[Case Study] A $2B Carveout. Six Months. On Schedule, On Budget.

Situation

A top-tier private equity firm acquired a $2B global software business carved out of one of the world's largest professional services firms.

The mandate was clear: stand up a fully independent technology environment, maintain uninterrupted client-facing operations, and exit the seller's infrastructure within the Transition Services Agreement.

Timeline from signing to close: six months.

Scope: the full technology footprint of a global consulting business. ERP. HR. CRM. Public-facing systems. Internal collaboration. All of it, standing up in parallel, for a global workforce operating across dozens of countries.

Failure at Day 1 would have meant operational disruption, extended TSA dependency, and direct impact to the deal model.

What We Found

The technology footprint was large, but the risk was not the technology itself.

The failure mode was orchestration. Dozens of interdependent workstreams. Multiple internal teams and external partners. Shared deadlines with no margin for slippage. Without tight coordination, the outcome is predictable: missed Day 1 scope, reactive decision-making, TSA extensions, and cost leakage that erodes the deal thesis.

The acquirer needed someone in the room accountable for the orchestration — not just the technology.

What We Did

Safebox was brought in as part of the integration team to lead IT program management across several of the most business-critical workstreams, including the Salesforce platform underpinning client operations.

We established program governance. Built the single source of truth for status, dependencies, and risk across every IT track. Managed coordination across internal IT, business owners, and external implementation partners.

And we forced tradeoffs early — what had to be live on Day 1, what could safely follow — and held that line throughout execution. Every decision was framed in the terms the deal demanded: impact to Day 1 readiness, TSA exit timing, and cost and risk tradeoffs.

Outcome

Every Day 1 business-critical system delivered on schedule.

The acquired business operated from Day 1 as an independent global enterprise — with no dependency on the seller's systems for core operations at close. Client-facing operations remained stable through separation.

Post-Day 1 workstreams continued against the defined plan, with clear visibility into cost, timeline, and dependencies, and a structured path to full TSA exit.

In a carveout, Day 1 is not an IT milestone. It is a deal milestone. Execution risk is deal risk.

Safebox owned the orchestration that kept the deal on plan.