Case Study · PE Technology Diligence

Mapping a multi-business-unit technology estate at speed.

A PE investor had acquired a platform business with six operating divisions across Rail, Energy, Renewables, Highways, Technical Services, and Commercial. No central application register. Four further acquisitions in exclusivity. We gave the investor a complete, evidence-based view of the technology estate, structured around their five Identification Goals, in weeks. Not months.

~£400k
Autodesk licence wastage identified
25+
Stakeholder interviews across 6 BUs
9
Structured deliverables produced
5
EMK Identification Goals addressed

The challenge

The PE investor had completed a platform acquisition forming a six-division group and had four further acquisitions sitting in exclusivity. The clock was running. The investor needed to know what they had bought, where the technology risks sat, and which value levers were available to compound across the further acquisitions.

  • Six business units operating independently across Rail, Energy, Renewables, Highways, Technical Services, and Commercial.
  • No central application register. Each business unit ran its own technology estate.
  • Four further acquisitions in exclusivity, with limited time to assess integration implications.
  • Five Identification Goals from the investor: a structured rubric the diligence output had to map cleanly against.
  • A PE-grade timeline. Weeks, not months.

Our approach

The engagement ran on the AI Factory operating model, structured around our COBIT 5 and multiple Panamoure framework-aligned IT due diligence methodology. Ingestion agents took every artefact the data rooms could surface and built a structured baseline against the methodology. Analysis agents ran the gap mapping and surfaced the value opportunities.

That output let the senior team focus on the 25+ stakeholder interviews where the real judgement calls live. Synthesis was authored by partners against the five investor Identification Goals (G1 to G5), with the analysis output continuously cross-checked behind the work.

What we delivered

Nine structured deliverables (D01 to D09) covering the full technology estate, mapped against the five Identification Goals, with quantified value opportunities and a prioritised integration plan for the further acquisitions in exclusivity.

  • Complete application register across all six business units, with usage, dependency, and contract data.
  • Approximately £400k of Autodesk licence wastage identified and quantified before sign-off.
  • Cybersecurity baseline, GDPR posture, and resilience assessment against the COBIT 5 rubric.
  • Integration playbook for the four acquisitions in exclusivity, sequenced against deal-day priorities.
  • Value creation map: Panamoure Value Creation Scorecard (PAVCS) tagged opportunities with EBIT and timing estimates the investor could act on.
Outcome

Investor-grade diligence and value plan, on the PE timeline the deal actually runs to.

More AI-led work in production

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