Software: HR Services
Software company Pipeline CRM and their parent company saas.group get high quality, flexible and affordable HR support .
Challenges
- Loss of sole HR resource
- Shift from in-person to remote work
- Navigating an acquisition
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Objective
Pipeline CRM provides a sales CRM platform that offers easy setup, integrations, customization, and intuitive tools. In May 2019, Pipeline CRM was navigating change. They were going through a shift to remote work and their HR leader left the company. On a referral from their CEO, JP Werlin, they got in touch with Swift HR Solutions. The fractional model of HR support was a good fit for their changing needs, and Senior Consultant Karina Miller began working with them one day per week.
Solutions
With no HR team in place to assist with knowledge transfer, Karina jumped in to figure things out. After conducting a detailed assessment of the business, systems, and processes, Karina made recommendations and modifications, working with the CEO and COO to streamline processes and improve efficiencies while maintaining the close-knit culture that they had when they worked in the same office every day. As the company grew, she helped them identify, hire, train, mentor, and manage an HR generalist in the Philippines that would focus on the day-to-day activities, leaving Karina to focus on strategic issues.
In April 2022, Pipeline CRM was acquired by saas.group, a growing community of innovative software-as-a-service solutions. Karina supported the due diligence for the sale. She then focused on the acquisition integration and formal transition of leadership from the former owners to a planned successor from within the Pipeline CRM team and the leadership of saas.group. Pipeline CRM was able to achieve 100% long-term employee and contractor retention despite the departure of the two beloved founders. Karina says of the acquisition,
saas.group was a perfect fit as a parent company – able to provide operator-level expertise, back office support, the efficiencies of a larger-scale company, and the excitement of being part of a larger, global company, while enabling Pipeline CRM to focus on what they do best, which is helping businesses accelerate sales.
Post-acquisition, Karina continued to support the Pipeline CRM team, and also joined the global HR team at saas.group as their US and HR systems expert. She helped implement a new human resources information system (HRIS) across the entire company of nearly 150 employees in over 20 countries. She also completed the merger of Pipeline CRM with saas.group and transitioned payroll for all US employees. In 2024, Karina helped saas.group convert from an LLC to a Delaware C Corp. Karina flexed her time up to four days per month during this busy time in order to ensure everything went smoothly.
Currently, Karina provides her expertise to the saas.group team in US people practices and their HRIS, while continuing to be a resource for Pipeline CRM’s leadership team on strategic and employee relations issues. In 2023, saas.group doubled in size to nearly 300 team members in 30 countries.
Results
- Efficiency improvements
- Seamless acquisition integration
- Enhanced HR capabilities
- Strategic growth support
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Testimonials
It’s been a relief having a senior-level HR leader as a consistent and reliable resource through all of the transitions over these past five years. I’ve been able to tap into her coaching ability for myself and our other senior leaders when we needed support for challenging leadership issues, and I’ve been confident focusing on our core business knowing that she’s had her arms around our entire HR function.
Yuriy Golovko, CEO
Pipeline CRM
Karina has been a key resource in helping us deal with the technical intricacies of working with a remote team across 14 states and 3 brands in the US.
Ulrich Essmann, Founder and President
saas.group
I’ve appreciated having a senior-level partner in the US to collaborate on some of the HR issues we’ve faced as a rapidly-growing, global company.
Gosia Polubinska, Head of HR
saas.group