Executing a Carve-Out and Back Office Stand Up For a Mid-Market Apparel Company
Challenge
A middle market private equity firm acquired a specialty sports apparel company from a large multinational corporation. The new entity needed to extricate itself from its legacy parent systems and stand up its own financial and operational infrastructure prior to its pending full-service transition services agreement (TSA) cancellation. Since the infrastructure from the parent company was more complex than the standalone entity required, simplified processes and new system architecture were needed, as well as organizational changes to the finance and operations teams, on an accelerated timeline.
How we helped
Riveron was engaged to help carve out the new entity from its parent company’s systems, processes, and back office within a six-month window before the TSA expired. The effort included partnering with the apparel company and PE fund to create an overarching roadmap and plan, develop customized accounting processes, stand up a new back office, and select and implement a fit-for-purpose ERP solution. Riveron also initiated a project management office to provide oversight across the five independent workstreams and the third-party logistics provider in order to meet the looming transition deadline.
Program Planning and Governance
Conducted a current state assessment and future state design to provide the new entity and parent company a much-needed roadmap and project plan to organize the carve-out
Initiated a project management office to monitor the project across five interdependent workstreams, including the systems implementation and integration, warehouse conversion, TSA separation activities, and communication and change management
Provided oversight and increased transparency on status, risks, and interdependent tasks of the third-party logistics provider leading the ERP implementation process and warehouse conversion
Back Office Stand Up
Developed the future state design of the company’s order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, record-to-report, and other operational and marketing processes
Designed a streamlined systems architecture and a future state organization, including detailed job descriptions and skills profiles for each position, assisted with interviews with candidates, and developed a plan for sequencing the onboarding/training of new employees
ERP System Selection and Implementation
Managed the ERP selection process, including gathering business requirements and identifying customizations needed from the selected “off-the-shelf” NetSuite solution
Identified systems gaps affecting the future state system architecture and business processes and assisted with critical design decisions during the configuration and testing phases
Led the migration process, including data gathering, remediating data gaps, and assisting with the data upload process prior to the ERP system going live
Results
Leveraging Riveron’s deep expertise in carve-outs and finance transformation, our client was able to execute a large-scale program and become an operationally independent entity under a compressed timeframe. The company also benefitted from new, tailored processes that fit the unique demands of the business, as opposed to the complexities of the company’s prior multinational parent. Additionally, the simplified system architecture reduced the distinct finance and accounting systems from 23 to seven, and with the redefined organization and roles, the accounting team was able to operate more effectively and focus on areas of specialization rather than supporting multiple operational areas. The company’s customers also benefitted from the new infrastructure as it enabled the company to provide more direct and personalized data-driven customer service.