Understand technology risk before you buy the business.
Technology problems rarely appear neatly on the balance sheet.
An acquisition may come with ageing infrastructure, fragile systems, cyber exposure, unsupported applications, supplier dependency, undocumented processes or significant post-completion investment requirements.
Baselayer provides practical technology due diligence for buyers who need to understand the operational technology environment before completing an acquisition.
The question is not whether the technology is perfect.
Few operating businesses have perfect technology.
The important questions are:
Due diligence should help the buyer understand those issues before they become post-completion surprises.
AREAS WE REVIEW
Technology operating model
Internal staff, MSPs, suppliers and key technology responsibilities.
Business systems
Critical platforms, dependencies, age, support status and known issues.
Infrastructure and cloud
Important hosting, network, endpoint and cloud dependencies.
Cybersecurity
Material weaknesses, identity risk, endpoint security, backup and incident readiness.
Data and access
Important data locations, administrative access and ownership.
Suppliers and contracts
Key IT suppliers, licences, renewal issues and concentration risk.
Technical debt
Areas likely to require remediation or replacement.
Key-person dependency
Technology knowledge or access concentrated in one individual.
Resilience
Backup, disaster recovery and operational continuity.
Integration considerations
Technology issues likely to affect post-acquisition consolidation or integration.
Findings designed for the transaction decision.
Depending on scope, the output can include:
The emphasis is on what management and the buyer need to understand, not producing unnecessary technical detail.
Operational technology due diligence, not software product code review.
This service is designed primarily for acquisitions of operating businesses where technology enables the organisation.
It is not positioned as deep source-code, software-product architecture or intellectual-property due diligence for technology startups.
Where specialist technical disciplines are required, those can be added separately.