Tags: EMC

A Few Small Words On Some Big Changes

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161015Since we last spoke, we’ve been busy making some improvements and changes to the way that we work here.

That’s mainly what I want to talk about today, though I do have a personal message to end with.

So, what’s been happening?

As you will have seen from our announcement in July, we have created a new management structure to help us make the most of changing circumstances and new opportunities.

There are two elements to this. One half is about the organic changes we are experiencing as a company. SynApps has done amazingly well since we were founded in the early ‘Noughts.’ We have secured two important partnerships, with EMC and with Alfresco, who form the bedrock of all we do here. I would also like to shout-out to another tech partner we’ve done some great work with, J4Care.

Working with these partners has helped us enter a lot of markets where we’ve done some great work. But SynApps is growing – and we’re fast-becoming a mid-sized company.

To service customers as a mid-sized company means a lot more process than when you’re an SME. You have to have real core corporate disciplines in place.

That’s why I have stepped up, with the permission of the board, to become co-CEO.

My colleague James Paton shares the responsibility with me. James has great experience in introducing standards and procedures like the ISO 27001 systems and bedding in our new sales automation tool, Salesforce, and will look after this side of the business and the service side. We are putting a lot more science into our budgeting, forecasting and pipeline, in order to be a slicker, more professional partner for bigger organisations. I know James has some discussion on that front that we’ll be publishing here soon.

My main focus is going to be on strategy and seeing where we need to take the company next. James and I see both roles as equally vital, which is why they need to be at the same level.

A special thanks to a certain Mr Whitelaw

It’s an exciting and challenging time, then. We know we have a lot of work to do. But that’s for the best reason – opportunity. We are doing well in interesting markets that are seeing the potential for ECM for the first time. With EMC, Alfresco and J4Care at our side, we are winning excellent business – especially in areas like the NHS.

So – changing circumstances, both inside SynApps and in the market. But, the other half of that change is the decision of Jim Whitelaw to pass the baton to myself and James.

Jim’s done some amazing work and the company wouldn’t be the same without his leadership and contribution. He’s retiring at the end of 2015, and it’s going to be sad to see him go. Many of the systems and structures I have discussed Jim spotted the need for and he spurred us on this path.

So – Jim, can I say, on behalf of both James and the rest of the SynApps team, how grateful we are that you took on the role of leading us from the front for so long. You’ve put us in a great position. Now it’s time – working with our customers – to make all that come to fruition.

What a year! Here’s to a very busy Q4 – it’s going to be a real landmark for us.

Speak soon,

Mark Winstone
Joint CEO and Sales & Marketing Director
SynApps Solutions

SynApps Creates New Joint CEO Leadership Team To Spearhead Next Phase Of Growth

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Mark Winstone and James Paton will work together to take the content management leader forward from July

Maidenhead, UK, 8 July, 2015 – Content management leader SynApps Solutions has today announced that Mark Winstone and James Paton, currently Sales & Marketing Director and Customer Services Director respectively, are to forge a new partnership as joint Chief Executives of the growing UK software firm.

Winstone and Paton will assume their new leadership roles later this month – succeeding company co-founder and past CEO Jim Whitelaw, who will retire at the end of 2015 but who will take up, in the interim, a special role as Associate to provide advice, guidance and support to the new management team during a short transition phase.

The Maidenhead-based firm, which employs 35 people, has been a content management leader for some years, since its formation at the start of the Millennium by former UK EMC Documentum senior executives.

The firm has built a strong base for leading-edge content management solutions based on technology from leaders like EMC and Alfresco, but has recently expanded into the growing Health IT space in the form of a dedicated Healthcare Practice in response to the strong demand for its services in that market; in the past six months alone, four major English NHS Trusts have committed to work with SynApps.

“I am honoured to have been elected as SynApps Joint CEO,” commented Winstone. “It is a privilege to run an organisation that delivers high quality services and innovative solutions to clients,” he added.

“I share the sense of honour, and look forward to making a positive and meaningful impact for SynApps customers,” added his leadership colleague Paton.

The new leadership appointments coincide with the company’s decision to move away from the Director titles and embrace a more internationally-standardised CxO nomenclature.

A great next phase

“I can think of no team better to lead us into the next phase of our expansion,” Whitelaw said. “Mark’s experience as Director of Sales and Marketing here for 11 years, combined with his 25-year career spanning managerial roles at EMC and Cimage and other content management specialists make him a great executive, while James’s track record of success as Customer Services Director for 7 years combined with his years delivering transformational enterprise content management solutions at firms like EMC makes him another fantastic appointment to the top table.”

Further management strengthening is expected at the firm, given its solid pipeline and burgeoning opportunities in markets like the NHS.

About SynApps

SynApps is an independent services and solutions company specialising in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies. Founded in 2003 by former Documentum services professionals, the company provides consultancy, implementation and support services for EMC Documentum, and has authored a suite of content integration solutions, ConXApps, that allow businesses to quickly maximise their investment in ECM technologies. Organisations across healthcare, government and commercial markets rely on SynApps solutions and services to capture and share knowledge more dynamically and efficiently.

Find out more at synapps-solutions.com, or follow the firm on Twitter @Synappssol

VNA Based Content Approaches Of Increasing Interest To NHS Trusts

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Four major NHS organisations select a Vendor Neutral Archive based clinical and patient data system from SynApps Solutions, built on EMC’s Documentum

 

Maidenhead, UK, 30th June, 2015 – Content management leader SynApps Solutions isdelighted to announce that four NHS hospital organisations have now selected a Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) content platform, based on the Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) Documentum® from EMC Corporation, as a standards-based route for next-generation patient data handling.

 

The Trusts are Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, London’s Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust , Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and Northampton General Hospital, the partners confirmed today.

 

SynApps and EMC helping Chief Clinical Information Officers

 

Croydon Health Services provide acute and community healthcare services across the borough, with 3,500 staff servicing a catchment of 380,000. Its Chief Clinical Information Officer, Dr. Tony Newman-Sanders, confirmed that, “In the past several years we have been working with other organisations across our health community in South West London on how to use the opportunity of re-procuring our picture archiving and communication system [PACS] and associated image data store to do it all better second time around.”

 

London’s Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a district general hospital supporting 350,000 service users. “We feel we are making real a long-term vision of VNA and electronic data and content management, all living in one unified repository with the SynApps solution,” said its Deputy Director of Information Management & Technology, Norman Harling.

 

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest and busiest hospital trusts in the North of England with an annual budget of over £400m. 

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust provides general acute services for a population of 380,000 and hyper-acute stroke, vascular and renal services to a population of 684,000.  The Trust is also an accredited cancer centre and provides cancer services to a wider population of nearly 900,000. “Our new SynApps on-site VNA has a zero-footprint viewer, which means clinicians (and ultimately patients) can look at images on any device, including tablets,” comments Christina Malcolmson, Deputy Director of ICT. “At the moment, that’s just PACS images – but we will grow it and include other images and documents, so we can have a full EPR over time,” she added.

Commenting on securing four major UK Trusts for a VNA-based content approach built on EMC’s Documentum, SynApps Solutions’ Managing Director, Jim Whitelaw, noted, “We are delighted to be working with our key technology partner EMC to help these NHS bodies get ready for a truly 21st century approach to Health IT provision.”
“We are proud to collaborate with SynApps to deliver a proven, enterprise-class, joint solution focused on enabling the NHS transformation toward a truly patient centered healthcare,” comments Michael Graetz, VP of EMEA Healthcare sales Enterprise Content Division, EMC.

About SynApps

SynApps is an independent services and solutions company specialising in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies. Founded in 2003 by former Documentum services professionals, the company provides consultancy, implementation and support services for EMC Documentum, and has authored a suite of content integration solutions, ConXApps, which allow businesses to quickly maximise their investment in ECM technologies. Organisations across healthcare, government and commercial markets rely on SynApps solutions and services to capture and share knowledge more dynamically and efficiently.

Find out more at synapps-solutions.com, or follow the firm on Twitter @Synappssol

EMC and Documentum are trademarks or registered trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries.

SynApps Receives Platinum Status From EMC

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SynApps Solutions is delighted to announce it has received confirmation from its key technology partner EMC that the company, its content management solutions and its services have all achieved the highest partner quality rating EMC can offer.

‘Platinum’ level accreditation for 2015 has been awarded to the company based on revenue, EMC training, and speciality achievements accrued over the last 12 months.

This is significant given the close relationship between the two parties, with the vendor’s award-winning Documentum Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform, being core to what SynApps does.

It is, for example, the basis for the EMC-certified SynApps’ ConXOffice and ConXMail content management solutions which provide a seamless Microsoft Office user experience for Enterprise Content Management users.

It is also the basis for the company’s push into the healthcare market in the shape of SynApps’ work with its Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) content system, already helping a score of UK hospitals better deal with patient imagery and data, which recently evolved into the SynApps’ Clinical Content Store.

SynApps Receives Product Stamp Of Approval From IT Giant EMC

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Content management leader SynApps Solutions confirms certification from its technology partner EMC for its ConXOffice and ConXMail content management solutions

Maidenhead, UK, 23 March, 2015 – Content management leader SynApps Solutions has received confirmation from key technology partner EMC that SynApps’ ConXOffice and ConXMail content management solutions are fully certified by the IT leader.

The certification process is based on a rigorous validation process by EMC Proven Professionals for functional completeness, performance and scalability – meaning any EMC-trained IT professional can now have full confidence in these solutions, says the partner.

Through the use of ConXMail, knowledge workers are empowered to work with Microsoft Outlook © as usual but now have seamless access to the Corporate repository through the same user interface. Users are able to drag and drop emails and attached documents into the Corporate repository, full Read and Update functionality is also provided for documents thus alleviating the need to utilise another client application. ConXMail allows an organisation to meet the ever changing and challenging requirements of their business ensuring appropriate information and business rules are applied when storing email messages and attachments into the repository, whilst also validating any metadata entered by the user

At the same time, integrating Enterprise Content Management features directly into the Microsoft Office © interfaces, ConXOffice empowers knowledge workers with full Create, Review, Update and Delete (CRUD) functionality that allows them complete control over relevant business documents using common applications which they use on a daily basis. ConXOffice provides users access to the underlying repository directly from within the following desktop productivity tools; Microsoft Word ©, Microsoft Excel ©, Microsoft Powerpoint © , Microsoft Project, Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Visio

These transformative solutions have been validated by EMC Proven Professional Certified Architects in order to achieve the EMC Certified designation. Certified for functional completeness, these solutions reduce risk and unexpected costs, while delivering faster time-to-value and easy scalability. Rigorous architectural review ensures lower TCO, optimized performance and scalability, meanwhile.

“We are honoured to have received this accreditation,” added SynApps Solutions’ Managing Director, Jim Whitelaw.

“It is very satisfying that our efforts to provide a seamless Microsoft Office user experience for Enterprise Content Management via ConXOffice and ConXMail have been recognised by as important an enterprise IT vendor as EMC.”

About SynApps
SynApps is an independent services and solutions company specialising in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies. Founded in 2003 by former Documentum services professionals, the company provides consultancy, implementation and support services for EMC Documentum, and has authored a suite of content integration solutions, ConXApps, that allow businesses to quickly maximise their investment in ECM technologies.
Organisations across healthcare, government and commercial markets rely on SynApps solutions and services to capture and share knowledge more dynamically and efficiently.
Find out more at www.synapps-solutions.com, or follow the firm on Twitter @SynAppsSol

Liverpool’s James Norman to Present at the SynApps VNA Event

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Maidenhead – Feb 17th, 2014 – SynApps has finalised the agenda for its VNA event on March 17th to be held at the Foresight Centre in Liverpool starting at 0930.

The event follows the very successful format delivered last year at the Kings Fund in London – The Journey from VNA Repatriation via EDM to Content Sharing (XDS)

The day begins with registration at 0930 and includes speakers such as Neil Taylor, James Norman from the Royal Liverpool, Mark Winstone and Rory Dennis from NHS Supply Chain.

James Norman, director of IT at Royal Liverpool will present his talk entitled ‘An EPR Odyssey & Collaborative Big Data Initiatives’ and will be followed by SynApps’s Mark Winstone speaking on ‘The Journey from VNA to Cross Document Sharing’.

The event ends with a complimentary lunch at 1:00pm.

Register to attend this free event today.  Email Gary.Britnell@synapps-solutions.co.uk

Why You Need to Start Planning for XDS

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In the second part of our guest blog from partner EMC, Jean Van Vuuren of its Information Intelligence Group tells us more about how standards for document sharing can help the NHS as it tries to meet national efficiency and data sharing targets

As we know, a key goal of the health secretary and the current stated direction of travel for the NHS is to be ‘paperless by 2018’. But what people don’t realise is in the average Trust today, a huge amount of information is still being managed in paper format. The historical medical records that go around the hospital and follow the patient are often all in that medium – and that is, obviously, very expensive and cumbersome to manage.

To help, EMC, working with companies like SynApps, provides the ability to digitise that information on our scanning platform – but more importantly, manage it and make it available for both the clinician and the patient at the point of care.

And I think Trusts have finally taken on the concept of putting electronic document management or records management systems in place to manage medical records – which is great news. Here’s the next problem: now I have got important content electronic, how do we make it available beyond my Trust?

I want to suggest that a technology called XDS, for ‘cross document sharing’ is ideally suited to help Trusts start sharing innovation, as well as information – in a secure controlled manner, and on their own terms. XDS is basically a repository where you store your documents, and where you can profile them and mark and store them in industry standard ways. What comes with that is the registry – a mechanism, like a large phonebook if you will, that you make available and say, ‘I’ve got all these patient documents and images from radiology available; I would like to make it available for sharing.’

The point is that as long as another Trust or provider supports XDS it can easily and efficiently communicate with you via XDS – and they can then start sharing the information between multiple organisations. To do this (in very top-level terms), they can use XDS to set up an ‘access registry’ and get publishing information they want to share to other Trusts within a region or even nationally.

I think that is going to be key to the next phase of making patient information available across the NHS. We will see Trusts do this on the Internet, or via a secure mechanism from the Web, easily as it is supporting a standard format XDS. Imagine, for example, that one Trust has an XDS registry published and one of their patients is in another Trust; you can then go and request that patient’s information via XDS and get it shared securely and quickly.

So if you are looking at investing in any system that you hope will take you toward that paperless goal, it is sensible to make sure the system can provide XDS capability. I think you’re going to need it – and I think it’s going to be very useful for you too.