Story · Insurance · Mergers
Three companies, one accounting system, nineteen years of records
An independent agency bought two competitors. Each came with its own IT company, its own accounting system and its own way of doing things. Three providers were asked to combine them, and after months of meetings nobody had produced a plan.
The situation
The owner had done the hard part. Two acquisitions, three offices, and a staff who had all agreed to become one agency. What nobody had solved was the plumbing: three accounting systems with records going back nineteen years, three email domains, three sets of file shares, and three IT companies each protecting their own turf.
Every meeting ended the same way. One provider wanted everyone on their platform. Another said the old data could not be migrated safely. The third stopped returning calls. What the owner feared most was losing a customer's history in the shuffle: a policy from 2007 that an underwriter would one day need.
What we did
We started with an inventory rather than a proposal. Every system, every account, every vendor contract, every file share, written down in one document the owner could read. Then a sequence: which system survives, what moves first, what gets archived rather than migrated, and what happens on the day each office switches.
The accounting consolidation was the long pole. Nineteen years of transactions across three systems, with overlapping customer records and different chart-of-accounts structures. We ran the migration in stages, reconciled each stage against the source, and kept the old systems readable until the owner's accountant signed off on the numbers.
Email and files moved onto one Microsoft 365 tenant, one department at a time, so the phones kept ringing and policies kept binding. When it was done, the three offices consolidated into one building, and we coordinated the carrier, the cabling and the move so the new office was working on the first morning.
"Three companies could not write the plan because each of them was writing it for themselves. We wrote it for the client."
How the account manager puts itWhat changed
ResolvedOne agency, one office, one accounting system, and nineteen years of history that an underwriter can still pull up. The two IT companies that came with the acquisitions are gone. The staff have one helpdesk number and one person to ask about a roadmap.
The guide behind this story
ChecklistIT due diligence when buying a business
The technology questions to ask before the letter of intent, what the answers do to the price, and how integration goes when it is planned.
Read the guideOrder the internet circuit the week the lease is signed. Carriers take six to twelve weeks. Nothing else on a move fails as often.
The relocation checklist Did you knowA backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan. Ask for the date of the last tested restore.
What to actually testQuestions people ask about this
Do we have to move everyone to one accounting system?
Usually yes, and usually it is worth it. Running two systems means two sets of reports, two renewals, and a reconciliation problem that never goes away. The exception is when a system is being retired anyway, in which case we archive it readable rather than migrate it.
How long does a consolidation like this take?
Months, not weeks, and the calendar is set by the accounting close and the lease, not by IT. We plan the technical work around the dates the business already has.
Can you work with the IT company the acquired business already has?
Yes, and we will be polite about it. But someone has to own the plan, and a plan with three authors is not a plan.
"Great to work with Zach. Excellent follow-up and directions. Even helped lower our bill from Xfinity!"
Client, 2024 surveyMore from the survey wall- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Thanks for the hard work. I was kept informed with regular updates until the concern was resolved."
Jeff, insurance brokerageBuying a business, or being bought?
Talk to a partner before the paperwork is signed. The IT part is easier when it is planned rather than discovered.
Talk to a partnerTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.