Cubeware: Transforming a Legacy Analytics Business for the SaaS Era

Overview

Cubeware is an established analytics and planning software provider serving more than 4,000 enterprise customers across the DACH region. Over two decades of growth had seen the company expand to seven offices across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

While the business had built a strong customer base, its core analytics platform had become increasingly difficult to evolve. The product architecture was showing its age, innovation cycles had slowed, and newer competitors were entering the market with modern cloud-native solutions.

Rounded Labs was engaged to help redefine both the technology strategy and operational structure of the business, creating a platform capable of supporting future growth.

The Challenge

Like many successful software companies, Cubeware faced a challenge common to long-established businesses.

The platform that had helped build the company’s success had gradually become a constraint.

Key challenges included:

• Legacy product architecture limiting innovation

• Increasing complexity across the software platform

• Rising operational costs across multiple offices

• A services-led delivery model creating significant overhead

• Growing competition from modern SaaS analytics providers

• The need to accelerate product development without increasing costs

The leadership team recognised that incremental improvements would not be enough. A fundamental transformation was required.

Our Approach

We began with a detailed assessment of both the technology platform and the wider business operations.

Rather than treating the software platform in isolation, we analysed the entire organisation to identify the biggest barriers to growth, profitability and innovation.

This resulted in a transformation programme focused on two key areas:

1. Product Modernisation

We designed a strategy to rebuild Cubeware’s analytics platform as a modern SaaS solution capable of competing with the next generation of business intelligence and planning platforms.

The new architecture was built around Apache Spark, providing the foundation for a highly scalable analytics engine capable of processing large volumes of data while supporting future product innovation.

The programme laid the foundations for Cubeware’s next-generation platform, enabling faster development cycles, improved scalability and a significantly more competitive market position.

2. Operational Transformation

Alongside the product strategy, we restructured several areas of the business to reduce operational complexity and improve efficiency.

Key initiatives included:

• Transitioning the services division to specialist implementation partners

• Establishing multiple white-label consulting partnerships

• Eliminating the operational overhead associated with an in-house consulting function

• Creating a scalable delivery model with improved margins

• Outsourcing marketing activities to a specialist agency partner

• Consolidating office locations and reducing operational duplication

Key Business Changes

Consulting Division Transformation

The in-house BI consulting office in Darmstadt was closed and replaced with a network of implementation partners.

This created a significantly more scalable consulting model:

• Multiple implementation partners engaged across the region

• White-label delivery under the Cubeware brand

• 25% markup on consulting projects

• Zero operational consulting overhead for Cubeware

Headquarters Relocation

The company headquarters was relocated to Munich, providing closer access to key customers and improving operational efficiency.

This initiative included:

• Consolidation of multiple office locations

• Closure of the Rosenheim and Kolbermoor sites

• Closure of the Austrian satellite office

• Simplified organisational structure

UK Expansion

To support development of the next-generation analytics platform, a new research and development centre was established in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The Birmingham office became:

• The development hub for the new Intuition platform

• A centre for product innovation

• The foundation for future UK expansion

Results

The transformation programme positioned Cubeware for its next phase of growth by addressing both technological and operational challenges.

Outcomes

• Rebuilt technology strategy around a modern SaaS architecture
• Reduced operational overhead through business restructuring
• Established a scalable partner-led consulting model
• Opened UK R&D centre to drive future innovation
• Successfully acquired by insightsoftware

Conclusion

Successful software companies rarely fail because of technology alone.

As markets evolve, products, operating models and organisational structures must evolve with them.

By combining product strategy, architectural redesign and operational transformation, Rounded Labs helped reposition Cubeware for the next phase of its growth journey. The programme delivered a modern SaaS vision for the business, reduced operational complexity, improved profitability and created a more scalable organisational structure.

The transformation ultimately contributed to the successful acquisition of Cubeware by insightsoftware, a leading global provider of financial reporting, analytics and performance management solutions. Rounded Labs played an active role throughout the process, helping oversee key elements of the transformation and acquisition journey.

Following completion of the transaction, a member of the M&A team remarked:

“The successful restructure of Cubeware is something that should be taught at Harvard Business School.”

While the comment was made informally, it reflected the scale of the transformation achieved. What began as a legacy software business operating across multiple offices was successfully repositioned into a leaner, more competitive and acquisition-ready organisation prepared for its next chapter of growth.