Note on privacy: Client identifiers and sensitive details have been anonymised/redacted.
Summary for busy readers
A national boiler‑maintenance company in France had acquired 40+ independent firms. The country CEO (non‑technical) needed control over fast‑growing servers, networks, providers and services—serving over 300 concurrent users out of 1,200 employees, including field technicians. Brimbor Consulting was hired to take end‑to‑end responsibility for IT coordination and integration, excluding budget ownership and group reporting. Our consultant coordinated vendors, unified systems, migrated data, maintained operations, recruited a Level‑1 technician and supervised his monitoring/supervision project. Outcome: a unified, governable IT landscape, smooth migrations with operational continuity, and a platform ready for the parent group’s later datacentre move.
Client context
- Organisation: National maintenance company (France), rapid roll‑up of 40+ acquired SMEs.
- Users: ~300 connected users daily, 1,200 staff total including field technicians.
- Starting point: Fragmented systems, multiple vendors, uneven standards and softwares; CEO needed clear decisions and continuity.
- Scope boundary: The consultant managed the programme operationally; budgets and group reporting remained with the CEO/parent group.
Challenges & risks
- Fragmentation across newly acquired entities (servers, domains, ISPs, line‑of‑business tools).
- Field operations continuity during migrations (dispatch, work orders, documentation).
- Vendor sprawl with overlapping contracts and unclear SLAs.
- Limited central standards (templates, access models, backup posture) slowing scale.
- Non‑technical executive sponsor requiring clear, decision‑ready options.
Objectives
- Centralise infrastructure for all acquired entities.
- Standardise systems and processes (virtual server templates, published applications).
- Sanitise and Migrate data from legacy systems to a unified platform.
- Coordinate vendors (web, ISPs, hosting/cloud, software).
- Ensure continuity for field ops and back‑office.
- Reduce load on the CEO with structured decision support.
Approach (execution + governance, no budget/reporting ownership)
- IT coordination & strategic oversight
- Reviewed vendor proposals; recommended options prioritising reliability, supportability and cost control.
- Built and ran a programme roadmap (migrations, new installs, updates) with clear gates and owners.
- Aligned internal teams, external contractors and newly onboarded IT from acquisitions.
- Data migration & integration
- Consolidated disparate databases and shares; standardised server/storage baselines.
- Planned change windows to avoid field disruption; verified integrity and access post‑cutover.
- Vendor & infrastructure management
- Guided selection of ISPs, hosting/cloud; rationalised contracts and services to remove overlaps.
- Tuned server and network configurations for performance and scalability.
- Introduced a backup & recovery plan with test restores.
- User & field support at scale
- Maintained channels covering ~300 concurrent users, including remote technicians.
- Standardised access, permissions and authentication for predictable onboarding.
- Team building & monitoring
- Recruited a Level‑1 technician to strengthen front‑line support.
- Supervised his monitoring/supervision project (alerts, dashboards, workload, escalation rules) to reduce mean time to detect-respond.
Outcomes
- Unified IT environment across acquired companies, ready to scale with further roll‑ups.
- Clear project governance with defined roles, owners and runbooks.
- Smooth data migrations with no material operational downtime reported.
- Working backup & recovery with verified test restores and documented Business Recovery Plan.
- Executive focus regained: CEO could concentrate on growth rather than IT firefighting.
- Standardised systems simplified maintenance and vendor management.
- Future‑proofed: the standardised environment enabled the parent company to migrate the whole stack to a European datacentre (Germany) with minimal disruption.
What similar organisations can reuse
- Establish a programme roadmap with site waves, exit criteria and rollback plans.
- Create gold templates (VMs, policies, access) before mass onboarding.
- Rationalise vendors & SLAs early; remove duplicated services.
- Run test restores and document recovery paths before major cutovers.
- Build a small L1 capability + monitoring to contain noise and accelerate response.
- Keep executive updates decision‑ready (options, risks, costs, recommendation).
Gotchas & limits
- Hidden dependencies in acquired stacks (licensing, bespoke tools) can block standardisation: document exceptions.
- Contract overlaps create sunk costs: time rationalisation with renewal dates.
- Field timing: avoid peak maintenance periods for cutovers; communicate early.
Next steps
- For similar roll‑up integrations or high‑pressure transitions, review Capabilities for larger organisations.
- If visibility is low at the outset, start with a structured IT audit for SMEs.
- To maintain steady operations post‑integration (L1/L2, hygiene, monitoring), consider Delegated IT leadership.
Need end‑to‑end IT integration during acquisitions—without losing operational continuity?