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Synthetic Software is a software company located in Dallas, Texas. The company specializes in developing and producing customized software and related computer assisted video training materials for health care systems in the United States. Most of the clients are small to medium medical practices and owners, accountants, health care association managers and other related professionals. Some clients, especially those solely interested in computer-assisted video, are major corporations and agencies of state government.
The five original founders of Synthetic Software are equal partners in this privately owned company. The five founders are:
• Alan Bettman (38, BA in mathematics, MA in computer engineering),
• Susan Brockman (42, BA and MA in Finance),
• Jules Pinkney- Director of Marketing and Sales (39, BA in Marketing),
• Clara Biddle- Chief Operating Officer (35, Ph.D. in Computer Systems), and
• John Sutton- Chief Financial Officer (40, BA & MA in computer engineering, MBA in
Finance).
In addition to the partners there are five senior project managers who supervise 25 computer programmers (and an equal number of part-timers and consultants on-call), and five computer system experts that install Health Care Management Information Systems (MIS), five specialists in video production, five sales people, and ten support staff.
All the owners of Synthetic Software were former senior level administrators and engineers employed by Storage Technology, Inc (Denver). Storage Technology was a computer hardware manufacturer that made storage devices for mainframe computers. It ceased operations in 2008 when orders for mainframe hardware and software dropped sharply in response to the increasing dominance of personal computers. The founders of Synthetic Software started the company in 2017. Synthetic Software was recently profiled in the region’s respected business journal (Texas Business Journal) as “one of the busiest and most profitable software shops in the US”. The owners of Synthetic Software have focused their energies on regional sales and have not encouraged or sought business elsewhere.
In January of 2021, Synthetic Software was under review by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for a multi-million dollar contract to develop a computer-assisted video training program on psycho-physiological disorders related to recent military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan military actions. This training material will be used by hospitals throughout the US and Australia to help
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medical personnel identify problems common among veterans of the campaigns. This contract was awarded because Synthetic Software was the first company to develop a similar program on assessment of physical disorders related to exposure of Afghanistan veteran’s to chemical agents used against them.
During staff meetings in March, 2021 there was discussion among the management group about the possibility of developing a public campaign that would address the growing public awareness and concern about computer viruses- code that is embedded in existing programs and later emerge to cause harm to databases and other computer software. At the meetings, staff discussed retaining a consultant to position the company as a source of information and innovative ideas about protecting against hackers seeking to hack into computer programs to steal data. Staff thought they should build visibility for Synthetic Software on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok. The team discussed focusing on establishing and maintaining hacker protected and virus- free computer environments in the health care system.
The Challenge
Four days ago one of Synthetic Software’s largest clients (MEDICA – a clinic specializing in pediatrics) who recently purchased and installed a new software program (BIOdata) specially designed by Synthetic Software for small medical clinics. BIOdata provides physicians with a range of diagnostic assessments by linking patient medical histories with known medical disorders in children.
All of Medica’s internal computer systems were using the BIOdata software product for about 2 weeks. Unfortunately, all the computers that were running the BIOdata program crashed. MEDICA called Synthetic Software to inform them of their critical issue. They reported that their computers were showing a picture of a donkey and continuously playing Lana Del Rey’s song Summertime Sadness. (That provoked an outcry by some workers who wanted to get depressed listening to Adele). The computers continue to play the music until the systems are all forced to shut down.
Although the incident was reported on the second page of the Dallas Financial Review, Synthetic Software was not mentioned in this initial news story.
Yesterday, the senior partners of Synthetic Software investigated and discovered that there was a serious flaw in their MedStat program. By a process of elimination, it was discovered that the computer work station of a part-time programmer (John Brinks, 26) had the code that seemed to lead to any computer using BIOdata to crash. When confronted with the evidence, Brinks admitted that his section of the program had flaws in it, but he said he had no knowledge of the virus or how it got in the program. He added that he had never heard of Lana Del Ray.
Case Problem: Synthetic Software
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Case Problem: Synthetic Software
While the in-house investigation continues, Brinks was put on leave of absence by Biddle during the investigation of the problem by management. Legal counsel hired by Synthetic Software is preparing to file a suit against Brinks. Fortunately, no damage was done to MEDICA’s business by the flaw; it was only a nuisance. Synthetic Software’s computer specialists already have removed the bad code and enhanced, at no cost, MEDICA’s computer system by adding a custom patient billing program to the capacity of the clinic’s computer system.
Assignment:
You have been asked by Synthetic Software to develop a public relations plan to handle the potential
crisis caused by the computer virus.
• The first step is to develop a statement of the primary public relations problems and related publics that the company faces as a result of their product’s issues.
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