I. Executive Summary

A leading provider of hardware and software services to prison systems, faced immense pressure to modernize its antiquated business systems in the wake of rapid growth, including a revenue-doubling deal with the California Department of Rehabilitation. Grappling with fragmented legacy infrastructure, significant operational inefficiencies, and a substantial inventory “leak” of valuable assets, this Hi-tech software platform provider needed a strategic overhaul to achieve its vision as a premier market leader. Raining Virtue partnered with the provider to architect a holistic future-state technology ecosystem, rationalize disparate systems, optimize critical business processes, and initiate a profound organizational transformation, laying the foundation for scalable growth and enhanced operational discipline.

II. Client Profile: Hi-tech devices and software platform provider

Hi-tech devices and software platform provider operates as a key part of an umbrella company that provides comprehensive hardware and software services to correctional facilities across the nation. Their unique business model involves owning the entire ecosystem for tablet hardware and providing tailored software services, generating revenue primarily through these services. Hi-tech devices and software platform provider boasts an impressive client roster, including the Texas Department of Corrections and Justice and, most recently, the California Department of Rehabilitation, a pivotal deal that significantly expanded their market presence and nearly doubled their revenue.

III. The Vision

Hi-tech devices and software platform provider aspired to solidify its position as the premier service provider in the correctional technology space, evolving into a definitive market leader. This ambitious vision was fueled by rapid growth, particularly the substantial increase in revenue from new large-scale contracts. To support this expansion and transform its service offerings, Hi-tech devices and software platform provider sought to:

• Advance Service Offerings: Transition from traditional payphone and kiosk models to advanced, IP-based services like streaming media, video calls, and voice calls, and develop mechanisms to monetize these new services.
• Create Third-Party Marketplaces: Envision a “Google Play Store”-like experience within the correctional ecosystem, enabling curated third-party applications and services for incarcerated individuals, their families, and facility administration.
• Shift Business Model: Move from a legacy co-op structure to a more centralized franchise model, aligning with a private equity partnership focused on building enterprise value through acquisition and standardization.
• Achieve Operational Standardization: Implement standardized processes and systems across its growing network of corporate-owned and independent franchisee stores, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience while enabling long-term scalability.

IV. The Challenge

Hi-tech devices and software platform provider’s ambitious growth trajectory collided with a complex web of deeply entrenched challenges:

• Antiquated and Fragmented Systems: The company relied on very old, homegrown infrastructure, including an on-premise version of Great Plains nearing end-of-support. They also managed three to four heavily customized Salesforce instances, leading to licensing issues, unclear roles, redundant processes, and inefficient workarounds not aligned with system design.
• Operational Inefficiencies and Lack of Visibility: Teams struggled with inefficient manual processes, often working across multiple disjointed systems to complete workflows. Financial reporting, in particular, was cumbersome and reliant on BI tools due to Great Plains’ misconfiguration, raising auditability and scalability concerns.
• Significant Inventory Leakage: Hi-tech devices and software platform provider faced a costly 6% inventory “leak” from the disappearance of valuable tablet assets, directly impacting their cost of goods sold (COGS) due to a critical lack of end-to-end asset tracking and visibility.
• Strained Product Teams: Product development teams were heavily burdened with operational tasks, such as managing billing models and service modules embedded within product platforms. This diverted their focus from innovation and delayed responses to critical changes like new FCC regulations.
• Organizational Resistance to Change: Past attempts at centralized ERP implementations had met with significant internal resistance, even leading to a previous CEO’s dismissal. This history necessitated an extremely careful approach to any new standardization or centralization efforts across the organization, including board members and long-tenured executives.
• Disjointed Customer Experience: The independent operations of various store groups created a “clueless customer experience” within their online presence and limited omnichannel capabilities, hindering scalability for new services or adjacent market entries (e.g., plumbing).

V. The Raining Virtue Solution

Raining Virtue engaged with the Hi-tech devices and software platform provider to deliver a multi-faceted business systems modernization program, addressing immediate pain points while architecting for future growth and scalability:

• Holistic Current and Future State Architecture: We conducted a thorough assessment of the platform provider’s existing back-office ecosystem. Based on this, we designed a comprehensive future-state architecture, identifying core ERP and CRM suites, alongside tertiary systems (e.g., field service, project management) to support specialized functions.
• Strategic “Telco” Business Model Shift: Raining Virtue identified parallels between the platform provider’s business and telecommunication MVNOs. We recommended incorporating a Business Support Systems (BSS) component into their core architecture. This strategic move aimed to pull operational functions out of product teams, enabling them to focus on innovation, while allowing a purpose-built BSS platform to manage complex operational concerns like billing, provisioning, and regulatory compliance.
• Facilitated Vendor Selection and Integration Partner Process: We guided the platform provider through a rigorous RFP and vendor selection process for their new ERP and CRM solutions. This involved evaluating both familiar vendors and new, potentially transformative platforms (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain). Raining Virtue managed the entire process, securing the selection of foundational systems and systems integrators (SIs).
• Executive Alignment and Strategic Change Management: Recognizing the historical resistance to change, Raining Virtue meticulously managed the change process. We facilitated crucial C-suite alignment sessions, securing pivotal decisions—such as the CEO’s directive to centralize the customer master across all store types—that empowered the entire organization to move forward. We employed a modified Prosci (A-CAR) change management framework to carefully sequence communications and bring stakeholders along on the journey, including managing sensitive relationships with incumbent franchisee ERP vendors.
• Interim Business Improvement and Readiness: When the full program implementation was deferred due to funding and ownership changes, Raining Virtue pivoted to an “interim business improvement” phase. This involved deploying targeted improvements within the existing ecosystem, particularly in inventory management, by implementing disciplines around serialized inventory tracking and scanning points. This work not only addressed the critical tablet containment issue but also served as a vital preparatory phase, driving process learning and data readiness for the eventual transition to the new ecosystem.

VI. The Results

Raining Virtue’s partnership yielded transformative results for Hi-tech devices and software platform provider, positioning them for sustained growth and operational excellence:

• Achieved Strategic Alignment: Raining Virtue successfully aligned Hi-tech devices and software platform provider’s technology strategy directly with its ambitious business outcomes. The CEO lauded the proposed solution as “the most holistic solution that I’ve seen to address those problems,” underscoring the depth and breadth of the proposed transformation.
• Enabled Scalable Growth: The new architecture provided the critical foundation for Hi-tech devices and software platform provider to absorb and leverage the 40% revenue growth from the California deal, enabling them to manage unprecedented scale and preparing them to pursue future large-scale opportunities with confidence.
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings: By designing a new ERP and CRM backbone and introducing the BSS concept, Hi-tech devices and software platform provider gained the ability to standardize processes, eliminate redundancies, and move operations out of product development. Immediate interim work directly attacked the 6% tablet inventory leak through enhanced inventory visibility and management, resulting in significant cost savings.
• Improved Organizational Effectiveness: The strategic architectural design and subsequent change management efforts fostered a clearer separation of responsibilities, allowing product teams to focus on innovation rather than operational burden.
• Informed, Future-Forward Technology Decisions: Raining Virtue guided Hi-tech devices and software platform provider to select a modern, open-ecosystem ERP solution (Microsoft Dynamics 365) that best meets their needs for standardization and future AI/advanced data capabilities, moving them past familiar but less suitable legacy options.
• Prepared for Enduring Transformation: Even with program deferment, the ongoing interim business improvement work, driven by Raining Virtue, is actively preparing the organization—its processes, data, and people—for a smoother transition to the modernized ecosystem, ensuring conscious strategic trade-offs during this period.

VII. Conclusion

This case study highlights Raining Virtue’s exceptional capability to drive complex, enterprise-wide business system modernizations. For Hi-tech devices and software platform provider, our strategic foresight, deep technical expertise, and nuanced approach to change management were instrumental in transforming an antiquated, fragmented ecosystem into a robust, scalable foundation. By aligning technology strategy with ambitious business goals, Raining Virtue empowered Hi-tech devices and software platform provider to embrace rapid growth, achieve significant operational efficiencies, and solidify its position as a market leader, truly embodying “Results Done Right” in a challenging industry.