Harnessing the power of the Cloud

Synthesis MD, Michael Shapiro interviewed on what it takes to harness the power of the cloud. This article appeared in Issue 25 , third quarter of Acumen magazine. To read the full article online, click here   Stay connected If you’d like to get in touch with our team of cloud experts, please contact us […]

Hyperscale cloud being used to increase scope of financial services

The following excerpt comes from an interview of Michael Shapiro, Managing Director of Synthesis, by Engineering News “Financial services companies in South Africa are using hyperscale cloud systems to increase their range of services, lower costs and reach into new markets, says Michael Shapiro. Financial services firms can innovate by using the many detailed, technical capabilities of […]

Synthesis develops ground-breaking technology to support farmers across South Africa

Afgri eAccounts

Synthesis, a South Africa, home-grown specialised financial technology company that provides software development, consulting and integration services to financial institutions, has enabled the roll out of another groundbreaking innovation in financial technology by developing the e-Accounts portal for UNIGRO Financial Services. UNIGRO, the financial services division of leading agricultural services company AFGRI, became the first […]

The Synthesis Way: Beyond Manufacturing

The Manufacturing Delusion refers to a systemic, industry-wide misconception about design and delivery of software. Namely that software is a commodity no different than any other coming off of a factory production line, such as a car or kitchen appliance. Almost everyone in the industry falls prey to this misconception and most would argue that […]

What are the main differences between FATCA and CRS Reporting?

Now that the dust has almost settled around the first FATCA submissions (for some the dust cloud might linger for a while longer), financial institutions have had a chance to take stock and try to make sense of their current regulatory position and strategies. However, now that they have had a chance to look ahead, […]

What’s Strategy got to do with IT?

Strategy

Working in a Software Development environment one is not in close proximity to the decision makers and strategist of the business. To the developers in the trenches, when you mention the word strategy, the first thought is – what does strategy have to do with me? I am writing this application for which I have […]

The Value of Continuous Delivery

The consumer culture of today, demands that tech-based companies bend over backwards to provide the latest and greatest products and services to meet their ever-changing needs and wants. It’s a culture of having their cake and eating it too; and then changing their minds after the first bite. Traditional software release management practices were slow […]

Agile Software Architecture – Becoming Super Agile

Agile Architecture

You’ve adopted Agile? Great! Over the last few years, there has been a huge movement from the sequential Waterfall process towards a more flexible Agile approach. The question is: Has your software architecture followed suit? The “agile” in software architecture has similar connotations to the “agile” in Agile methodology meaning it can respond quickly to […]

Are the days of a free Internet limited?

We are all used to free services on the internet such as Wikipedia and Facebook, services which continually need to either attract donations, as in the case of Wikipedia, or else advertising revenue, as in the case of Facebook. What if we were instead charged a fraction of a cent each time we made use […]