Synoptek looks local with acquisition of Irvine’s Juxto

IT Consulting, Services Firm Optimistic for 2021

Irvine-based Synoptek Inc., an information technology consulting and services provider that’s been among Orange County’s fastest-growing tech firms, has boosted its real-time communications (RTC) offerings via a local acquisition.

The company said earlier this month it had acquired the direct RTC business of Juxto, which is also based in Irvine. Financial terms were undisclosed.

RTC refers to various types of live telecommunications that occur without transmission delays.

Synoptek Chief Executive Tim Britt says standard voice communications have now evolved into text communications, digital video and cloud-based voice over internet protocol under the RTC umbrella, boosted by the use of platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

“We essentially acquired all of (Juxto’s) direct business and took over those customer relationships, and then we’ll provide those real-time communications solutions to them,” Britt, who is also a Synoptek cofounder, told the Business Journal on July 12.

The systems “are developed to enable customers to maintain communication in the face of power outages, internet interruption or hardware failures,” according to Britt.

Fast Grower

Synoptek runs information technology consulting and services geared to companies from mid-market to Fortune 100, and helps guide businesses safely into cloud computing.

The company ranked No. 11 on the Business Journal’s list of last year’s fastest-growing large private companies in Orange County, and earned $101.4 million in 2020 revenue.

More’s in store with the addition of Juxto, whose innovations have been key to enabling the creation of Synoptek’s own real-time communications practice, the company said.

COVID Effects

The pandemic has dramatically underscored the importance of modern RTC tools, which enabled many organizations to remain functional and productive even while accommodating unanticipated and potentially longterm work-from-home requirements.

“It’s real-time, enabling team interaction and collaboration in message, voice and video formats. We are seeing customers demand an integrated solution to meet all of their RTC needs,” according to Britt.

“RTC services have been expanding at a rapid pace and we expect the acquisition of Juxto to deliver tremendous value for Synoptek and its customers,” said John Frazier, chief operating officer of Synoptek.

He added: “Upon the formal launch of Synoptek’s RTC practice, we will assume responsibility for all existing Juxto direct customer agreements. Branding, services and support for these customers will be provided by the newly formed Synoptek RTC team which will be comprised of a blend of resources from Synoptek and Juxto.”

Business Returning

Overall, CEO Britt sounds optimistic about the future of his company, with a wariness of inflation.

Britt says he’s looking to a 10% boost in 2021 over 2020 revenue.

“We’re doing pretty well actually,” he said of his company that counts 12 offices around the world.

The company saw a drop in business after the pandemic hit California in March 2020.

“Last spring with the pandemic we had a lot of customers stopping and suspending projects,” Britt said.

“It just steadily came back all last year. Then this year it became, we’re back to prepandemic levels.”

He cited inflation as a challenge for the economy.

“We’re just seeing prices for everything go up,” he said. That includes hardware and labor, while he says this increases the risk that the Federal Reserve may boost interest rates sooner than indicated. We’re probably being a little more cautions than we would be otherwise.”

Britt has plenty of local company in his concerns about inflation.

A quarterly report released by economists at California State University, Fullerton said half of the OC executives surveyed in June cited inflation as their major concern. ■