News & White Papers
Consulting for Big Companies, Tech Help for Others
Orange County Business Journal, 10/1/2007
Synoptek Works for Disney, Smaller Companies; Eyes Acquisition for Growth
Santa Ana-based Synoptek Inc. has roots in old-school business consulting.
The company started out as a consulting firm run by Chief Executive Tim Britt, the former chief information officer for Ace Hardware Corp.'s online store.
He founded Synoptek on doing the basics for companies-ironing out inefficiencies, working on operations after a buyout and managing projects.
Synoptek does business consulting work for Allergan Inc., Walt Disney Co., ConAgra Foods Inc., and Starbucks Corp., among others.
A few years into the business, Britt said he found the tech side of the company starting to grow faster than the general consulting work.
"Local companies have had a hard time recruiting IT folks," Britt said. "It's very difficult to bring them in from the outside. We see companies increasingly turning to outside services."
For the 24 months through June, Synoptek had a two-year growth rate of 365%. The company is No. 9 on the Business Journal's list of fast-growing private companies.
Britt owns the company with Eric Codorniz, the company's chief technology officer, and Bob Whiton, president and chief operating officer.
Synoptek has two lines of business.
One is traditional business consulting for large companies in retail, consumer products, financial services and healthcare.
The other is tech outsourcing with business consulting services geared toward companies with 50 to 500 workers.
Midsize companies are driving the tech side of the business, according to Britt.
"The Allergans and Disneys of the world had tons of choices" when it came to tech consulting, he said. "The small to medium-sized businesses didn't have any alternatives."
Tech and business consulting for smaller companies has grown to about half of Synoptek's yearly sales.
"It has equaled our enterprise consulting business in the last two years, and we think that it will surpass it," Britt said. "That's been a driver of growth for us."
Synoptek's smaller customers tend to have a few things in common, according to Britt.
"They are all operations-intensive and technology-intensive," he said.
In 2007, Synoptek's revenue is set to grow about 25% from last year, according to Britt.
The company is looking for a competitor to buy — possibly in Los Angeles or San Diego, he said.
"We can enter a market fairly cheaply," Britt said. "Because of the increasing complexity of technology and the globalization of IT, this industry is going to consolidate. Our plan is to grow into a multimarket firm."