When you are part of a boutique M&A platform, you can really be nimble. In fact, we’d argue you have to be nimble and you have to think more about your clients and delivering for them. This can be a huge advantage if done well. And as part of that, we developed our very own technology that we believe gives our clients greater transparency and better execution. We call it Deal Team. And with Deal Team, our goal is to be the most efficient and effective M&A firm in the market.
Key Workflows Have Historically Been Highly Labor-Intensive
Outreach
When you have a list of pre-screened potential targets who you’d like to engage in a deal, the tracking of these targets gets very cumbersome and unwieldy. Who has received an NDA? Who has submitted an NDA? Which ones are showing interest? Which ones are starting to fade? Which ones should we dis-engage? Who should be invited to the next phase? And what information have they reviewed? All of these stage gates are important to track and, of course, share with the client. Spreadsheets are easy to put together and can be shared but they only get you so far. Plus, they tend to create more chaos, potential for error and duplicative work.
Our Outreach platform is collaborative with the client, integrates with Outlook and has a customizable set of key workflows designed to keep track of where the conversation and process is with each target counterparty.
This dashboard view is accessible 24/7 and serves as the key process update so everyone is working off the same set of facts and contact information.
Diligence
As most M&A professionals know, getting proposals in the door is only as good as your diligence process. If your diligence process gets out of control, your deal can quickly stall or die. Data rooms are like massive warehouses filled with information without a system that tracks how you close out requests and the documents needed to close your deal.
Our diligence platform is designed to keep track of every single request and attaches key information and content related to each as well. Additionally, our diligence platform similarly keeps track of all of the key documents associated with the transaction.
Our diligence solution combines workflows to close out requests and finalize documents with a robust, highly secure data room.
Application in Sell-Side, Buy-Side and Capital Raising Transactions
The Outreach and Diligence solutions can be applied in almost any M&A or capital raising situation. For Sell-Sides, the Outreach is a seamless way to collaborate between the advisor and the seller to keep everyone informed in real-time as well as staying on message. For Buy-Sides, again, the Outreach solution is ideal as it allows close collaboration with the client while still serving as an integrated workflow to engage with targets. And for situations where you are raising capital, Outreach offers the team raising the capital to be aligned internally and updated in real-time while also serving as the integrated workflow to engage with capital providers.
We are thrilled with these solutions, which are live and already getting terrific client feedback. We look forward to continuing to invest in this technology while expanding / solving other highly labor-intensive aspects of deal processes.
