Lumine Group | Kansys Acquisition Case Study

Background

Founded in 1997 in Kansas, USA, Kansys began as a system integrator focusing on billing solutions through business support systems integration. Over time, the company expanded its competency to include software and application development related to billing.

In 2000, Kansys launched its own revenue management suite of products, which included mediation. In 2019, Kansys acquired part of Ericsson's enterprise and cloud billing business, originally named MetraTech, with the goal to help the specialized business support services company speed up its delivery of custom solutions.

Today, Kansys has effectively mediated, analyzed, and reconciled over 4 billion transactions each month and converted over 80 billing systems on 13 different platforms. Kansys has established itself as a supplier of mission-critical billing across customers in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and South America, with its newly branded Edge Cloud-based Billing Software.

Path to Acquisition

Prior to the MetraTech acquisition, Kansys was a services-based company. With the acquisition, Kansys gained both new customers and a product to sell, which was new to the organization. The organization soon realized its newfound ability to scale, but did not feel it had the resources necessary to do so.

“We had people reaching out about a sale, but nothing ever felt like the right fit,” said Joe Simmons, President of Kansys. “Then we were connected to Lumine through Advantage 360, a sister Lumine company, and were intrigued by what they could offer us. It made us rethink what a sale could be.”

Support to Scale, Expertise to Expand

These conversations began in January 2021, just over a year after Kansys acquired MetraTech. “In 2021, we were at a point where we had more customers and a larger business but didn’t have the in-house resources to sustain and grow this part of the business,” said Joe. “We were excited that Lumine could offer us this support!”

Lumine could offer Kansys exactly what they were looking for – in-house resources and support to scale, and the autonomy to continue to operate as their own standalone business. Joining Lumine could provide access to new customer leads via Lumine’s ecosystem of global customers, legal contractual support, HR/IT/Sales & Marketing support, and access to best practices to effectively grow their organization while maintaining their customer relationships and organizational culture.

3 Reasons Kansys Chose Lumine

Buy & Hold Forever

Kansys felt confident that their business, customers, and employees would be in safe and reliable hands, forever.

Keep The Culture

It was important to Kansys that the company would maintain its culture. At Lumine, all businesses operate autonomously, so the culture will always remain in their control.

The Lumine Ecosystem

Kansys was excited by the opportunity to join the Lumine ecosystem, gaining access to a group of industry leaders and leading global customers.

Growing the Business & Expanding the Market

Joining Lumine provides Kansys the unique opportunity to gain access to a global ecosystem of customers and learn from other Lumine businesses worldwide.

Kansys will have the opportunity to apply learnings to create industry specific applications and branding to reach a wider market. This concentrated focus on the communications and media industry will support the organization’s goal of driving growth.

“While our software is applied across many industries, we are excited to explore a deeper focus in the communications and media space,” said Joe. “Lumine is the expert in that, and we are intrigued to learn more from the organization and our sister companies.”

A Positive Customer Response

When sharing the news of acquisition to Kansys’ customers, the responses were mostly twofold. “The first group was concerned that they would be embarking on a buy, sell, repeat journey,” said Joe. However, Joe and Kansys team were quickly able to ease their concerns when explaining that Lumine is a buy and hold forever acquirer, meaning that Kansys would never be resold to a competitor. Their future was stable, being part of a larger organization that would support their desire to innovate and continuously strengthen customer relationships.

“Other customers were as excited as could be,” said Joe. “They saw us as being part of a larger organization and took away the concern of being a small ship out on your own. We have this large parent backing now that can assure them that we aren’t going anywhere.”

The Future of Growth

As Kansys begins a new chapter with Lumine, the team is eager to learn more about Lumine’s best practices via the Lumine Group Playbook, working to implement them across the organization, supported by Lumine’s in-house team of industry experts.

Kansys will continue to operate autonomously, prioritizing the best interest of their customers and employees, and maintaining their strong company culture. “The entire acquisition process, and meeting the sister companies, has been filled with good people. It’s been a good experience.”

Kansys has begun discovery conversations with different leaders across Lumine businesses. “We’re already reaching out to different sister companies,” said Joe. “The more we can talk to other companies and gain new expertise, the greater we believe our potential can be.”

Kansys joins Lumine to support a new chapter of growth