Service 01
Technology Audit
An independent, structured assessment of the technology estate — systems, integrations, suppliers, governance, security, capability, and culture. Delivered as a defensible view of technology risk, capability, and opportunity, with prioritised recommendations leadership teams can act on immediately.
What is delivered
- Executive summary and prioritised risk register
- Six-pillar assessment: architecture, integration, governance, security, adoption, AI
- System-by-system review of business-critical platforms
- Phased implementation roadmap
- Quick Wins list and Do Not Do list
- Executive presentation of findings
When to commission
- Preparing for a PE exit or sale within 18–36 months
- Post-acquisition or post-carve-out
- At the start of a Value Creation Plan period
- Following departure of a key technology figure
- Ahead of significant technology investment
Service 02
DD Readiness Assessment
A focused review scored against the specific questions buyers ask in technology due diligence. Outputs a prioritised remediation plan for PE-backed businesses within 12–18 months of a transaction. Sharper and faster than a full audit, focused on exit-blocking risk.
What the fee covers
- 5 days of stakeholder engagement with executive team, IT lead, and function heads
- Preparation and desk review of policies, contracts, systems, and integration documentation
- Six-pillar scored analysis against buyer DD criteria
- Executive-ready written report and risk register
- Executive presentation of findings and remediation plan
- Extended engagement (£15,000) for larger or more complex estates
When to commission
- 12–18 months before an expected transaction
- When technology risks are known but unquantified
- Ahead of a Value Creation Plan refresh
- When PE Operating Partners require a portfolio-level diagnostic
Service 03
Interim Technology Leadership
Hands-on interim Technology Director / CTO / CIO leadership for portcos preparing for exit, integrating a carve-out, or navigating transformation without permanent CTO/CIO capacity. Delivered with the commercial mindset of a senior operator, not a consultant.
What is delivered
- Direct operational leadership of the technology function
- Closure of DD-blocking risks and single-person dependencies
- Refresh of policy stack and governance framework
- Supplier renegotiation, rationalisation, and cost recovery
- Team stabilisation and capability transfer
- VCP technology roadmap and delivery oversight
- Handover documentation for permanent successor
When to commission
- Between permanent CTO/CIO hires, particularly ahead of exit
- When a departing IT owner has built systems alone
- During intensive transformation, ERP migration, or system integration
- When exit horizon requires senior operator focus a permanent hire cannot provide
Service 04
Post-Merger Integration
Technology integration leadership for PE-backed carve-outs and post-merger environments. Focus on the operational realities of integration — governance, dependencies, and TSA delivery — rather than the integration slide deck.
What is delivered
- Cross-functional integration governance across acquired and acquiring entities
- Integration roadmap, sequencing, and dependency mapping
- Transitional Service Agreement (TSA) design, delivery, and exit
- Data and systems migration oversight
- Value Creation Plan alignment with integration delivery
- Post-integration operating model design
When to commission
- Immediately post-transaction, when integration governance is not yet established
- When carve-out timelines are tight and TSA exit dates are firm
- When multiple technology stacks must be integrated at pace
- When integration risk threatens deal value or exit optionality
Recent example. £500m PMI at Gravity Media — cross-functional integration governance across SAP, Dynamics, Salesforce, and EDI. Transformation playbook, VCP, and Transitional Service Agreement delivered for handover.
Service 05
AI Adoption Assessment
Proprietary AI diagnostic covering 26 use cases across six categories — Revenue, Internal Operations, Risk & Compliance, Customer, Technology, and People. Weighted scoring, phased roadmapping, budget-fit analysis. Focus on realising AI value while foundations are being rebuilt.
What is delivered
- AI Adoption Impact Assessment across 26 use cases
- Readiness, Opportunity, and Risk scoring (0–100 each)
- Per-use-case impact: efficiency gain %, revenue impact £, time to value
- Budget fit analysis with phased roadmap
- Executive summary with prioritised recommendations by horizon
- AI Usage Policy review or drafting
When to commission
- When leadership lacks a credible AI position for buyer DD
- Ahead of significant AI investment decisions
- When AI adoption is fragmented across departments
- When AI is in use without a governance framework
- Ahead of a Value Creation Plan technology component
Also available
Two additional engagement structures for situations that fall outside the five standard modes.
Also available
Composite Engagements
Where a business need spans multiple engagement modes — combining a Technology Audit with interim leadership to close identified risks, or delivering a DD Readiness Assessment alongside supplier renegotiation — engagements can be structured as a composite programme.
Also available: advisory-only Board Technology Advisor retainer for ongoing strategic input, and multi-portco engagements across a PE fund's portfolio.
Pricing is agreed as a single fixed fee, defined-scope proposal, or monthly retainer, drawing on the pricing anchors above.
Also available
Programme Rescue
For businesses running stalled, over-budget, or under-delivering technology programmes. Delivered as an interim engagement with a rescue mandate — rapid diagnosis of what is genuinely broken (often not what leadership assumes), stabilisation of the delivery team, and re-planning against realistic outcomes.
Duration and day rate reflect the diagnostic complexity and the difficulty of taking over a programme already under pressure.
Recent example
Brought in to deliver a stalled pilot programme that was the POC for a multi-market, multi-million pound global rollout. The business had framed it as a technology failure at UAT and had lost confidence after significant time and cost.
Diagnosis surfaced the real issue: the business team and the vendor were not operating as one team. There were some genuine technical gaps missed at requirements, but the deeper problem was a relationship one — the business team frustrated by the vendor's lack of understanding of local processes, the vendor frustrated by the business's inability to articulate them.
On these programmes, a two-way knowledge transfer plays out on a predictable curve: the vendor arrives with system and category expertise, the business holds local and operational knowledge. The lines converge, usually late in requirements — often too late to prevent the friction that had built.
The recommendation to senior leadership was that the technical gaps could be closed within the contingency, and that what was actually needed was two weeks of on-site team building and a partial re-run of the requirements stage. That was delivered. From that point, whatever the programme faced, it faced as one team. The pilot went live. The pattern became the template rolled out across all subsequent markets globally.
The commercial outcome mattered. The pattern of leadership mattered more.