#HRTechChat Explores isolved's Acquisition of AAP

This past summer, isolved acquired AAP, an administrative services organization (ASO) and significant member of isolved's large network of similar companies using isolved's software-as-a-service solution for human capital management to carry out part or all of HR for their clients. Demonstrating why AAP is an especially good match for the vendor, this in-network acquisition underscores several of isolved's strengths. Joining me on the video podcast to explain were Andy Osborne, who was CEO of AAP for 20 years, and Lina Tonk, who has been with isolved for many years herself, becoming the organization's chief marketing officer shortly after her previous appearance on #HRTechChat. This acquisition of AAP reflects an important element of isolved's growth strategy. Bringing members of this network fully under the isolved brand is typically smooth and straightforward for these ASOs, professional employer organizations (PEOs), payroll service bureaus, and similar providers. Already using isolved's solution, they see business tending to continue as usual, and easily, for their clients. In the process, isolved grows in a highly sustainable way. In recent years isolved has built a wraparound ecosystem designed to cultivate this network. Firsthand, I've witnessed extra-exemplary ASOs and PEOs et al. from this network receive public recognition at isolved's annual user conference. As for AAP, infusing its culture into isolved's proved intuitive, a natural step benefiting from the strength of relationships between leaders at both organization. "Andy and I go way back," Lina said. "From the moment they deployed the isolved platform, I remember thinking, 'They will be such a good fit for us. And, when he made the decision to move into an acquisition with us, we knew that he had checked every single box to ask, 'Are my customers going to be okay? Is my team going to be okay?' They built such a strong culture for their customers that, as we transfer them through, you can see it; you can live and breathe it." Lina's words make lots of sense as you hear Andy speak of looking past just the paycheck. "We see through the paycheck. We look past the electronic file. We try to take into consideration every day, what we did that impacted the person behind what was printed on the check or what was in an electronic file. We want to understand the impact if we didn't get our job right. If we missed the child support or the direct deposit, you know that those things are key. That is the culture that we built." The story of AAP's relationship with isolved is a powerful anecdote speaking not only to the cultural fit between the two, but also the usability and capability of the vendor's cloud software for HCM. "We started reviewing the software options that were out there in 2014," Andy said. "The platform that we were on at the time was not meeting client demand. It was not evolving and developing at the speed that the market required." In 2016, AAP made the selection to move to the isolved platform, "which checked all the boxes for all of the things that we needed." So superior was isolved for AAP's needs that, just to be sure, Andy asked his team to re-analyze all the isolved competitors that AAP had considered. "After two reviews of everybody else, isolved still came out as the clear front runner." Incidentally, one of those needs stemmed from Andy's decision early in his tenure as CEO at AAP to target quick-service restaurants (QSRs), a vertical market that eventually accounted for approximately 65 percent of AAP's client base. This aligns with goals at isolved, which targets QSRs, too, with a solution especially well-tailored for their challenges in HCM. As usual, the blog entry captures only a sliver of the depth of thought and conversation on display on the #HRTechChat video podcast. Do yourselves a favor and watch this episode, a very deep dive into what it takes to make an acquisition of this kind successful.