical data then maintained in a variety of legacy systems.

Successful implementation of the system in the smallest locals led to an expansion of the project to include installation in multiple mid-sized locals. At its conclusion, the project resulted in the system being implemented in 45 of the total 102 local affiliates.

Customer Billing Development & Departmental Support. Over several years Synergy performed a variety of project management and development initiatives for Verizon in support of Corporate Customer Accounts, Promotions and Billing Services areas.

Our firm managed transition of all existing promotions from the Washington, DC office to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The engagement included sub-tasks to document all systems, hire and train new staff, and maintain the monthly execution schedules and technical support of all promotions during the transition period.

A follow-on project included management of a comprehensive review of the top-tier customer billing system identifying system inefficiencies, processing errors and opportunities for enhancements. The review generated comprehensive documentation to support recommendations of additional of system audits and controls as well as improved management reporting. Finally, we managed the detailed design, development, testing and documentation of the identified audits and controls.

Multi-Employer Pension System Legacy Replacement. Synergy was engaged by the American Red Cross to provide overall project management and analytical support during redevelopment of its legacy pension system by an international actuarial firm. The broad project management scope included acting as primary interface between all client stakeholders and the development team leadership.

The Red Cross was provided periodic detailed evaluation of quality and effectiveness of developer’s efforts through the initial stages of the project lifecycle. The evaluations required technical review of contractor analysis and proposed design of the new system.

Synergy's analysis and support enabled the Red Cross to conclude that the contractor's team lacked the business and technical experience to complete redevelopment of the system. At our recommendation the project was terminated.

Migration & Enhancement Enterprise-wide Legacy System. The United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union (UFCW) engaged Synergy to manage a comprehensive review of an internal effort to move all legacy systems from a mainframe-based server to a Linux server or to Microsoft Server. Due to political in-fighting the project was both stalled and over-budget. The requirement to move forward was exacerbated by significant increases in hardware maintenance costs.

The project was expanded to include a detailed review of the headquarters legacy membership system which incorporated numerous accounting sub-systems that functioned to record transactions with external parties including local union affiliates. This second phase was intended to provide a baseline analysis to support replacement of these legacy systems.

Our Phase I recommendation, based on existing internal resources and expertise, was to migrate to a MS Server. Phase II study recommendations included realignment of internal IT resources to enable replacement of all legacy client-side systems, then running on Micro Focus Cobol, over a five-year period. Additionally, high-level design recommendations were made to disentangle accounting sub-systems while enhancing the functionality of each to improve quality of services to local unions.

Synergy managed Phase I to a successful completion within budget. Detailed documentation of client-side systems in Phase II was used by UFCW as a road map to plan and execute replacement of all legacy systems.