Customer Story

Project Hammer: Platform IT Strategy Results in $1B in Profitable M&A's

A consumer services company, established in 2016, quickly became a national leader in home maintenance and repair services specializing in heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services. The organization realized that to make a greater growth impact with their investments and services, they needed a consolidated platform IT strategy.

 

Customer Story - Project Hammer

Client:

Consumer services company

Company Size:

Acquired six different regional entities across the Southeast, Texas, and Southwest

Industry:

Consumer Services

Project Type

Security Services

Platform Creation

Data & Analytics

Two Coworkers Informal Meeting Laptop

The Challenge

The company had six different entities serving its customers nationwide, causing the organization as a whole to struggle under disparate financial and customer management systems. Business units also faced redundant systems and processes in IT and accounting. The company wanted to reduce its operational costs and improve visibility into financial decision-making, yet found it hard to do so with inconsistent and segmented systems.

Our Solution

Platform IT
Strategy

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The Roll-up Strategy

RKON created an integration initiative for platform IT that would serve as the foundation for the whole organization. We developed this project post-close, so once the agreement was in place, the company could move quickly and consolidate its entities into an efficient, single-functioning operation with one set of finances.

 

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Platform Creation

Cloud-based solutions and outsourced IT were implemented to enable organizational realignment, thus creating a centralized operation while institutionalizing key processes. The Front Office was standardized into a SaaS platform and the field techs' workflow was simplified so that they could efficiently perform their work yet minimize their data entry and eliminate paperwork. This helped organic sales increase in the first and subsequent years.

Back-Office Transformation

The back-office was also transformed with all SaaS applications and eliminated the need for traditional data centers. This also simplified and improved their Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan. 

 

 

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Centralized Call Center

Every office was standardized for infrastructure and a centralized Call Center was implemented. The combined efforts of these projects led to the final phase of a Data Analytics project to enable data-driven decisions across all facets of their business. 

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Risk Management Program

A Risk Management Program was implemented to mitigate liabilities and maintain its brand reputation.

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Bolt-on Consolidation

The company eliminated redundant systems, processes, and staff through consolidation for greater efficiencies with every acquisition. The Platform IT strategy enabled them to acquire on average 4-6 companies (both small and large) every year to help them achieve more than $1B in revenue by year 3. 

This improved visibility and transparency in decision0making and increased execution speed so that the initial private equity firm was able to achieve a very successful exit in approximately 2.5 years when the initial investment was 3-5 years.

This led to massive growth in revenue but was also an attractive target for acquisition as it was a scalable, secure, and data-driven Platform with a proven track record for growth. This led to a successful exit at a maximized valuation. Our partnership with the consumer services company enhanced their overall project collaboration and cohesiveness, which fostered key results. For example, the platform we implemented saved the company $250k per year. The accelerated time-to-market also increased their returns and allowed early redeployment of funds. The private equity firm that bought them was able to consolidate all entities into one in less than three years.

The Outcome

$ 250 K

SAVED PER YEAR

4 -6

AVG. ACQUISITIONS PER YEAR

$ 1 B

IN REVENUE BY YEAR 3

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