Does Synthesis provide print and fulfillment services, or may I use output vendors of my choosing?

Synthesis does have partner relationships to provide these and other services. However, the core product offering from Synthesis is our document automation technology and related services. Synthesis will be happy to develop integrated solutions with output vendors of our clients’ designation.

Does all of my data need to be provided in a single data feed?

No. Our clients rarely have a single source data solution. A non-homogeneous collection of data feeds, spreadsheets, and manual data entry is the typical operating model our clients can support. We do encourage and assist in refining data source and data gathering procedures, and can in some cases provide source data from third parties as an added service offering.

What is the turnaround time for content changes and/or document template changes?

Content changes are reflected in documents immediately. In almost all cases content (including data) is easily edited directly by users online, and thus there is no wait for the Synthesis team to apply changes. Minor changes to document designs and templates are usually applied in one to two hours. Major changes that require template re-engineering should be planned in advance of any production cycles.

Will we have to re-design our documents to be compatible with the SPA or the Direct-to-PDF output driver?

No. We will, however, work with you to identify portions of your documents that may be stumbling blocks in the hands-free process goal, and can usually provide design change suggestions that still honor the general look and feel of your documents.

We work with an outside Quark service bureau which we are happy with. Can we use SPA’s Quark output in conjunction with this outside team?

Yes, and sometimes without any additional licensing costs. However, our experience is that because our Quark compatible output requires a specialty Quark plug-in and related training at the service bureau, it can be challenging to keep the process efficient and well coordinated. Our preference is for internal Quark teams, or better yet, usage of our Direct-to-PDF output driver.

Can the SPA match the exact typesetting of our current Quark documents?

No. However, our output will be very close to Quark or InDesign masters. As the SPA is not based on either of these desktop publishing tool’s rendering engines, we cannot “match” their output. Our typeset output is of very high quality and does NOT rely on low-end tools such as MS Word to layout pages.

Does Synthesis offer 24x7 service?

While our servers are available 24x7, the Synthesis support staff is available 7:00am to 7:00 pm (Central) during non-production periods and until 10pm during production cycles. As SPA is a self-service environment, the support staff is only needed when issues arise that are out of the ordinary.