Understand the strategic value of technology in M&A.
IT has a seat at the table during M&A more than ever. It wasn’t always this way – in the past, IT due diligence was too often an afterthought. Luckily, this is changing, and it’s important that you get it right if you’re involved in the evaluation of a potential acquisition.
If it’s your first time being part of the due diligence team, you might be nervous. You don’t want to miss anything important. You want to look like you know what you’re doing. You want to impress your boss, since doing a great job can be very good for your career.
Or, maybe you’re a veteran of numerous transactions and you understand that finding that one additional technology question that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought to ask can make a huge difference.
Either way, the IT Due Diligence Guide can definitely help.
Ask the Right Questions for the Right Reasons
The book is intentionally written to be useful and understandable even if you’ve never taken part in a merger or acquisition before. The entire due diligence process is laid out.
The IT Due Diligence Guide isn’t a textbook or an academic study of the due diligence process. It’s based on real world issues and real world experience. My goal in writing it was to impart the knowledge that I’ve gained in almost 20 years of helping investors and buyers evaluate their potential acquisitions.
The book explains the questions to ask during technology due diligence, and how to interpret the responses, from a business standpoint. Even more importantly, it provides the right follow-up questions to ask so that you can get the critical information you need.
For example, the people making the final decisions about a deal usually don’t care if a company uses C# or PHP as its development language. However, if the plan is to integrate two companies’ products, and that won’t be possible without a substantial investment in training, new hires or code rewrites, then the investor will be interested.
The book shows you over and over how the information you discover during due diligence can impact the price of the deal or whether to recommend moving forward at all. Like the time I identified a software licensing issue that saved the investor over $200,000.
The IT Due Diligence Guide will help you uncover hidden value, unexpected expenses and previously unidentified risks. These are the things an acquirer or investor cares about.
In addition, the book covers sensitive questions that are not on the IT due diligence checklist and should only be asked in person. You’ll read why and when to ask these questions – they can be some of the most important ones in the entire process.
You’ll also receive data collection spreadsheets that make the process go more quickly and ensure that you get the data you need in a useful format.
Cover Today’s IT Due Diligence Issues
The book addresses the current IT issues that are important in M&A. Even the mainstream press has covered huge data and credit card breaches and ransomware recently, and the book includes extensive information related to cybersecurity.
Given the special considerations related to IT due diligence in healthcare organizations, the book comes with an exclusive healthcare technology due diligence checklist. There is also an entire section of the book that focuses on healthcare. Much of this content is relevant to any company that operates in a heavily-regulated industry or manages highly-sensitive data.
Write a Great Due Diligence Report and Be Ready for Integration
At the end of the due diligence process, you’ll need to write a report. Many people find this intimidating. The book comes with a due diligence report template with detailed instructions that will help you create a report that will be meaningful to the senior executives that are usually in charge of a deal.
After the deal goes through, the acquired company will have to be integrated. The book also includes an IT integration plan template to help you think through how what you discovered during IT due diligence will impact the integration process.
Get the Book
The IT Due Diligence Guide is priced at $195.
You might be thinking “that’s a lot of money for a book,” but for less than the cost of one hour of a consultant’s time you can be well on the way to an effective IT due diligence project. And, if the book helps you identify just one issue that you might not have uncovered on your own, it can pay for itself many times over.
The book has helped organizations from the Fortune 10 to the largest technology companies to individual consultants from all around the world.
— Gavin D., leading professional services firm
“The IT Due Diligence Guide is a simple and practical guide. The tools and templates are useful in helping you think through key issues and risks.”
—Jo M., IT Consultant
“The IT Due Diligence Guide provides my supercomputing consultancy with a blueprint and roadmap to have in one place necessary and nuanced technical information that I use routinely to provide significant improvements and business recommendations. This guide is a staple in my business as I deal with public and private sector clients to help align IT/ICT enterprise practices with supercomputing/HPC environments.”
— Earl J. Dodd, Supercomputing Strategist, Ideas and Machines, Inc.
There’s a 30 day money back guarantee if you don’t think the book is valuable. If you’re not satisfied with your purchase for any reason, simply let me know and you’ll receive a full refund.
You’ll be able to download the book immediately once your purchase is complete, since the IT Due Diligence Guide is a PDF document.
Your order will be securely processed by credit card or PayPal.
And, if you’d like some assistance editing and reviewing your IT due diligence report, you can purchase four hours of consulting time along with the book for a total of $895.
+ Consulting
- Book
- Report Template
- Integration Plan Template
- Data Collection Spreadsheets
- 4 hours of consulting time via email to help you review and refine your findings
+ Consulting
- Book
- Report Template
- Integration Plan Template
- Data Collection Spreadsheets
- 4 hours of consulting time via email to help you review and refine your findings
If you’re a larger organization and would like to purchase multiple copies of the book for your team, email me for volume pricing.
About the Author
Jim Hoffman wrote the IT Due Diligence Guide after years of technology and operations experience with companies very active in M&A. He’s worked on IT due diligence projects ranging from a $50,000 investment to a $375M company sale. The tools, information and practices outlined in the book are exactly what he uses himself when he runs due diligence projects.