SRB Education Solutions
SRB International (SRB) was a company with a nice kind of problem. SRB was the dominant player in their own market, with administrative software products designed for Ontario school boards. One of SRB’s major products already had a two-thirds market share, and they had prestigious accounts that proved the viability of their solutions. What SRB needed now was the investment to modernize its product line. This would protect the investments made by their original clients and allow SRB to become equally successful in other markets across North America.
SRB was already a 25 year old company in 2005 when StarDyne first entered the picture. They had built and nurtured relationships with key customers, and grown to 65 staff in their offices in Markham, Ontario. The original founders had sold the company some years before to an investment group, which recognized that it did not have the resources to take the company to the next level.
“When I was introduced to SRB, I was immediately excited by its potential to spearhead our entry to the K-12 education market” says David Burke, CEO of StarDyne. “It had successful products, good relationships with its customers and a high proportion of long-serving staff, all the things that create value in a company in our view. It’s what we refer to as the Triple Bottom Line – employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction coming together to generate financial satisfaction”.
StarDyne acquired the assets of SRB International Ltd. in April 2006 to form SRB Education Solutions, and immediately set to work injecting the platform of funding and strategic leadership to enable SRB to reach its potential. “StarDyne has been incredibly supportive” says Steve Thompson, President and CEO of SRB. “Within weeks of the acquisition, StarDyne had approved a multi-year funding plan which allowed us to reinvest our profits in developing new products and markets. Then when the opportunity came along to grow our presence across Canada through an acquisition they didn’t hesitate”.
In January 2007, SRB acquired TSC Software Services Inc. of Mission BC, bringing SRB to over 100 school district customers across six provinces. “TSC’s administrative software products are a natural complement to SRB’s product line” according to Jeff Dyck, one of TSC’s previous owners and now General Manager for SRB’s operations in Western Canada. “As we integrate our product lines and move them forward together we have a great story to tell our customers – and our competitors’ customers too”.
With StarDyne’s support, SRB now has almost 90 staff across Canada, and is working on next-generation products to expand its reach. Further acquisitions are also on the agenda, as SRB looks for complementary products to round out its K-12 administration product suite and introduce StarDyne’s brand of stability to new customers.
