Kathy Woolverton's Blogs

Vancouver’s technology community has delivered a long list of everyday innovations that have had a global impact. This video highlights some of these success stories.

Synergy Computer Consulting is pleased to be celebrating 21 years of our clients with web solutions, social media solutions, and business software solutions to help your business run smoother and grow! Much of this video is filmed by Synergy's offices in the dynamic, creative Gastown area, in Vancouver, BC.  

Vancouver: Wonders Start Here from Ian Andrew Bell.

It is great to see this video feature some of Synergy's clients, including EA - Electronic Arts, Vancouver Economic Development Commission, and the BC Technology Industry Association (BC TIA).

As well, it is great to see Flickr, co-founded by Katrina Fake, who was in the Forum For Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) E-Series with Kathy Woolverton at the time that Flickr was acquired.

SoftSearch, one of the most comprehensive sources for purchasing business and specialty software in the world, founded in Vancouver, is also located in Gastown, Vancouver, BC as well as in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California.

This video was Executive-Produced by Dennis Pilarinos @ Microsoft Canada and was written by and Produced by Ian Andrew Bell. VFS alum Jenny Bourne served a key role as Associate Producer. Thanks to our sponsors — Microsoft Canada, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, the BC Technology Industry Association, and the BC Innovation Council.

If you would like to learn more about Vancouver's technology industry, please visit bctia.org​ or vancouvereconomic.com​

Kathy Woolverton, Synergy's president, is a past director of the BC Technology Industry Association, and founded the BC TIA's "Doing Business on the Internet" special interest group in the mid 1990's - very early on in internet times!

Using software that is designed specifically for your operations makes a huge difference to your productivity. Our goal is to continually work with our clients to create the best tailor-made solution to fit their individual needs.

The following is a showcase of one of our recent projects which is an example of how we can help save you time, alleviate unnecessary stress, and help to grow and improve your business.

When the Midwifery Department at UBC first started, they purchased the admissions system that was previously designed and used by the Faculty of Medicine – Dean’s Office at UBC. At that point, the Midwifery Department was brand new, so their specific needs were not clear.

One of Synergy's senior programmer/analysts, Tasia Bantassios, headed up the project, working with Elaine Carty, Director of the Midwifery Department at UBC.

Our recommendation was to start small and then add additional features as needed. We worked together and customized the application to fit the Midwifery department.

After a couple of years of running the department Elaine, identified that “We required an admissions database that would allow us to enter into the system all the information about our applicants to the program.” says Elaine. “We needed an organized way to connect our students, clinical preceptors, hospital and faculty, and then a way to communicate with them efficiently. The goal was to be able to link all these people together and have an ongoing record of those linkages.”

“We wanted a system that would calculate different scores to determine the top 40 students we’re bringing in to interview and after the interview, to determine the top scores for admission. We needed the system to help us easily send letters to all of the applicants about whether or not they’re admitted, granted an interview, or whether they’ve been rejected or accepted.“

Tasia custom designed new interfaces and reports. After approval, they were developed and implemented. Not much effort was required to learn the new system as Elaine and the Program Administrator had input during the design and development. At the end of the project, Synergy also provided additional training and continues to be available for phone support.

The final result was a database that addresses all of the department’s needs. For processing applicants, it performs all the different calculations for ranking applicants, produces applicant ranking reports and generates applicant status letters. It tracks the necessary demographic and contact information for applicants, students, preceptors and clinical placements.

Now all the data is stored in one common place and the relational database (RDBMS) technology gives automatic safeguard against duplicate entry.

The new system has made a huge improvement to their business operations. Now the admissions process is much more streamlined, reduces paperwork and eliminates any chance of error.

“We’re less likely to miss steps now” says Elaine. ”Like for instance, sometimes you would write a letter, and someone else wouldn’t know where it was filed. This system allows us to have a quick record of what we’ve sent and when we sent it. It centralizes the paper trail and organizes it for you. We were mainly looking for efficiency and accuracy in our work. This database also produces more professional looking materials for us to send out.”

Purchase Order System

After the successful implementation of the first project, a second system was created to automate another time consuming part of their business – managing purchase orders.

Elaine finds the new financial shadow system extremely useful. It is a mirror of the larger UBC system but is the department’s own separate system. It enables the Midwifery department to accurately determine expenses and to check them against the central UBC database.

“We now have more up-to-date budgeting and forecasting abilities”, says Elaine. “Our Program Administrator is also pleased with the financial program. In the past, things would sometimes take a while to get through the general UBC system, but now we don’t have to wait the month or two, it just happens.”

Results

These applications continue to evolve as the department continues to grow and identify additional areas that can be streamlined.

One of the key elements to the success of this project was the client’s attitude of putting so much trust into the system and in Synergy's ability to produce something they wanted.

“They were enthusiastic about doing it” says Tasia. “They were helpful, took the time to give us all the information we needed and thoroughly explained their requirements. The Program Administrator was extremely dedicated to getting the project done and this enabled us to work well together and to make this project a success “.

Elaine is pleased with the final results. “Overall it improves the efficiency and accuracy of the admissions program. There was excellent collaboration with Synergy and we feel we have a strong communication with them. They were very accommodating and interested in our project and in getting us to the place we wanted to go.”

“With Synergy, we don’t feel rushed. We get to try it out in our own time and they have been very responsive in working with any glitches. We will continue to work with them, as our satisfaction level is high. By doing small projects, we’re learning the potential for other things. Often you don’t know what you can do until you start to work with something. Then it gives you ideas for other ways that the technology can be helpful.”

What would you like to improve within the systems that manage your business operations?