Last July, Syncta was excited to announce our partnership with Watts. Pairing our knowledge of backflow testing software with Watts' robust hardware offerings in the backflow and plumbing industries made great sense. Since last summer, Syncta and Watts have worked closely together to gain a better understanding of how we can use respective expertise to benefit our customers.
Working Together
Believe it or not, in today's highly connected world, many companies that serve the public still have a singular focus: software or hardware, but not both. And because neither side has a solid understanding of the other, it can be difficult to sync software and hardware that aren't meant to "talk" to each other. Having to use software and hardware from different companies is inevitable. But our hope is as we gain an even better understanding about the hardware side of the backflow industry, we can offer new features that better anticipate and serve our customer's needs.
While some of us at Syncta are in regular communication with the folks at Watts' headquarters in North Andover, Massachusetts, others haven't yet had the opportunity to get to know our compatriots back east. Since we became a part of Watts, everyone involved felt it was important to bring a couple of key Watts folks out here. We're proud of Syncta and of our home base of Oregon, and thought it would be fun to show them around.
Meeting the Team
Since July, one of our semi-regular visitors has been Roberto Vengoechea, Senior Vice President of Fluid Solutions, which Syncta is a part of. We've enjoyed getting to know Roberto professionally, and have learned some fun personal tidbits about him too. Roberto is a huge foodie, and says he's always excited to visit Portland to experience our many gastronomic delights. He's also joked (maybe he's serious?) that if he could find a legitimate way to tie the backflow industry to the comics industry, Syncta would have a booth at Comic-Con in San Diego. Just imagine the possibilities... "And now let's welcome Captain Backflow to the main stage!"
This week we were excited to meet AnnMarie Reczko, Director of Human Resources for the Americas. This was AnnMarie's first time meeting most of our team. We spent two productive days with AnnMarie covering a variety of topics, which included many lively discussions. One thing that AnnMarie noted is the Syncta team is not afraid to share ideas. And she's right. We're a passionate bunch who believe in Syncta, and we're always thinking of ways to make our product and customer experience better.
More Syncta Pets
As we've shared in past blogs, a lot of us here at Syncta are huge pet lovers. So of course we were excited to find out that AnnMarie is of the same mindset. She enjoyed meeting Philip's dog Toast on her first day, and was a bit disappointed that he didn't come into the office on her second day.
AnnMarie mentioned her yellow lab in passing, but she was particularly passionate about her Snow Lynx Bengal cat Emmitt, whom she says rules her house. Until meeting AnnMarie, I was pretty sure that me and Diana Lefavi, Syncta's General Manager, were the resident "Crazy Cat Ladies" in the company. But AnnMarie gave us an impressive run for our money with the stories and photos she shared of Emmitt.
Looking Forward
We capped off AnnMarie's visit with a team dinner at a local German restaurant. The evening was filled with cheese, sausage, beer, and of course, great conversation. Some of us talked about our cats, while others excitedly shared more ideas about how to make Syncta even better. It was a fun way to cap off a busy, but fruitful couple of days. As we continue to strengthen our partnership with Watts, we look forward to sharing the many ways that we think our work will help our customers. Because in the end, our most important partnership is with you, our amazing customers!