Digital Synergies is the consulting practice of David Seffren — an information technology executive with more than forty years in the field, twenty-five of them building and leading IT for one of the largest dental laboratory networks in North America.
David Seffren
Principal · Minneapolis, MN
Background
From 1996 to 2021, David served as Senior Vice President of Information Technology at Dental Services Group — one of the largest dental laboratory networks in North America, and the company’s senior-most technology executive, reporting directly to the CEO. The business manufactured dental restorations to specific patient prescription across more than forty facilities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Over that quarter century he participated in twenty-three business unit acquisitions and thirty-two location integrations, standardizing IT platforms, processes, and converting and integrating historical data for each site. He championed the full ERP lifecycle from vendor evaluation through deployment and optimization, developed and deployed the company’s first CRM and customer-facing portal platforms, built the BI dashboards that reported actionable mission critical metrics to the executive team, and delivered multi-million-dollar savings through adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. He worked across all segments of the business: PE ownership group board, finance, operations, manufacturing, sales and marketing, distribution and delivery.
In April 2021, Dental Services Group was acquired by National Dentex, creating the largest dental laboratory network in North America with over 80 laboratory locations. Post-closing, David worked collaboratively to successfully integrate the IT teams.
He then served as Chief Technology Officer of Gurstel Law Firm, realigning IT operations for a nine-state legal practice, and as Vice President of Information Systems for the dental laboratory division of Desktop Metal, where he worked with three acquired companies to implement IT policies, operational efficiencies, modernization, and led the migration to a single Azure environment.
Before any of it, he founded and led two software companies as President and CEO. He has been the vendor, the operator, and the client. It is an unusual combination, and it is the reason David tends to know where a project is going to go wrong before it does.
Career
2025 — Present
Principal
Digital Synergies, LLC · Minneapolis, MN
2022 — 2025
VP, Information Systems — Dental Labs
Desktop Metal, Inc. · Burlington, MA
2021 — 2022
Chief Technology Officer
Gurstel Law Firm, P.C. · Minneapolis, MN
1996 — 2021
SVP, Information Technology
Dental Services Group · Minneapolis, MN
1984 — 1996
President & CEO
Digital Computer Software, Inc. · Minneapolis, MN
1981 — 1986
President & CEO
Computer Business Consultants, Ltd. · Peoria, IL
How we think about the work
Technology isn’t the point. Throughput, cost, quality, and margin are the point; technology is one of the levers. We start with how the business runs and work backward to the systems, which is the reverse of how most technology projects begin and one reason so many of them disappoint.
We’re also direct about scope. If a problem is smaller than you think, we’ll say so. If the right answer is a process change rather than software, we’ll say that too.
Education and affiliations
- B.S. Business Administration — Drake University
- InfraGard Twin Cities — FBI critical infrastructure partnership
- Franklin Covey — Four Disciplines of Execution
- American Management Association — DR & IT Alignment
- Gallup CliftonStrengths — Analytical, Strategic, Achiever
Who we work with
Based in Minneapolis, working with companies nationwide in any industry where operations have grown complex enough that the systems have stopped keeping up. That includes dental and medical laboratories, where the background runs deepest, and it extends well beyond them — manufacturing, distribution, legal and professional services, and multi-site operations of most kinds.
Engagements range from a focused assessment to long-term fractional CIO support. If you’re not sure which you need, that’s a reasonable place to start the conversation.