Wizard of the Web - Synthenet Corporation

Wizard of the Web
By Bob Tremblay / MetroWest Daily News

Monday, October 22, 2001

NORTHBOROUGH - A stuffed version of the gopher from "Caddyshack" rests on a bookcase at Synthenet Corp. It's an indication that the Northborough company, while it takes its business seriously, isn't populated by stuffed shirts.

Rodney Capron Jr., Synthenet's founder, president and CEO, holds court in the company's West Main Street confines where dress is casual. While the atmosphere may seem laid back, the firm's revenues have been hyperactive since Capron started Synthenet in 1998. From year one to year three, the company - a full-service Web site development firm - experienced a revenue growth of about 300 percent, said Capron. From this year to next, more growth is expected, just not as much as before.

"The downturn in the economy had a lot to do with it," he said. "It's also a reflection on the market. So many people jumped on the bandwagon of getting up Web sites. Now a lot of people really need to focus on what's the return on investment. So people are proceeding more cautiously than they did before, doing more proper planning and implementation."

Capron is certainly no stranger to the business since Synthenet is the third Web development company he's created. The previous two were Web Wizards and Argent Media Group.

The reason Capron started Synthenet can be found in his core belief that "taking a data base and putting it behind a Web site allows you to do some really amazing things as far as delivering information, providing customized product information and being able to service your existing clients in a much better way than you ever could before."

For companies with an existing Web site, Synthenet has developed content management tools in the form of software to provide solutions to business problems. Capron sets up a typical scenario.

"Let's say you have a 100-page Web site. In order for you to make changes and updates, you end up going to either an outside firm or one internal person, the Web master, who makes all the edits and changes. But what ends up happening is there are so many edits and changes from so many different people in different departments in the company, this person gets overloaded. The changes don't take place in a timely fashion and pretty soon people stop updating their Web site. They stop using it as a real information tool and it becomes dead weight.

"So what we've done is create these content management tools that allow normal, everyday people - anybody who knows how to use a computer - to create new pages, do the edits and do the updates themselves."

"If you're in human resources, for example, you can post and update your job listings and related employment information and you don't have to talk to a Web master, which means everything will just flow very quickly through the Web site. Because it's easy, people will start to use the Web for what it was intended - providing great content to partners, customers and employees."

Synthenet offers a variety of different modules that a company can add as its need for expanded technology grows. It can start with Snythenet's core product and then add a complete e-commerce module and/or a bulk e-mail/newsletter distribution component.

Capron said the company's goal is to provide world-class content management tools to small- to mid-size companies without charging earth-shattering prices. Its price tag varies depending on size and needs of the company, but to set up a full corporate Web site, the cost ranges from $15,000 to $50,000, he said. "With a larger company, you'd be at least in the quarter-million dollar range to get the same level of product sophistication," said Capron. "Also, at a larger company, personal service starts to dwindle. Our turnaround time is quicker, too."

He noted that Synthenet also handles much larger-scale projects. He also noted that the company isn't just about products. Tools that work for one company may not be applicable for another so Synthenet custom designs its services to fit a firm's individual needs.

The company also owns and operates its own hosting facility. "That means if you come to us and we do a project, we help you populate the content, which means you don't have to worry about buying servers, software and installing and configuring anything," said Capron.

In addition, Synthenet constantly monitors all its equipment. "We're very pro-active about checking applications, understanding what's happening and fixing problems before the client even knows something wrong happened. That really sets up apart," said Capron.

To date, the firm has done more than 100 projects for 50 clients, some who started with Capron at his former companies and have continued their business relationship with him at Synthenet. At any given time, it juggles about 12 projects, from small to big applications, focusing on companies with revenues between $2.5 million and $100 million, primarily business to business.

"What we really do is come in to understand somebody's business issues. We want to understand how we can use technology to make their business better, to communicate better," concluded Capron. "Rather than just bring in a product and say here it is, this is the end-all, I'd rather understand what the need is."

PROFILE
Founder, president and CEO: Rodney Capron Jr.
Number of employees: 12
Revenue: In excess of $1 million this year, $1.65 million projected for next year
Industry: Web development
Company background: Synthenet Corp. is a full-service web development company that offers cost-effective, scalable and flexible interactive business solutions using Web-based technology.