Technology and IT Due Diligence for Private Equity
Financial and commercial diligence tell you what a company earns and where it sits in its market. Neither tells you what it runs on. Hollinford assesses the systems beneath a target, so technology risk is priced into the deal instead of discovered after it. We look at the software, integrations, reporting, and key-person risk inside a target, and turn them into a clear view of risk, cost, and effort before you close.
For deal teams assessing SMB and mid-market targets where systems risk affects price and post-deal plans.
The hidden layer of a deal
The technology risk that sits outside the financials.
Most deal processes cover financials, legal, and commercial risk in detail. The systems the company runs on usually go unexamined until the new owner inherits them.
That gap costs money. A target may depend on software that is no longer supported, reporting assembled by hand each month, or an integration that one person knows how to fix. None of it appears in the numbers, and all of it affects what the company costs to own and to grow.
A common example: a target whose monthly management accounts come from a single spreadsheet maintained by one finance lead, with nothing written down. It works today, and it becomes a continuity risk and an integration blocker the moment that person leaves or volumes rise.
Scope of the technical due diligence
What Hollinford assesses.
Business-critical software
The applications the company depends on day to day, including custom tools, and how supportable and changeable they are.
Legacy systems and databases
Old databases and internal systems that still run the business and may be difficult to maintain or integrate.
Integrations and data flows
How systems pass data between each other, and where those flows depend on fragile scripts or manual exports.
Reporting and data quality
How management information is produced, how reliable it is, and how much of it depends on manual work.
Key-person dependency
Where critical knowledge or access sits with one or two individuals, and what that means for continuity.
Modernisation cost and effort
A realistic view of what it would take to stabilise, integrate, or modernise the systems after the deal.
AI-readiness and automation potential
Whether the target's systems, data flows, reporting, and workflows are ready to support practical AI use cases, or whether legacy technology would limit automation, productivity gains, or future value creation.
Timing
When to bring Hollinford in.
Pre-deal
Pre-deal, as part of the diligence process, to inform price and risk.
Confirmatory
Confirmatory, late in a deal, to validate specific systems concerns.
Early ownership
Early ownership, in the first weeks after a deal, to turn unknowns into a plan.
The earlier Hollinford is involved, the more the findings can shape the deal rather than the clean-up.
Output
What you learn.
The findings answer the questions a deal team actually has: what could break, what will be hard to change, what will cost money to fix, and what could slow integration or growth.
Each finding is tied to a business consequence, so the output reads as deal information rather than a technical inventory.
You also learn whether the target has a realistic foundation for AI-enabled productivity and operational improvement, or whether systems modernisation is required first.
Deliverable
What you receive.
- Current systems overview
- Business-critical dependencies
- Risk and fragility summary
- Integration and reporting issues
- Key-person dependency findings
- Modernisation cost-and-effort view
- Recommended next steps
The deliverable is written for a deal audience: clear, prioritised, and tied to cost and risk.
Process
How the assessment works.
- Step 1
Understand the deal context
We start with the thesis, the timeline, and the specific concerns the deal team already has.
- Step 2
Map systems and dependencies
We identify the software, databases, integrations, reporting, and manual processes the company depends on.
- Step 3
Assess risk, cost, and effort
We assess where systems create risk, what they will cost to address, and how hard they will be to change.
- Step 4
Report in deal terms
We deliver findings the deal team can act on, and can stay involved into ownership if the deal proceeds.
Continuity
From findings to a plan.
When a deal proceeds, the diligence findings become the starting point for modernisation. Hollinford can carry the same understanding into ownership and turn the findings into a practical roadmap.
See how we modernise portfolio company systems
Related: legacy systems we modernise, how we work, IT risk assessment, and what is a legacy system.
Why Hollinford
A diligence partner built around operations.
Systems and operations focus
Hollinford assesses the software, databases, integrations, and workflows a business runs on, framed around how the company operates.
Findings in deal terms
The output is written for a deal team: risk, cost, and effort, rather than technical detail without context.
Continuity into ownership
The same team can carry the findings into modernisation, so nothing is lost between diligence and delivery.
Suitable for messy legacy environments
Hollinford can assess businesses with old databases, custom tools, disconnected systems, and fragile integrations.
SMB and mid-market fit
Hollinford works at the size where PE-backed targets often carry exactly these systems risks.
Talk to us
Systems you cannot see clearly on a target.
If a target depends on legacy software, manual reporting, fragile integrations, or systems only a few people understand, Hollinford can assess the risk and give your deal team a clear view of cost and effort before you close.
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