The professional and tech services sectors are fiercely competitive and diverse. So you need your portfolio to deliver growth, efficiency, and most importantly, real value.

The high-interest rate environment is impacting the cost of debt and target ROI, which means there’s less leverage readily available to support your M&A ambitions. Factor in inflation, debt charges, and the costs of energy, and it’s clear that businesses are facing unprecedented pressure.

This is where our expert, practical advice and guidance of a sector-specific consultancy can help you, as an investor, tackle these challenges head-on.

When assessing an investment opportunity in a professional or tech services business, operational due diligence should be undertaken alongside all other forms of due diligence to ensure that the target business has the operational capability to deliver on its plans.

At Garwood Solutions, we approach operational due diligence through a structured organisational capability assessment. The capability assessment utilises the Operating Model Canvas (OMC) approach and comprises three standard elements:

  • Functional assessment (sales, delivery, leadership, etc.) based on a derivative of the SPI maturity model
  • Process assessment (lead-to-order, resourcing, order-to-cash, etc.) based on proprietary best practice process definitions for a professional and tech service firm
  • Performance/KPI review (utilisation, revenue backlog, revenue per billable employee, etc.) based on SPI industry benchmarks

This approach ensures we can deliver a tailored report that includes recommendations for both objectives and actions, helping to reduce post-acquisition operational risk.

At Garwood, we have worked extensively with the leaders and investors of businesses in the professional & tech service sectors to carry out effective operational due diligence before making purchase decisions.

Each engagement utilises the sector-specific frameworks and tools Garwood developed or adopted, drawing upon the team’s extensive leadership experience in professional & tech services sectors.

To find out how Garwood could help you and your firm, get in touch with Rob Garner, Simon England or Paul Lines.