Designing the IT Operating Model for an Aggressive Roll-Up

Adding several operating companies to a platform quickly can create an uncoordinated IT workforce that erodes profit.

Deal teams routinely plan pre-close restructuring across commercial, operations, and finance. IT workforce design often receives less attention until payroll costs outpace growth and service quality affects employees and customers.

Each acquisition may leave IT directors, system administrators, and help desks in silos, with separate vendor relationships, ticketing systems, technology standards, and critical processes. Protecting operating leverage requires a deliberate transition from site-by-site IT management to a centralized functional model.

For aggressive roll-ups, that transition typically involves five steps:

1. Hire an experienced platform-level CIO.
   The candidate needs rapid-growth acquisition experience and should own the IT operating model, workforce plan, governance, and integration playbook.

2. Build Centers of Excellence.
   Establish platform capabilities in Business Applications, Data and Reporting, Infrastructure, and Security. Existing subject-matter experts across operating companies can fill these roles, preserving institutional knowledge while standardizing execution.

3. Transition local IT leaders into regional roles.
   Strong local IT leaders can link the centralized CoEs and service desk with local management, keeping the platform responsive to operating-company needs. This creates career paths while reducing duplicate IT leadership.

4. Centralize end-user support.
   Consolidate onto one service desk and ticketing system, with Tier 1 and Tier 2 groups staffed by qualified existing local staff. This standardizes processes, improves service-level visibility, and allows resources to be allocated across the platform based on demand.

5. Create dedicated integration capacity.
   For platforms acquiring three or more companies per year, a dedicated integration team should execute a consistent post-acquisition playbook while core IT maintains reliable service delivery. Asking steady-state resources to run daily operations while integrating acquisitions reduces service quality and increases the risk of critical failures.

Internal vs External Resources

Many roll-ups acquire companies with little or no dedicated IT staff, leaving insufficient internal talent for Centers of Excellence, regional leadership, service desk, and integration roles.

The right model may combine internal leadership & institutional knowledge with external specialists, managed service providers, or outsourced functional teams. The mix depends on acquisition pace, geographic footprint, technology environment, and internal capability.

A well-designed IT operating model allows the platform to scale predictably, preserve service quality, and protect margins from uncoordinated overhead.

How does your team handle IT leadership, support, and integration capacity for a buy-and-build strategy?