The Year That Was
There's no question that 2021 was another year for the record books. The initial shock of the pandemic wore off, and we all learned to live with a new "normal" that no one could have predicted two years ago. Shortages of staples like disinfectant wipes and toilet paper were replaced with a rolling list of seemingly random items that had no connection to the pandemic. Popular soda brands couldn't meet production demands as they ran out of carbon dioxide used for carbonation. Automakers were nearly crippled by a shortage of computer chips, which resulted in record-level price increases. Some local fast food chains here in the Northwest had to shut their doors for months (some still haven't re-opened) not because of staffing shortages, but because they couldn't get any "take out" containers, straws, and even cups. To say it was another unprecedented year would be an understatement.
While many people at Syncta already worked remotely because they live in other parts of the country, those of us in Portland got used to virtual meetings, trainings, and even online trivia games. As vaccines started to become more widely available, some of us began venturing into the office. After more than a year of pretty much only seeing immediate family members, the first day back was a strange mixture of nervousness and excitement. It felt weird at first to see our colleagues and friends face-to-face. But we all agreed it was nice to finally be in the same room with people who didn't live in our house.
Last week, most of our team was able to come to Portland for a few days. We've added many new folks to the team this year, so it was fun to meet them in person for the first time.
More New Faces
As our business continues to grow in Canada, we welcomed another Canuck to the Customer Success team six months ago. Devin, who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, has become a valued part of our team and is a great resource for our customers. And he's a font of knowledge about many, many things, including all things science, music, travel, and languages.
Our Sales team has also grown this year, adding two new team members (Rian and Job), and a new Sales manager, Matthew, who just started this month. You'll be able to learn more about all three of them soon in upcoming blog posts.
New Features
Our Development team was once again busy this year rolling out new features. The biggest addition by far is Xpress Test, Syncta's new streamlined testing interface, which allows you to enter customer, service location, assembly information, and test results all in the same place! The guided interface has quickly become the "go to" place in Syncta to enter customer data. Why? Because on average, it takes users about 45 seconds to enter data and perform a test using Xpress Test – about half the time it currently takes to enter this same data on separate pages in Syncta.
Another notable feature that's being implemented right after Christmas is test validation. Based on your feedback, we created a new page that allows you to enter passing test result parameters for each assembly type. And if testers do not enter results within the range that you specify, a test cannot be marked as passed. You'll be able to read more about this feature in the first product Release Notes of 2022.
Other changes include new and expanded notifications for purveyors and testing companies, and many other features too. To learn more about all of the new features and enhancements that we've made this year, check out our release notes. And be sure to check this page throughout the year for the latest updates!
2022 - Here We Come!
As we look forward to more exciting updates in the world of cross connection control, we are especially grateful to our customers who have been hard at work keeping our drinking water supply safe. We know these past two years haven't been easy. We appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to finding even more ways to help your business succeed in the coming year.
From all of us at Syncta,
Happy Holidays!