For our latest Cornerstone Program on November 15, Bill West interviewed fellow-member Rajiv Mehta, founder and CEO of Synergetics, a cloud service provider especially for the US government, concentrating on the Department of Defense. The name for the company reflects its concentration on the synergy between people on the team consisting of employees, employer and clients.
Please summarize your history. Rajiv arrived in Fort Collins in 1973 and earned an MS in Engineering, MBA, from Colorado State. Later he received executive/CEO training from Harvard University. Early in his career, he was the Co-principal investigator in a joint project between Colorado State University and The US fish and Wildlife Service concentrating on data-base technology. When that contract ended, he launched his company concentrating on professional services, ultimately landing contracts with the several Federal Agencies including the US Geological Survey and then expanding to the Department of Defense (DoD).
What does Synergetics do? The company does a wide range of things, currently exclusively for the Federal Government. Some 70% of its effort is with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), managing both internal and external Data logistics for the department. It manages inventories of all parts used by the DoD. It is a keeper of Digital Data for the department. As a result, it has activities in some 109 countries, currently all outside of Africa.
What about security issues/clearances? Rajiv commented that, surprisingly enough, typically, the higher the level in management, the less security clearance is needed. They use state-of-the-art security systems for all of their far-flung installations.
What are the risks of competition? As a professional services company, they own their own intellectual property, so they are essentially both a technology company and a professional services company. Increased competition in the professional services realm has resulted in margins becoming less and less and Synergetics has shifted its business model to Licensing Technology and provided professional service in its support. After some 17 years of successful work for the government/DOD, they are sufficiently embedded that they have some protection from competition.
How are their products deployed? Given the diversity of situations with which they work, they use internet services, desktop services and physical media to deploy their data in the field. They deploy to all sorts of platforms including old DOS based. Actual deployment is by the Department of Defense.
What about cybersecurity? They are verified and audited regularly by multiple Federal Agencies to ensure safe deployment. Their security protection uses some 500 security protocols. They have a team of “ethical” hackers, both in the government and in house, constantly checking for security vulnerabilities.
Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) a threat? Rajiv started by referring to the book “Homo Deus” by Harari which acknowledges the handling of massive volumes of data and interactions but questions the presence of intelligence, contrasted with human intelligence. He referred to Google’s Bard software, a way for assimilating vast amounts of data and may have many ways of learning but questions whether there is any understanding. There is an effort to digitize every piece of information. He recognizes the uncertainties associated with the possibility of quantum computing, which may be able to analyze all of that data; will we ultimately have a chip inserted in our heads (Elon Musk may be supporting research in that area).
How many employees do you have and where are they? Rajiv indicated that this varies, both from time to time and depending on what you mean by “employee”. Synergetics will generally have around 40 employees, ranging from around 20 to around 150. Most don’t work in the office, being distributed all over the country and commonly in federal offices. They also work with literally hundreds of individuals outside the company. With this wide distribution, cybersecurity issues arise, but each location is secured carefully.
What products do you offer? There are a number of products but he specifically referred to three. One, of course, is the logistics software, owned by Synergetics and focused on the Department of Defense. Two others work for the Geological Survey, one simulating earthquake results, the other actually mapping earthquake effects. Their earthquake effect mapping software is some 20 minutes faster than previous efforts.
Do you have any other software that focuses on other natural disasters? No, only earthquakes.
Do you have any supply-chain issues? Not much.
If the government shuts down, will that have any effect on your business? It might have some effect, but they have a provision in their government contracts that assures that if government employees get paid, Synergetics gets paid.