Using Kovair ALM to Manage Internal and External Maintenance and Development Projects at Syncata

Kovair ALM to Manage Internal and External Maintenance and  Development Projects at Syncata

Introduction

Founded in 1990, Syncata Corp., a business consulting and systems integration firm, helps automotive and industrial manufacturing companies and captive, indirect and nonprime automotive finance organizations improve operational performance and profitability. The firm designs processes and integrates systems that help solve specific business problems within order-to-delivery, service and parts, warranty and quality, dealer management, and automotive finance. Syncata is headquartered in El Segundo, CA and has offices in Irvine, California, Southfield, Michigan, and India.

Challenges

As Syncata’s primary business focus is in the Automotive vertical, their customers include some of the leading US based Vehicle manufacturers and finance companies. As a part of their extensive set of business consulting and technology services, Syncata follows an onshore/offshore model for project implementation, a growing trend with Companies in the US, due to the substantial cost benefits afforded to clients. Syncata has a development center in India and a significant part of their software development and testing is done there. As a result, they need to interact continually between their development centers in India and their project offices in the US. One of the primary challenges in this aspect of the business had been managing issues related to their customers’ projects. Geographical separation mandated a web-based application with a centralized repository that would enable secure and easy access to all their users, irrespective of their physical location. They had a need for a tool that would help coordinate Issues management with teams working from different geographical locations. Enforceable workflow management was also extremely important in order to automate task generation and measurement metrics. Secondly they needed tools to manage the requirements gathering and approvals process with the ability to create reports on requirements documents and specifications.

Solution

Kovair was configured in a distributed model and deployed at Syncata’s headquarters in El Segundo CA. A US deployment with Web access from India was found ideal from the point of view of system security, reliability of power and backup. Use of a single tool cut down deployment and maintenance costs.

Conclusion

Syncata is using Kovair as an important tool to manage their maintenance and development projects for both internal and customer driven projects. Syncata has exploited Kovair’s browser-based application to connect geographically distributed users through a single platform. This has resulted in a more efficient and productive management of the project lifecycle. A single repository for all issues on projects where Kovair has been implemented has made reporting on these projects considerably easier. Real-time metrics are available to senior management.

Kovair has eliminated that, resulting in a significant increase in productivity and a near elimination of missed tasks, and a commensurate reduction in the time spent in online meetings & phone calls with the India teams has also been noted.

In future the goal is to start using other features within Kovair to increase productivity. In particular more extensive use will be made of the Kovair’s Word Report features to generate customized reporting.