How Cadence Education Utilized DealRoom for Rollups

About the Company:

• Cadence Education was founded in 1992 and their motto is “Preparing Children to Thrive.”
• Cadence Education is a premier early childhood educator, operating more than 265 private preschools and elementary schools across the country.
• They have developed unparalleled expertise in developing students to thrive in the next step of their childhood, ensuring they are prepared to succeed during a critical time in their development.

Challenges:

Cadence Education was okay with an imperfect M&A system of using Excel trackers and doing everything manually at first, but once they started growing, they knew they needed a more robust system. Using several applications became confusing and time-consuming. More cross-functionality, security, and speed were needed. They went on the hunt for a software system to combat their issues, found DealRoom, and immediately loved what they saw.

• Data security concerns
• Inconveniences using many different platforms and traditional spreadsheets
• Coordination of who had access to what information
• Organization of documents, tracking what was where
• Original tools were very basic and standard
• Delay in information and version control issues
• Struggles with cross-functional communications between external and internal stakeholders

Solutions:

Switching to DealRoom allowed Cadence Education to have confidence in their security standards when doing future deals, while also keeping all information in one organized and cohesive space. They were able to make sure that everyone was getting all the appropriate information, especially in their rollups.

How have you been able to use DealRoom for your external teams?

Allison: "Using DealRoom, we are able to understand how our brokers, sellers, or other third parties operate on a day-to-day basis."

When Cadence Education does a rollup, there are so many moving parts.

Every rollup is so different from one another and they needed a system that could keep everything moving and accurate in real-time, and DealRoom was able to provide that.

• Advanced security controls, customizable permission request settings, and priority settings
• It’s a tool that they would continuously use to keep all M&A information organized in one cohesive space, capable of adapting as the company does especially with the template features
• Real-time updates were crucial for accurate information and DealRoom offered visibility for who did what tasks, resulting in transparency for what was outstanding
• DealRoom’s capabilities allowed Cadence Education to increase efficiency

Outcome:

Once Cadence Education switched over to DealRoom, they found that adoption was quite easy and everyone using the platform became very comfortable, very quickly.

What has the DealRoom experience been like for you and your team?

Allison: "We love our partnership with DealRoom. M&A is a little different in every industry and the responsiveness to the feedback (functionality requests) we've given has been awesome."

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They found that people stayed on tasks easier, the platform kept people moving with fewer hard stops, and there was a ridiculous amount of time savings. Their time savings then resulted in cost savings since people had an easier time prioritizing with the software.

Cadence Education finds that their meetings are shorter and more productive due to being able to find their information quicker due to being more organized.

Does DealRoom provide your team with a centralized location for deal information?

Allison: "Absolutely. There are a lot of different tools such as Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint.. but DealRoom is a place where we can go back to and have everything we need in one specific location."

They know exactly what tasks are and are not complete, and it is easier for them to follow up with whomever necessary.

• 40+ hours of time savings
• Replaced multiple tools with just one, causing less confusion among all using the platform
• Positive response from all parties involved due to DealRoom’s intuitive onboarding process
• Streamlined communication and more time spent on value-added activities due to no longer needing to chase people down for information, information is presented to the right people at all times
• Strong time savings and cost savings