Mike Dionne is the CFO of RightNetworks, a private equity-backed SaaS company with 350 employees. Their private equity sponsor was regularly evaluating acquisition targets, and Mike needed to establish a finance function that could support new acquisitions.
Mike shared RightNetworks’ experience leveraging Consero’s Finance as a Service (FaaS) model to streamline financial operations, enabling the organization to effectively manage acquisitions and focus on strategic initiatives.
About RightNetworks
Right Networks is an application service provider specializing in hosting QuickBooks for small businesses and accounting firms. The company is PE-backed with over 300 employees and $100 million in annual revenue.
Challenges
The company faced significant operational hurdles related to acquisitions. Before partnering with Consero:
- They recently completed three acquisitions
- The acquisition process was resource-intensive
- The finance team struggled to efficiently integrate new businesses
- The CFO’s role was primarily focused on transactional accounting and closing books
RightNetworks lacked the capacity to scale its financial operations to handle acquisition demands efficiently, and needed a scalable, repeatable process to handle future acquisition opportunities seamlessly.
Transforming the CFO Role with Strategic Partnership
Before Consero, Mike spent roughly 50% of his time on transactional accounting, closing books, and importing data. This focus limited his ability to act as a strategic partner for the organization.
Consero’s partnership fundamentally changed the company’s approach to financial management and acquisitions:
- Reduced time spent on transactional accounting from approximately 50% to less than 5%
- CFO now dedicates over 95% of time to strategic initiatives, including exploring acquisition opportunities
- Provided confidence in rapidly onboarding acquisition targets
- Developed standardized reporting processes
Transitioning to Consero shifted Mike’s role from a transactional focus to a strategic partner in the business and freed his focus on high-impact initiatives that drive growth.
Enabling Fast, Flexible Acquisition Processes
RightNetworks’ private equity investors frequently present acquisition opportunities, and Consero’s support enables the company to act quickly and confidently on these opportunities.
Consero’s provided key improvements in financial reporting and business intelligence that would enable seamless acquisition integration. The new approach offered multiple strategic advantages:
- Increased flexibility in handling acquisitions
- Faster integration of new businesses
- More strategic focus for the finance team
- Ability to quickly evaluate and execute acquisition opportunities
The streamlined process gave PE investors confidence that RightNetworks can execute acquisitions efficiently.
Leveraging SIMPL for Financial Reporting
Consero’s cloud-based software platform, SIMPL, enables RightNetworks to generate standardized and comprehensive reports that include real-time, actual operating results versus plan and prior year, as well as key metrics.
Benefits
- Leaders gain clear visibility into performance across functional areas
- Access to real-time data simplifies decision-making and enhances transparency
- Actionable insights that are easy to access and interpret
- Standardized reporting aligns business performance with strategic goals
Recommendations for Leveraging FaaS
Mike and RightNetworks experienced a remarkable transformation by adopting Finance as a Service. He strongly recommends the Consero model for companies managing acquisitions or seeking to elevate their finance team’s impact:
- Improve overall financial management and reporting
- Accelerate financial processes
- Transform finance teams into strategic partners rather than transactional ones
- Gain flexibility in business operations
If you need greater speed, flexibility, and strategic finance capabilities, Consero offers robust and tailored solutions to help you achieve greater growth and efficiency. Get in touch for a free consultation to learn more.
