Jim Felty

In June, Jim Felty, information technology director for Synertech, a Harrisburg company that processes claims for health insurers, had Sting install an 8-inch-square antenna on the chimney of his house near Harrisburg, where broadband cable and DSL service are not available.

Felty wanted to test fixed wireless for his employer.He has been using the service ever since, and about a dozen Synertech workers now have similar connections for telecommuting.

"All you do is plug your computers or network into the hardware they provide," Felty said."It opens up the market to allow us to provide work-at-home functionality for people that don't necessarily have other types of broadband."

Other options "were just a heck of a lot more expensive," Torrance Pitcairn, sales manager at Pitcairn Motorcar Co. in Langhorne, said of his decision last year to use Sting's fixed wireless for the car dealership's Internet access."I've been happy with it."

Jim Felty was promoted to director, Information Technology Services at Synertech.In this position, Felty oversees the strategic direction for Synertech's technology infrastructure needs.He is accountable for the administration, support and maintenance of the production coordination and computer operations, network and voice services, configuration management, desktop services, Synertech's customer support center and database administration and system administration areas.In addition, Felty will develop and implement technology plans and divisional goals that ensure the cost-effective availability, integrity and utilization of all production systems, Data Center operations, Internet and VPN technologies, desktop services, voice services and related operating systems and local and wide area networks, supporting all connectivity to Synertech's internal and external customers.

Felty most recently served as manager, Voice and Network Services where he was responsible for all activities related to Synertech's network and voice services, including security administration and the application deployment team.Prior to that he was a team leader of consulting services.Before joining Synertech in 1994, Felty served as a senior field engineer for Halifax, a third-party maintenance service company out of W. Va., dealing in systems hardware and networking.