Skip to main content

Resources

The Post-Acquisition Experience for HCIT Businesses

Volaris Group is home to over 150 vertical market software businesses across the globe. In 2019, we began to place a strategic focus on the Healthcare IT (HCIT) space and have since acquired four companies that make up our growing Healthcare portfolio. These businesses include:

  • Criterions (2019) – EHR and practice management software
  • Clarity Group (2020) – Incident reporting software
  • medaptus (2020) – Revenue cycle management and physician assignment software
  • Sansio (2021) – HealthEMS ePCR software

We met with our Healthcare portfolio Group Leader to discuss what HCIT businesses can expect post-acquisition with Volaris Group.

What are the benefits of an HCIT company joining Volaris Group?

One benefit of joining Volaris Group is that businesses will keep their autonomy and maintain their legacy. We do not change the structure of the business or the way that the business operates. Companies that join our Healthcare portfolio are going to be able to stand on their own as a platform business and will not lose their identity within the larger group. Another important advantage is the access and sharing of best practices gained over 25 years with the acquisition of hundreds of software businesses.

What is your involvement in the post-acquisition process for a company in HCIT?

Once we make the acquisition, I support businesses with the integration process to help them feel confident and excited about joining the Volaris network and our Healthcare portfolio. We have weekly meetings where we go through exactly what we’re going to be doing today, tomorrow, next week, and the next 30, 60, and 90 days. We discuss financials, IT, hiring needs, sales or marketing needs, and more. Our goal is to provide support in any area where there’s immediate attention needed; it just depends on the business.

How does senior leadership of the company being acquired get involved?

The best way to get senior leadership involved is through our Volaris 101 training. This helps the team get acquainted with each of the different operating areas that we benchmark and report on during quarterly reviews. Outside of the formal training, the best thing I can do as the integration manager is to listen to where the business is at and figure out how I can help them achieve their goals. I will provide best practices and guidance as deemed appropriate by the team. We also have quarterly update meetings so each healthcare business unit can share information on key successes and challenges faced in the previous quarter and provide a look ahead at the goals and objectives that will be addressed in the coming quarters.

Another great opportunity is our global conference, Quadrants, the world’s largest gathering of vertical market software leaders. The goal of the event is to bring 1,500+ business leaders together to share knowledge and best practices related to acquiring and operating software businesses. The event focuses on small group sessions, where leaders can network while sharing their experiences and insights.

How does Volaris Group support organic growth?

We support organic growth (OG) by providing best practices and resources from other Volaris businesses that have done this successfully. This is often achieved through initiatives. The process of developing an initiative creates new possibilities for both employees and customers to add to their current product or open new markets. Employees can meet new challenges and explore new technologies while providing innovative products and services to customers. The key is to have customers contributing financially so they have skin in the game and ultimately the product developed is what the customer, and the larger market, wants.

Another example is providing support with price increases. Many businesses that I’ve worked with have not done price increases on a regular basis, and in some cases, businesses have gone 15 or 20 years without ever reassessing pricing. This is an area where we are able to provide guidance and support to our businesses. For example, here is a great article on Rethinking Product Pricing.

We also stress the need to focus on selling into your base – we refer to this as Back to Base selling. This is often overlooked as the sales organization focuses most or all their attention on acquiring new logos. Typically, back to base sales have a shorter sales cycle and require less discounting so it is a great way to have a predictable pipeline that will drive OG.

How does Volaris Group support sales and marketing efforts?

We have a global network of B2B sales and marketing professionals who continually share best practices and new ideas to improve their business processes. For example, the businesses in our Healthcare portfolio implement scorecard goals for all team members to work with marketing to develop content. In addition, we offer support in website management, SEO, lead generation, paid advertising, email marketing, and more. We have businesses that have built personas which helped drive people organically to our websites to transact and have a lower customer acquisition cost. These efforts have successfully influenced the pipeline for sales, and helped our businesses learn more about their customers along the way.

How does Volaris support businesses over the long-term?

We provide a stable, forever home for the businesses that join our portfolio because of our buy-and-hold forever philosophy. It’s part of our DNA. With the support of Volaris Group and our parent company, Constellation Software (TSE:CSU), business owners know that our goal is to work together to drive long-term growth. This gives business owners peace of mind that we are not looking to flip the business and sell again in three to five years which is the typical private equity model.

What is the best part about supporting the businesses we acquire?

After a business joins Volaris Group, it is great when the leaders come to me with a problem they’re trying to solve. I enjoy working with them and walking through what each route to a solution could look like, and hearing what creative ideas new leaders come up with to solve problems. I also love pointing them in the direction of other experts within our global network or to our other healthcare business unit leaders who often have dealt with a similar challenge and can provide feedback.

——

Interested in joining our Healthcare portfolio? Feel free to email Our Team or Contact Us today!