Case Study

From Legacy PLM to Vertical SaaS Growth Engine

When Lascom started its transformation in 2015, the company relied on a C/C++ and ASP on-premise PLM platform, deployed across disparate verticals such as aerospace, defense, and retail.

Industry Vertical SaaS / PLM
Tech Stack HTML5, Microsoft Azure, C/C++, ASP
Key Outcomes
SaaS Migration Market Refocus Strategic Exit

At a glance

Only about one third of revenue was recurring, win-rates were sliding, and technical debt limited both UX and innovation speed. The leadership team set a clear objective: refocus exclusively on Food & Cosmetics, migrate to a SaaS recurring model, and build a robust value-creation story for a shareholder exit. The product was progressively redesigned as Lascom LIME with a modern HTML5 UX and cloud-ready architecture.

"By focusing on customers and execution, we built a company ready for a successful exit."

Charles Henriot Chief Executive Officer

Our Approach

Work started on an incremental modernization path: a three-month POC, a first HTML5 demo at six months, and a production-grade MVP at twelve months. This approach cut technical risk and preserved delivery capacity while improving win-rates in presales cycles.

In parallel, hosting was re-engineered on Microsoft Azure, evolving from simple lift-and-shift to an automated, FinOps-driven SaaS platform. Positioning and messaging were rebuilt around Food & Cosmetics regulatory challenges, and Customer Success became the central operating model to prevent churn.

A Packaged Platform for Scalable SaaS Economics

The decisive lever was packaging both product and services. Lascom consolidated its PLM into a single vertical platform, embedding formulation, compliance, and labeling into ready-made functional packages. This made the solution more prescriptive and faster to deploy.

Implementation shifted to an industrialized model based on standard work packages (scoping, data prep, hypercare). This drastically reduced project uncertainty, improved margins, and paved the way for the acquisition by Aptean.

Key Outcomes

  • Win-rate: ~25% to ~75%
  • ARR Growth: Tripled in core
  • Churn: Significantly Reduced
  • Tech: Cloud-native SaaS
  • Market: Industry Reference
  • Exit: Acquired by Aptean
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