Saylite: Shifting a relationship to provide savings and deliver better strategy

The Challenge: Acquisitions often reveal IT insufficiencies. That was the case when Saylite, a Carrollton, Texas-based lighting manufacturer, was acquired by a private equity firm in 2019. There was fundamental IT blocking and tackling that needed to be addressed. 

That’s why Sagiss was brought in. And after some initial work cleaning up and stabilizing the network, the team could see there was another issue: This wasn’t the best use of Saylite’s budget. The company had grown too big and its systems too complex to justify the use of an MSP for every day support. It needed to hire a full-time, in-house staff member.

Saylite Chief Financial Officer Justin Tucker: “Sagiss came to us and said, ‘Hey, we handle a lot of stuff that is really IT help desk support and you’d actually be better served if you have somebody on hand.’ … They charged us a fee for every time we used them, an hourly rate for those kinds of things. And so they had recommended looking at hiring an IT support professional to be on site because, ultimately, it would save us money rather than paying [Sagiss] a la carte every time we needed to do something.”

The Solution: To help find that full-time employee. The Sagiss team was part of the hiring process from the beginning, using their IT expertise—something that no one at Saylite had—to interview candidates and contribute thoughts on the final hire. 

Tucker said both Sagiss’ recommendation to hire and involvement in that was unexpected but also appreciated.

“At my former stops, I'd seen MSPs want to keep as much of the business as possible and continue to bill,” Tucker said. “So, I was surprised they were willing to admit that it'd be better for us and allow them to focus on things that would really add value rather than just billing us for all of the basic stuff. But having them involved made sense given that this person was going to interact and work hand in hand with them.”

For Sagiss President Travis Springer this kind of recommendation and this kind of help is just how the company does business, something they call The Sagiss Way.

“One of our core values is to be ‘Transparent, not Sticky’. Our business is based on long term relationships, so we always act in our client’s best interest. Helping them hire someone internally has allowed our team to take a step back from some of the day-to-day issues and look at things more strategically. This allows us to help Saylite better plan and make decisions for the future.”

The Result: Savings and a better strategy. Tucker estimates that Saylite’s internal IT employee is now handling 90 percent of the tasks that Sagiss used to handle, meaning Saylite is saving money but getting more valuable service.

Tucker: “Sagiss is still hands-on. They still have one of their folks who cover our account come out I think once every other week for a few hours just to work through anything. … We have biweekly meetings where we go over the higher level stuff that we're asking Sagiss to help us with. So it's been really good. It's made me feel like we have a little bit more control over things and we're better organized and know what's going on.”