Building a Technology Centre of Excellence • Talent Point

The Challenge

LucaNet, a global leader in financial consolidation and financial planning solutions were acquired in 2022 by Hg Capital, a Private Equity growth investor who focus scaling Software as a Service businesses (SaaS).

Together with Hg, LucaNet developed their strategy for the next phase of company growth, a core pillar of which is to transform their highly successful product into a champion SaaS platform.

This SaaS transformation would be a significant Product Development undertaking and require the existing team to be scaled rapidly and cost effectively to deliver on the strategy.

Whilst LucaNet had an existing partnership with a Software Development outsourcer based in Poland, scaling this operation would be cost prohibitive whilst also not allowing LucaNet to retain and control their IP.

LucaNet decided to build a new near-shore Tech Hub that could work in tandem with their existing Product Development teams based out of Berlin.

Our Approach

LucaNet selected Talent Point and G-P to partner with and provide an end-to-end service to build a new near-shore Centre of Excellence (CoE) in accelerated timelines. Talent Point & G-P collaborated with LucaNet to:

Finalise the new location , reviewing availability of engineers/skills pools assessments, cultural fit to integrate to existing teams, cost, location infrastructure and maturity
Carry out detailed salary benchmarking to enable LucaNet to build a detailed budget around establishing the new CoE
End-to-end Talent Acquisition Roadmap including workforce planning to enable LucaNet to deliver against their Product roadmap

Helped source and assess an appropriate office location in line with LucaNets corporate culture
Assisted in optimising the recruitment process and reporting KPI’s to appropriately track progress

Enabled the new CoE to become a full operational entity by providing payroll, employment contracts, HR support and compliance.
Brand awareness to help attack the right talent (Employer brand)

“We experienced a 40% cost saving compared to our outsourced software engineering provider with no loss of quality. It also allowed us to gain better control, control our IP and build our own culture”

Kevin SmithCTO, Lucanet

The Results and Benefits

Together, we were able to established the new CoE with a strong foundation for future expansion, hiring a cross-functional team of >120 people in 12 months, whilst also helping to establish the LucaNet office in Romania.

Resulting in

Establishing the first 30 people within 5 months, allowing LucaNet to progress their Product roadmap as planned

Cost avoidance of approx. 30% compared to expanding in Berlin
€4.5m cost avoidance compared to expanding via outsourced partner
Gained full control of the project and team culture as opposed to outsourcing
Enabling incremental cost avoidance expected in future years

Creating a "Technology Centre of Excellence"

The Challenge

Our Approach

The Results and Benefits

Want to find out more about building your own Centre of Excellence? Let's talk.