Cynergy Wins Microsoft PhizzPop Design and Development Challenge

-Global RIA Leader and Earlier Winner of Regional PhizzPop Design Challenge Outshines Over 30 Top-Tier Contenders in the Finals-

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 12, 2008) Cynergy Systems, Inc., a global leader in Rich Internet application (RIA) design and development took the gold at the finals of the Microsoft PhizzPop Design Challenge. This event brought together the best design agencies in the world to develop web applications using Microsoft's newest technologies. Cynergy won the prestigious competition besting over 30 other top-tier design agency contenders, including many larger companies.

Carson Hager, president of Cynergy, said, "Winning the PhizzPop design challenge against over 30 very worthy contenders is a testament to the passion, creativity and deep technical strength we have here at Cynergy. Our solution clearly demonstrated how our LookFirst™ approach to UX-centric design can solve even the most challenging of business problems and underscores the very real impact strong design can have on commercial software."

Held at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) in Austin, Texas on Monday, March 10th, 2008, Cynergy presented its application known as "ben", a series of inter-connected, cross-platform applications that leverage the power of Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation, Live Services, Twitter and VoIP technologies. "ben", named for Benjamin Franklin, captivated the excitement of the crowd of over 500 attendees with a dizzying array of features culminating as the Cynergy team placed a call to Barack Obama from their Silverlight Facebook application using VoIP technology and left a message "Hello from SXSW" on the Obama campaign's answering machine.

Earlier in the competition, Cynergy won the Los Angeles regional PhizzPop Design Challenge. To address the design problem set forth by the final competition, the five regional award winners built applications that addressed a design problem called "Citizenship in the 21st Century." The challenge was to create an engagement spanning multiple platforms including Mobile, Web, Desktop, Media Center, Portable and Kiosk that harnessed the power of social media and other Web 2.0 philosophies, helping people get engaged and enabling them to collect and evaluate information about relevant issues. Online identity, privacy, authority of online sources and self-regulating community were all issues that needed to be addressed by the PhizzPop Design Challenge. The design problem statement posed: "We devote so much design energy to creating an iPod or a BMW, why not do the same for our democracy?"

The PhizzPop Design Challenge Finals judges were Bill Scott, director, UI Engineering, Netflix; Peter Merholz, president and founder, Adaptive Path; Dan Burkhart, Flock.com; and Silona Bonewald, ElecTech.

About Cynergy Systems

Cynergy is the global leader in the design and development of Rich Internet Applications specializing in Microsoft Silverlight and WPF as well as Adobe Flex and AIR. Using its proven LookFirst™ approach to the design and development process, Cynergy has created rich, powerful business and consumer applications for companies across nearly every vertical including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and government markets.

Cynergy is privately held and headquartered in Washington, D.C.; the Company's U.S. field operations include Rochester, N.Y., Grand Rapids, Mich., and San Diego, Calif. Cynergy's European operation is based in London, United Kingdom and its Asia Pacific operations are located in Taipei, Taiwan and Sydney, Australia. More information about Cynergy can be accessed at http://www.cynergysystems.com and samples of their work can be found at http://tv.cynergysystems.com.

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