In today's predominantly digital economy, a company's technology infrastructure has a direct impact on its ability to innovate and grow. For GoodLeap, a leading financial technology company that has deployed over $30 billion in sustainable home improvement financing, this reality became increasingly apparent as their success outpaced their IT capabilities.
As GoodLeap grew rapidly into new areas, its aging IT infrastructure began to fall behind. To help overcome their challenges, the company partnered with EverOps, a technology services firm specializing in assisting cloud-first companies to modernize their infrastructure, strengthen operations, and enhance security.Â
This article will examine how this strategic partnership transformed GoodLeap's outdated IT systems into a secure and scalable foundation, one that is ready to support its mission of accelerating sustainable living. We’ll look at the challenges they faced, the solutions put in place, and the measurable results that helped position GoodLeap for continued market leadership.
The Growing Pains of Success
For GoodLeap, rapid expansion into new business verticals, including leasing, SaaS solutions, and M&A activities, had pushed its legacy IT infrastructure to its breaking point. What began as a typical growth challenge quickly became an existential threat to the company's continued market leadership.
For a company built on enabling forward-thinking solutions, relying on outdated systems created a disconnect between its mission and its operations. It was clear that GoodLeap needed more than just incremental fixes. It required a transformation.
Diagnosing the Depth of the Challenge
When GoodLeap engaged EverOps in late 2023, both organizations understood that surface-level fixes wouldn't suffice. Between October and November, EverOps conducted a comprehensive IT assessment that revealed the full extent of the challenges.
What they discovered was sobering. The audit revealed foundational weaknesses that posed immediate risks to business operations and customer trust. Among the most pressing challenges were:
- An outdated network security architecture in need of complete restructuring
- Inefficient server patching processes leaving systems exposed
- A significant number of Windows and Linux servers running unsupported software
- Inadequate protection, such as the VPN infrastructure, which faced an estimated 54 million hacking attempts annually
Most concerningly, these technical vulnerabilities weren't just theoretical risks, but they posed immediate threats to business continuity, customer data, and GoodLeap's ability to maintain compliance with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.
Engineering a Transformation
With a clear understanding of the challenges, EverOps designed a strategic roadmap tailored to GoodLeap’s long-term vision. This was not just a technology refresh, though; it was a comprehensive initiative to modernize infrastructure, strengthen security, and build a foundation that could scale with the business.
The implementation focused on three core priorities, including:
Securing the foundation
Given the scale of financing transactions flowing through GoodLeap’s systems, security was a top priority. EverOps restructured the entire network architecture, centralized firewall and switch configurations, and reinforced the VPN infrastructure to withstand the constant barrage of external threats.
Modernizing operations
To move from a reactive to a proactive IT model, the team automated server patching, retired unsupported systems, and upgraded wireless networks with certificate-based authentication. These upgrades reduced risk, improved performance, and freed up technical resources to focus on innovation.
Establishing sustainability
To prevent the return of legacy challenges, EverOps and GoodLeap developed a repeatable reference architecture and a technology roadmap designed for the future. This approach ensured that the infrastructure could evolve in tandem with the company’s goals without compromising performance or agility.
Together, these efforts transformed GoodLeap’s IT environment from a patchwork of legacy systems into a streamlined, secure, and scalable infrastructure. By embedding a long-term strategy into each layer of the solution, EverOps helped GoodLeap shift from maintaining technology to leveraging it as a competitive advantage.
Experiencing Transformative Impact
The impact of the GoodLeap and EverOps partnership became clear in a short span of time. Within just twelve months, GoodLeap saw measurable improvements across financial performance, security posture, and operational efficiency.
Financial outcomes
The transformation led to immediate cost savings and identified further opportunities for optimization, including:
- $144,000 in recurring annual savings
- An additional $100,000 in potential savings through technology consolidation
- Reduced spending on redundant systems and improved asset management
Security enhancements
For a company handling billions in financial transactions, security improvements were critical. The transformation resulted in:
- 100% of critical vulnerabilities resolved
- Stronger defenses against external threats
- A significantly reduced risk profile that better supports compliance and customer trust
Operational efficiency
Modernized systems allowed GoodLeap to shift technical focus from maintenance to innovation, entailing:
- Server patching efficiency increased by 400%
- Outdated systems were retired, reducing risk and unplanned downtime
- Network performance improved, boosting productivity across all locations
These results were not abstract metrics. They represented real, strategic progress, positioning GoodLeap to innovate faster, operate more securely, and scale with greater confidence.
EverOps’ Partnership Advantage
What made this transformation truly effective was not just the technology itself, but the way it was delivered. Unlike traditional consultants who advise from a distance, EverOps' unique "Tech Pod" delivery model integrates their specialists into their clients' teams, enabling a deeper understanding of business needs and more effective technology transformation.
This integrated approach enabled deeper knowledge transfer, ensuring that solutions were not merely deployed but fully adopted across the organization. Technical decisions were grounded in the business context, which helped accelerate execution and avoid the common misalignment between strategy and implementation.
Lessons for Growing Organizations
The GoodLeap transformation offers several important takeaways for any organization navigating rapid growth and rising technical complexity. These lessons extend beyond IT and actually address how companies can begin to scale with intention and resilience.
These critical insights include:
Technical debt compounds over time
Just like financial debt, delayed infrastructure updates only grow more expensive and complex. GoodLeap’s decision to address foundational issues head-on, rather than applying short-term fixes, was critical to its success.
Security should be a core priority
As companies grow, their digital footprint and exposure to threats increase. By focusing early on core security fundamentals, GoodLeap was able to protect customer data, ensure compliance, and reduce operational risk.
IT transformation must align with business goals
EverOps collaborated closely with GoodLeap’s teams to ensure that every technical decision aligned with the broader objectives. This alignment prevented the creation of siloed systems and helped drive faster, more impactful outcomes.
Measurable results build confidence
From significant cost savings to operational improvements, the ability to quantify success helped validate the transformation. These tangible outcomes created internal momentum and trust in the value of continued innovation.
For companies in fast-moving sectors, these principles can help ensure that technology becomes a catalyst for growth, rather than a constraint.
Read the Full Case Study Â
GoodLeap’s journey is a powerful example of how a strategic investment in infrastructure can unlock long-term growth and innovation. With EverOps as a hands-on technology partner, the company was able to replace its outdated systems with a secure, scalable, and future-ready foundation that now powers its mission to make sustainable living more accessible.
This transformation impacted every layer of the business, from reducing technical debt and closing critical security gaps to enhancing operational efficiency and aligning IT with broader business objectives. It was not just about modernizing technology, but about enabling a company’s purpose at scale.
As one of the executives at GoodLeap mentioned,Â
"Hiring EverOps was the best decision I've ever made."Â
For a company that has already facilitated over $30 billion in sustainable home upgrade financing, this partnership was a significant milestone for EverOps and GoodLeap alike.Â
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the most critical IT challenges facing GoodLeap before working with EverOps?
GoodLeap's most pressing challenges included an inability to scale its IT infrastructure to match business growth, significant security vulnerabilities (including VPNs exposed to approximately 54 million annual hacking attempts), inefficient server patching processes, and outdated systems running unsupported software. These issues created both operational inefficiencies and significant security risks for a company handling billions of dollars in financing transactions.
How long did the IT transformation take?
The initial assessment phase conducted by EverOps took place over approximately two months (October-November 2023). The implementation of the strategic roadmap and resulting improvements occurred over the following year. The relatively quick turnaround demonstrates the effectiveness of a well-planned IT modernization strategy, even for organizations with complex infrastructure needs.
What specific security improvements did EverOps implement?
EverOps implemented a comprehensive security overhaul that included restructuring GoodLeap's entire network security architecture, centralizing configuration management for firewalls and switches, securing VPNs against millions of hacking attempts, automating server patching processes, retiring unsupported Windows and Linux servers, and upgrading wireless networks with certificate-based authentication. These measures collectively resulted in the resolution of 100% of critical vulnerabilities.
How did the TechPod delivery model differ from traditional IT consulting?
Unlike traditional consultants who typically work as external advisors, EverOps embedded their expertise directly within GoodLeap through their ‘TechPod model.’ This approach facilitated deeper knowledge transfer, ensured technical decisions aligned with business priorities, reduced communication barriers, and accelerated implementation.
What specific cost savings did GoodLeap realize?
GoodLeap achieved $144,000 in recurring annual savings through the IT transformation, with an additional $100,000 in potential savings identified through future technology consolidation initiatives. These savings came from multiple sources, including the retirement of redundant systems, improved operational efficiency, and optimized asset management.
How did the IT modernization impact GoodLeap's business operations?
Beyond the technical improvements, the transformation significantly enhanced GoodLeap's business capabilities. The 400% increase in server patching efficiency freed technical resources to focus on innovation rather than maintenance. Enhanced security reduced business risk, while improved network performance increased productivity across all sites. Most importantly, the modernized infrastructure now provides a scalable foundation that supports rather than constrains GoodLeap's continued growth into new verticals and markets.
