Peter Joynson - Chief Executive Officer, Synergi.
What inspired you to start your technology business, and what was the biggest challenge in the early days?
Having been in tech for 20 plus years and selling traditional server-based solutions, it was time for change and the emergence of Microsoft’s cloud strategy, Office 365, was the perfect timing to start Synergi back in 2013, the early challenge being people’s initial reluctance to move to the cloud: how times change!
How has your company evolved since its inception, and what key milestones have shaped its growth?
Although the technology landscape continues to evolve, our purpose has always been to help businesses improve using modern technology, this focus has not changed. Across the 12 years, we’ve grown from £500 thousand turnover to £8 million, and the team from five staff to 60. The key milestones include the addition of our Dynamics practice in 2017 and our managed services team in 2020.
What sets your business apart from competitors in the tech industry?
The power of three! Synergi is perfectly positioned to help businesses across all industry sectors and size, our three focused practices can work in isolation or combine to deliver a unique, modern technology strategy from one supplier relationship.
What trends in technology do you believe will have the biggest impact in the next five years?
It’s the most obvious answer really but AI is the buzz around every business strategy just now; however, there is still much to do in terms of understanding, educating and readying your business for this next wave of evolution. Naturally, Synergi can help with this, most businesses can absolutely benefit from elements of AI, but often we find that most need to step back and understand the processes they are actually trying to improve. We are experts in process mapping and this is a big growth area too.
How do you stay ahead of rapid technological advancements and market changes?
Well, personally I don’t, but thankfully our very capable CTO and technical experts do! Don’t ask me how, but they just have a knack of having the right products ready at the right time to ensure our customers technology strategy, security and business efficiency continues to improve.
What’s been the most exciting innovation or breakthrough your company has achieved?
Building out from our core cloud solutions into our three practice areas, bringing them together under our new branding in January this year, as Agiliti, Unifi and Sentri, has enabled each of them to go from strength to strength.
How do you balance innovation with practicality in your business strategy?
The tools we position need to deliver real life improvements and results, be that improving an ageing finance/ERP system with Microsoft Dynamics, or building an improved security and resilience to all business users or driving improved process changes to deliver streamlined efficiency, everything we do is outcome focused.
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into the tech industry?
Pick a niche, do it well and repeat it… quickly!
What role does sustainability and ethical responsibility play in your business decisions?
As an SMT we lead a culture that is focused on environmental sustainability and ethical responsibility, an example of this is our Synergi Forest, we recently began to plant a tree for every service day we deliver, we are proud to have over 3600 trees already in our Synergi forest.
What’s next for your company, and what can we expect to see in the future?
Continued growth, change and dedication from all our team to deliver on our promise.
www.teamsynergi.co.uk