Observe, Inc. was ready to exit stealth mode and accelerate their growth, but they didn’t have any HR staff or infrastructure in place to grow quickly.

Introduction

Observe, Inc. was ready to exit stealth mode and accelerate their growth, but they didn’t have any HR staff or infrastructure in place to grow quickly. They knew they needed help, and they knew from experience that they didn’t want to select a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) or any other outsourcing option that made them beholden to their vendor.

They wanted a trusted partner that would be with them long-term but didn’t require long-term contracts or stick them with proprietary technology that would limit their options down the road. Observe selected Melita as their partner because of their comprehensive model that would give them a complete turn-key solution with the wide-ranging services provided by PEOs, but without the “stickiness”.

Partnering with Melita gave them full control and “ownership” of their HR technology and infrastructure. Melita implemented their out-of-the-box, but highly configurable HR infrastructure including ADP’s Workforce Now all-in-one technology platform, combined with expertise from an assigned team of specialists to manage the administration and support of payroll, employee benefits, compliance and employee support. All built specifically for Observe and built to grow.

The Story of Observe, Inc.

Founded by Sutter Hill Ventures in November 2017, Observe focuses on a core principle: that enterprises are data rich, but information poor. It recognized that siloed data had made it difficult for enterprises to understand what was going on inside apps and their infrastructures.

The company developed an observability app, designed with the SRE team in mind. This product delivers intuitive and data-rich dashboards to engineers so that they can spend more time coding and less time investigating incidents, allowing companies to eliminate wasted SRE work hours and enhance the customer experience.

We needed a long-term HR partner to help us scale quickly and efficiently. Melita did both!

Christi Fontenot, Executive Assistant to the CEO, Observe, Inc.

The Challenge

As a company with ambitious growth goals, Observe needed an effective and efficient way to onboard new employees with high quality support during and after their onboarding experience. But their existing HR procedures and technology were rudimentary and didn’t provide for the level of quality or the scalability their business required. Additionally, without the expertise in HR, benefits and payroll compliance and administration, the company was exposed to employment liability, not to mention frustrated employees.

Add that to the need for rapid growth, and it was clear Observe needed an HR solution to address their growing challenges. And although they needed to move quickly, a “quick and easy” fix wouldn’t suffice; Observe was on the lookout for a long-term HR partner that would work with them to build something special by understanding their needs and pain points and build an HR infrastructure that would scale with them now and into the future, without disruption.

They did not want the typical one-size-fits-all solutions offered by the PEO market.

Why Observe Chose Melita

In seeking a solution to their HR challenge, they determined they did not want a traditional outsourcing solution like a PEO or typical HR Outsourcing (HRO) vendor because of the common limitations with those providers, including:

• Technology that is proprietary to the PEO/HRO, and/or controlled by the PEO/HRO to the extent that if their client wants to terminate the relationship, they must migrate to a new technology platform.
• Limited control over the benefits they could choose and no protection from large rate increases.*
• Co-employment contract which requires that the PEO be a co-employer of your employees.
• Call center support for your employees.
• One-size-fits-all service package with little to no flexibility.

Moreover, the company was looking for a true partner, not just a vendor. After evaluating and vetting several options, Observe selected Melita. Key among their decision criteria were Melita’s reputation for being high integrity and obsessive about service, their extensive experience implementing HR technology, and the flexibility of having a partner that could grow with them over the long term. And one of the biggest reasons for choosing Melita was their “no stickiness” guarantee which gives them the freedom to transition to independence at any time with no disruption to their business.

Observe felt comfortable knowing that Melita had done the same for many other startups in similar situations and came highly recommended.

*PEOs are able to selectively increase the premiums of each of their clients, whereas most states have rules that require health insurance carriers to issue pooled rates with minimal annual increases.

Migration Project Management

Melita assigned an experienced Implementation Specialist to project manage the entire implementation and migration from Observe’s current technologies and processes. Observe’s assigned Melita Team of Specialists kicked off the project by doing a deep dive into the current processes and technologies and gained an understanding of Observe’s objectives and priorities for their HR function. Most of the work effort was handled by the Melita team, including:

• Consolidated the company’s various HR technologies into ADP Workforce Now, configured specifically for Observe’s business.
• Migrated payroll data and payroll processing from the current vendor.
• Developed a paperless, user-friendly new hire onboarding process utilizing the ADP Employee Portal/Mobile App.
• Took over all outstanding Leaves of Absence and implemented the required documentation and process for managing future Leaves.
• Launched a paperless employee benefits open enrollment via the ADP Workforce Now benefits module.
• Developed an employee handbook and all other HR compliance requirements.
• Launched the ADP employee self-service portal and the Melita Employee Support Advocate help desk to all employees.

Melita’s approach of taking full ownership of the migration project along with the experience of the assigned Melita team allowed Observe to focus their staff on the critical mission of the business. And post-implementation, Observe’s assigned Melita team took over all tactical operations of HR, benefits and payroll, including employee support. In Melita, Observe now had a partner who could serve as an extended part of their team for as long (or short) as they needed.

The Results

As a result of partnering with Melita, Observe now has:

• A unified HR infrastructure including technology and process automation, built for scale (including international locations).
• “Big company” HR muscle at a fraction of the cost.
• Access to a complete Team of Specialists that takes ownership of all HR, Benefits, Payroll and HR technology functions.
• HR policies and processes built specifically for their business.
• White glove employee support from the Melita Employee Support Advocate team.
• A robust, scalable, global HRIS technology, completely managed and supported by Melita, but “owned” by Observe, allowing them to maintain that key component of their infrastructure with or without Melita.

In summary, by choosing Melita as their partner, Observe was able to aggressively grow their business from 20 to 100 employees in over 21 states and 4 countries, all with the comfort of knowing their Melita Team of Specialists were keeping the company compliant, managing all of the day-to-day tactical work of HR and payroll, and serving their employees with the highest levels of responsiveness, expertise, and care. Equally important, Observe is not beholden to the company that helped them achieve all of these milestones.

At Melita our purpose is to help our clients succeed and prosper, so we give them the freedom to do what is best for their business. We believe the best way to have a “sticky” relationship with our clients is to deliver exceptional, and consistently high-quality services at a fair price, rather than putting road blocks in front of them.

How Melita enabled QuartzBio’s carve-out from Precision Medicine Group following a strategic growth investment by Eir Partners.

At a Glance

• Client: QuartzBio – connected sample and biomarker intelligence for clinical-stage biopharma
• PE Partner: Eir Partners (Miami) – health tech and tech-enabled services investor
• Event: Carve-out / spin-out from Precision Medicine Group following a strategic growth investment
• Workforce: 45 U.S. employees across 21 states; 20 international employees across 6 countries
• Deadline: Shared-services agreement expiring May 1, 2026 – full replacement required within 3 months
• Melita Scope: HRIS, payroll (U.S. + international), benefits, HR policies and procedures, employee support
• Outcome: Equivalent benefits at 20% lower rates; payroll live in 21 states and 7 countries; lower total cost; scalable, portable platform

Executive Summary

When Eir Partners made a strategic growth investment in QuartzBio, the thesis was clear: a high-potential life-science technology company, ready to operate as a standalone business. The obstacle was equally clear. QuartzBio had spent years operating inside Precision Medicine Group, a 4,000-employee parent, drawing its entire people infrastructure – HRIS, payroll, a competitive benefits program, HR policies, and senior-level HR support – from a shared-services agreement. That agreement was set to expire on May 1, 2026, and with it, the systems that paid and supported every QuartzBio employee in the U.S. and abroad.

QuartzBio needed to replace an enterprise-grade people function – one built for a 4,000-person company – in roughly three months, without disrupting employees or eroding a culture the leadership team considered central to the business. After evaluating a PEO, building an in-house HR team, and stitching together a patchwork of point vendors, QuartzBio selected Melita Group.

Melita delivered. Working against a hard deadline, Melita stood up a complete, independent people infrastructure: a single global HRIS platform, U.S. payroll across 21 states, international payroll across 7 countries, a benefits program equivalent to the Precision Medicine Group plan but at rates 20% lower, and white-glove employee support. The result lowered QuartzBio’s total people-operations cost, protected the employee experience through the transition, and gave the company a scalable platform it can grow on – and eventually run independently of Melita.

For Eir Partners, the engagement de-risked a core piece of the investment thesis and demonstrated a repeatable carve-out playbook for the rest of its portfolio.

Why This Matters to Private Equity Partners

Carve-outs and spin-outs create a predictable, high-stakes problem: the moment a portfolio company separates from its parent, it loses the shared infrastructure it depended on – often including the entire HR, benefits, and payroll stack. Transition Services Agreements (TSAs) buy time, but they expire, and they expire on a fixed date. Between signing and that date, the new standalone entity must build a functioning people operation or risk an interruption to pay, benefits, and compliance that can damage retention and culture exactly when stability matters most.

Melita partners with private equity firms to take this risk off the table. For Eir Partners, Melita converted a hard operational dependency into a managed, on-time deliverable – protecting the value of the investment and freeing the deal team and management to focus on growth. This case study illustrates the model Melita brings to the PE partner channel: speed against a TSA clock, equivalent-or-better benefits economics, multi-country reach, and a flexible commercial structure that scales with the business.

Situation

QuartzBio is a life-science technology company delivering connected sample and biomarker intelligence for clinical-stage biopharma. Founded in 2014, the business was acquired in 2019 by Precision Medicine Group, a roughly 4,000-employee organization. Within Precision Medicine Group, QuartzBio continued to operate as a separate strategic division.

Critically, QuartzBio ran on Precision Medicine Group’s people infrastructure through a shared-services agreement. That agreement gave QuartzBio access to an enterprise-grade package it could not have built on its own at that scale, including:

• A comprehensive and competitive benefits program
• Senior-level HR support and guidance
• Full-service payroll processing
• Established HR policies and procedures
• HRIS technology
• Day-to-day support for employees

By 2025-26, QuartzBio had grown into a globally distributed workforce: 45 employees across 21 U.S. states, plus 20 international employees in India, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom – a footprint that made the people-operations challenge materially more complex than a single-country company of the same size.

Complication

Eir Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm focused on health tech and tech-enabled services, made a strategic growth investment in QuartzBio with plans to spin the company out of Precision Medicine Group as an independent business.

The shared-services agreement was set to expire on May 1, 2026. On that date, QuartzBio would lose its HRIS, its payroll engine, its benefits program, its HR policies, and its HR support – simultaneously. The company needed to stand up a complete, independent people infrastructure of its own within roughly three months, spanning both U.S. and international staff.

Two constraints made this more than a procurement exercise:

• Culture and continuity were non-negotiable. Leadership treated culture as a top priority and required a smooth transition, a benefits program equivalent to what employees already had, and white-glove employee support throughout.
• The scope was enterprise-grade, the timeline was not. Replicating a 4,000-employee company’s shared-services package – across 21 states and 6 countries – in 90 days is a heavy lift for an organization that had never run these functions itself.

QuartzBio evaluated three conventional paths before turning to Melita:

• PEO: The support model and one-size-fits-all approach of PEOs were not aligned with QuartzBio’s objectives, particularly its culture and tailored-support priorities.
• Build an in-house HR team: Replicating the breadth of the Precision Medicine Group shared-services package would have required hiring several specialized employees – prohibitively expensive for a company of QuartzBio’s size.
• Multiple point vendors: Coordinating separate HRIS, payroll, benefits, and support vendors introduced integration risk, management overhead, and a fragmented employee experience – the opposite of a smooth transition.

Resolution: The Melita Solution

Melita was selected because its modularized service model could replace the entire shared-services package as a single, integrated solution – on the timeline, without the rigidity of a PEO or the cost of building in-house. Melita took ownership of the full people-operations stand-up:

A single global technology platform

Melita deployed QuartzBio onto one global HRIS and payroll platform rather than a patchwork of country-by-country systems. This gave QuartzBio a unified system of record for its entire U.S. and international workforce and – importantly – a platform the company can scale on and eventually operate independently of Melita.

Payroll across 21 states and 7 countries

Melita stood up compliant payroll processing for QuartzBio’s distributed workforce: 21 U.S. states and 7 countries. Multi-state and multi-country payroll is one of the most error-prone and time-sensitive elements of any carve-out; Melita delivered it within the transition window.

Equivalent benefits at 20% lower rates

Melita secured a benefits program equivalent to QuartzBio’s prior Precision Medicine Group plan – the equivalence employees needed for a smooth transition – while reducing rates by 20%. This directly addressed the cultural mandate (no degradation in benefits) and the financial one (lower cost).

Full HR policies, procedures, and white-glove support

Beyond systems, Melita supplied the HR policies and procedures and the senior-level, white-glove employee support that QuartzBio had previously drawn from its parent – preserving the day-to-day experience employees were used to.

A flexible, scalable commercial model

With Melita’s modularized service offerings, QuartzBio fully replaced its shared-services infrastructure at a lower overall cost. The engagement is structured on a variable per-employee-per-month (PEPM) basis, giving QuartzBio the flexibility to scale with headcount and to bring some or all of the work back in-house over time as its business needs evolve – without being locked into a rigid, all-or-nothing arrangement.

Results and Business Outcomes

• Met the deadline. A complete, independent people infrastructure – HRIS, payroll, benefits, policies, and support – stood up within the ~3-month window ahead of the May 1, 2026 shared-services expiry.
• Protected the employee experience. Equivalent benefits and white-glove support delivered the smooth, culture-preserving transition leadership required.
• Lowered cost. Benefit rates reduced 20% versus the prior program, with a lower overall cost than the alternatives (PEO, in-house build, or multi-vendor patchwork).
• Achieved global reach. Payroll live across 21 U.S. states and 7 countries on a single platform.
• Set the stage for growth. A scalable global platform and a variable PEPM structure give QuartzBio room to grow and the optionality to insource work over time.

Value to the Partner: Eir Partners

For Eir Partners, the QuartzBio stand-up was more than an HR project – it was the removal of a critical execution risk in the investment thesis.

• De-risked the carve-out. The single largest operational dependency on the former parent – the people infrastructure – was transferred to a managed, on-time solution, eliminating the threat of a pay, benefits, or compliance gap at separation.
• Protected portfolio value. A smooth, culture-preserving transition safeguarded retention and morale during the most fragile phase of the deal.
• Improved unit economics. Lower benefit rates and a lower total cost of people operations improved the standalone company’s cost structure from day one.
• Created a repeatable playbook. Melita’s modular, multi-country, PEPM-based model is a template Eir can apply across future carve-outs and platform investments – turning a recurring portfolio risk into a standardized, vendor-managed workstream.

Why Melita

This engagement reflects the capabilities Melita brings to private equity partners and their portfolio companies:

• Speed against a TSA clock: Full people infrastructure stood up in ~90 days, ahead of a fixed shared-services expiry.
• Equivalent-or-better benefits: Plan equivalence to preserve culture, with rates reduced 20%.
• Single global platform: U.S. + international payroll and HRIS on one system the company can scale on and own over time.
• Modular, white-glove service: Replaces an enterprise shared-services package without the rigidity of a PEO or the cost of building in-house.
• Flexible PEPM model: Variable cost that scales with headcount, with the option to insource work as the business matures.

Rondell Homes was paying $300K a year for an underperforming HR consultant. Allvia replaced reactive, transactional support with a proactive HR strategy – and cut outsourcing costs by 24%.

Client Snapshot

• Industry: Property Management
• Headcount: 114
• Locations: 7 in Colorado, 1 in Utah, 18 in California
• Partnership: Referred by a benefits broker partner

Situation

• Rondell Homes was relying on an expensive, underperforming HR consultant embedded within their IT vendor relationship.
• Annual spend of $300K with little to show for it.
• The HR consultant lacked foundational HR expertise (e.g., compliance, benefits, 401(k), leave laws, wage and hour), leading to poor employee experience and growing cultural erosion.

Complication

• No clear HR strategy or ownership: leadership received reactive, transactional support with no proactive guidance, leaving the company directionless on people matters.
• Significant legal and regulatory exposure due to gaps in HR/employment law knowledge.
• Benefits and 401(k) plans were mismanaged, creating active exposure to IRS/DOL penalties and inflated benefit costs.

Resolution

• Reduced HR outsourcing costs by 24% and eliminated excess spend through proper benefits and 401(k) administration.
• Replaced reactive, transactional support with a proactive HR strategy and clear accountability.
• Conducted a full compliance audit and remediated gaps, eliminating IRS/DOL penalty risk.
• Built structured performance management practices, reducing legal risk.
• Restored employee trust and improved workplace culture.

Wolfe & Wyman had pieced together a PEO, a local HR consultancy, and separate benefits contracts. Allvia replaced the patchwork with one end-to-end HR, payroll and benefits solution – and lowered total costs by 12%.

Client Snapshot

• Industry: Legal
• Headcount: 92
• Locations: 3 in California, 1 in Nevada, 1 in Florida
• Partnership: Referred by a broker partner

Situation

• Referred by a broker partner, Wolfe & Wyman had cobbled together Insperity PEO, a local HR consultancy, and ancillary benefits under separate contracts. This created redundancy, cost inefficiency, and accountability gaps.
• Allvia partnered with the broker and HRIS provider to present a joint proposal for an end-to-end HR/payroll/benefits solution.

Complication

• Managing Partners had no direct visibility into day-to-day HR processes or employee matters, creating both operational risk and a sense of disconnection from their own firm.
• The PEO model imposed a “one-size-fits-all” structure that couldn’t accommodate the firm’s specific payroll, reporting, or cultural needs.
• No clear escalation path for time-sensitive HR matters like terminations, leaves, or compliance deadlines.

Resolution

• Reduced total HR/payroll/benefits costs by 12%, even after migrating off the PEO and absorbing higher benefits costs; net savings driven by eliminating redundant HR admin and payroll fees.
• Firm leadership now has a direct, responsive HR partner for time-sensitive matters: terminations, employee issues, and urgent requests handled same-day.
• Proactive compliance audits across 401(k), PTO, and I-9s have reduced regulatory exposure and caught inaccuracies before they became liabilities.