Blog | Case Studies

March 2021

Industry: Government Contracting, Software Development

TMG Engagement Type: Accounting

Key Results: A value-driven partnership for the long-term that has evolved from tactical ‘do-ers’ to that of a strategic partner and trusted advisor at the CFO level.

Problem
Founded in 2009, Research Innovations, Inc. (RII) develops cutting-edge software for the government and military. RII first came to The McKelvey Group (TMG) when it was less than one year old and in intense growth mode. The company was focused on getting up and running, establishing its business and service offerings, and landing its first clients. The management team consisted of a total of one person, who was focused on the offerings and clients. Wanting to remain agile and grow quickly, RII was in search of an outsourced accounting partner to handle the back office.

Solution
The TMG team sprang into action to actively assist and support RII’s expansive growth. It set up the company’s books and accounting system, created the indirect rate structure for government contracting, and established the billing process for federal work. TMG supported RII’s first government audits and created the cost volume for the first major proposal submission. RII won that work and it remained a core contract for the company for many years. The TMG team delivered comprehensive accounting support where and when it was needed, from invoicing and cash management to the advisory level and planning for the future.

Over time, as RII continued to grow and expand from a single owner to a fully-staffed management team and operations group, TMG remained a constant partner and advisor. When the time was right, TMG helped transition to provide support through a new RII Vice-President of Finance. TMG provided the Vice-President of Finance the ground-level accounting required for the day-to-day operations of the company, the institutional knowledge earned through the years of support to assist with planning, and access to a dedicated outsourced CFO for advisory services. Along with the growth in personnel and operations, TMG supported RII’s accounting software transition from QuickBooks to the more robust Deltek Costpoint.

The TMG model of right-sized support has served RII well as it has grown. Our ability to scale part-time resources across experience levels has allowed RII to invest more heavily in operations and business development while still having a fully-functioning accounting department from the beginning. As RII continues to grow and build out its own internal accounting staff, TMG remains the trusted partner to provide reach-back core accounting support as well as ongoing CFO-level advisory services.

Results
Over the many years since the outset of TMG’s relationship with Research Innovations, TMG’s role has evolved from tactical ‘do-ers’ to that of a strategic partner and trusted advisor at the CFO level. The core of the success of the partnership to-date has stemmed chiefly from TMG’s flexibility to scale up or down, bringing on resources as-needed to address peaks and valleys as the company has grown, to meet Research Innovations’ changing needs over time.

“The McKelvey Group has been an invaluable source of expertise and leadership since our earliest beginnings. In addition to being a constant amidst our changing needs, The McKelvey Group has always given us larger industry insight and ways we can constantly improve and innovate from within as opposed to doing what we have always done. This has been instrumental in the enormous growth and success we have achieved in our years of partnership together.”
Research Innovations CEO, Jack Harrington