Case Study: Post-Acquisition Stabilization: Standing Up Finance & Ops in 90 Days

Introduction

Acquiring businesses is straightforward compared to integrating them. Many companies discover this too late — after the deal closes, when four separate finance systems, four HR platforms, four sets of processes, and four cultures are expected to operate as one. For a private equity-backed healthcare consulting and lobbying firm that had grown aggressively through acquisition but had never actually integrated a single business it had bought, the gap between strategy and execution had become impossible to ignore. Altum Strategy Group was brought in to close it.

The Challenge

The client had completed three acquisitions and needed to integrate all four entities — including the parent — simultaneously. Each business brought its own finance system, its own HR and payroll arrangements, its own technology stack, and its own ways of working. There was no established integration methodology, no playbook, and no prior experience within the organization to draw on.

The stakes were high. The client’s growth strategy depended on acquisitions continuing to function as a lever for scale. Without a disciplined integration capability, each new acquisition would add complexity. The business needed not just to complete this integration, but to build the organizational muscle to do it again — faster and better — every time.

The core challenges were:

• Four entities to integrate simultaneously, with no prior integration experience at the parent level
• Multiple overlapping finance systems, HR platforms, email environments, and operational tools with no clear future-state architecture
• Business processes across the three acquisitions that were inconsistent with parent-level standards, requiring change management across newly formed business units
• No unified HR and payroll infrastructure to support employees coming from multiple prior HRIS and PEO arrangements
• Stakeholder communication across four entities — including at the parent level — that had to be managed carefully and consistently throughout

The Solution

Altum’s work spanned technology, process, people, and organizational design. The engagement was structured to move with urgency while ensuring that decisions made under pressure would hold up over time.

1. Technology Due Diligence and Future-State Architecture

• Altum conducted a technology feasibility assessment across all four entities, mapping existing systems and evaluating which would prevail as the future-state environment
• The acquirer’s core ERP and Microsoft technology stack were selected as the standard, with mission-critical systems unique to individual businesses retained where genuinely necessary and others eliminated to reduce cost and complexity
• All entities were migrated into the acquirer’s Microsoft tenant, providing a unified technology foundation from day one

2. Business Process Mapping and Alignment

• Altum documented all parent-level business processes end-to-end — accounts payable, general ledger, project accounting, and others — creating the definitive standard against which each acquisition was measured
• Gaps between acquisition processes and parent standards were identified and closed through structured change management, coaching, and training with the leaders of each newly formed business unit

3. HR System Implementation and People Integration

• A net-new HR system was implemented to bring all employees across all four entities onto a single payroll platform, replacing a fragmented mix of prior HRIS and PEO arrangements
• The implementation covered the full range of employment types and agreements across the combined organization, unifying the workforce infrastructure in parallel with the technology and process work

4. Integration Playbook

• As a lasting outcome of the engagement, Altum built an integration playbook that codified the technology standards, process frameworks, and decision rights the client would use for every future acquisition
• The playbook transformed a one-time project into a repeatable capability — giving a PE-backed acquirer the operational infrastructure to grow through acquisition with confidence and consistency

The Results

The engagement delivered immediate integration outcomes and longer-term strategic capability:

• All four entities integrated onto a single ERP, Microsoft technology stack, and unified HR and payroll platform
• Parent-level business processes adopted across the combined organization, with gaps closed through structured change management
• Technology costs reduced by eliminating redundant systems and retaining only mission-critical applications
• Integration timelines met (90 days) — an outcome the client described as genuinely surprising given the scope and complexity of what was executed simultaneously
• An integration playbook delivered, giving the organization a repeatable, standards-based approach to every future acquisition
• The combined organization’s value proposition became sharper and more clearly differentiated in the market, supporting significant growth in the healthcare consulting and lobbying space

Conclusion

Post-acquisition integration is where deals are won or lost. The transaction creates the opportunity; the integration determines whether that opportunity becomes value. For organizations that grow through acquisition — particularly those backed by private equity — the ability to integrate quickly, cleanly, and without disrupting operations is not a nice-to-have. It is the capability that makes the strategy viable.

For CEOs, CFOs, and private equity operating partners navigating multi-entity integration, Altum Strategy Group brings the operational discipline, change management expertise, and technical capability to move quickly without cutting corners — and to leave the organization stronger and more capable than before.