Legacy Modernization in Private Equity Portfolio

The Terrain

Inherited ERP zoos and shadow IT from acquisitions that were never properly integrated.

Buy-and-build without integrate-and-simplify produces the ERP zoo: four ERPs, three payroll systems, a dozen department-level SaaS subscriptions nobody centrally knows about, and key processes running on one analyst's Access database. The zoo isn't just costly — it makes the platform hard to diligence, hard to report on, and hard to sell.

The Moves

• Inventory the real estate — licensed, shadow, and spreadsheet — in the first two weeks.
• Pick the survivor systems by data gravity and exit story, not by which CFO argues loudest.
• Consolidate in waves tied to fiscal calendars so finance never loses a close.
• Document as you go — the data room builds itself and diligence stops being an archaeology dig.