Company and individuals anonymized.
The Situation
A manufacturing and distribution company had experienced remarkable growth — quadrupling revenue in a single year. To support that trajectory, leadership built out a back office to match: a complex on-premise technology stack supported by five full-time equivalent (FTE) professionals, anchored by an enterprise ERP system designed for a much larger, more complicated operation.
Then the business hit a downturn. Monthly revenue dropped almost 50% in six weeks. The growth that had justified the infrastructure didn’t materialize. What remained was a company carrying a technology overhead built for a version of itself that no longer existed.
The Board had brought in a CFO to work with the Founder and President to get matters turned around. The CFO had a long resume, including prior success taking a high-growth company public. We had been of use to him in that endeavor, and he asked us to come help him again.
The Problem
The mismatch was expensive and compounding:
Overbuilt infrastructure. The ERP system was an off-brand platform engineered for large-scale manufacturing complexity — far more than the company actually needed. Supporting it required specialized skills that commanded premium salaries.
Five FTEs to maintain the status quo. A significant portion of the company’s cost base was dedicated to keeping the lights on for systems that existed to serve a business twice its current size.
No path forward without a change. The company needed to resume growth, but the weight of its technology costs was consuming margin that should have been funding that growth.
What We Did
We designed and executed a two-phase technology simplification and cost reduction plan.
Phase 1 — Standardize and outsource the tech stack.
We went layer by layer through the existing infrastructure, identifying what could be standardized, what could be outsourced, and what could be eliminated entirely. The goal was to reduce the specialized skill set requirements that made in-house IT staffing so expensive.
The plan: promote the Network Administrator, having her handle daily operations and manage the outsourced activities as needed. People management didn’t suit her skillset and she chose to leave. So we pivoted from a transitional role to providing ongoing IT direction on a fractional basis, adding network administration to the collection of outsourced resources.
Over the course of Phase 1, the other four IT positions were eliminated as their responsibilities were standardized, outsourced, or absorbed by the new toolchain.
The result: overall IT overhead expense was reduced from about $1 million to under $150,000 (current dollars).
Phase 2 — Right-size the ERP.
With the immediate cost problem addressed, we structured a new ERP selection process built around a simpler set of requirements — what the company actually needed, not what it had inherited. The selection criteria focused on mid-market platforms the company could use with minimal IT support.
In less than one year we went Live with a new system: from management decision to make the change, through software/vendor selection to first period close.
What Changed
The company moved onto a user-friendly, proven, widely supported ERP that its own people could navigate. No specialized IT staff required. No dependency on a vendor ecosystem built for enterprises ten times its size.
The client was pleased and retained us on an ongoing basis. Over the following five years, even the fractional IT support requirement continued to shrink — from roughly three days a week down to one — as the tech stack proved stable and self-sufficient.
The company was able to redirect the freed-up margin toward growth. The back office that had been a drag became invisible — which is exactly what a back office should be.
The Takeaway
Technology built for one version of a company can become a liability when the business changes. The answer isn’t always to upgrade — sometimes it’s to simplify. The right system is the one your team can actually use, maintain, and grow with, without a dedicated IT department to keep it running.
Right-sizing isn’t a retreat. It’s how you free up the resources to move forward.
Industry: Manufacturing & Distribution | Engagement type: Technology simplification → ERP selection