Explore the Services
Rosewood offers professional technical due diligence services that provide our customers with the information necessary to evaluate the risks, costs, and opportunities associated with the technology dimension of any investment or acquisition.
You may find details of our service offerings below, or jump directly to the Frequently Asked Questions page.
1
Technology Due Diligence
Investing in a company that relies substantially on technology, presents a number of risks, some of which are hard to quantify. An essential aspect of such a business is the quality of the technology team and of the architecture on which the team is building.
Rosewood recognises that technology risk manifests in different ways in companies of different levels of maturity. Our broad experience enables us to tailor our assessments to the company's stage of product and platform evolution.
Our due diligence process covers the spectrum of technology concerns - team, infrastructure, software architecture, scalability, security, durability, the software development process, quality assurance and the use of AI in the development process. We incorporate investor's specific areas of concern into our assessments. Our reports use the information we gather to present a holistic view of the risks and opportunities inherent in the target company's technology platforms and product.
2
Internal
Due Diligence
Companies that are the target of an acquisition or investment may wish to prepare themselves for the technology assessment.
Rosewood offers a reverse due diligence service, whereby we perform a full technical due diligence assessment of the company. We provide feedback in the form of recommendations for addressing any risks from an investor’s point of view, and we prepare a report and a data room that may be shared with investors.
Simply being aware of a risk is often an indicator to an investor that a target company’s technology team is on the right track. The reverse due diligence exercise prepares the target company to answer difficult questions and involves the technical team in setting up a roadmap for future progress.
A thorough internal DD smooths the way for the investor, and may be accepted by the investor as adequate for their investment purposes. Rosewood assists our customer by accommodating interviews with the investor, once the external DD starts.
3
Technology Advisory
Beyond the investment phase, we support companies and investors with a range of services related to platform and product.
Post-investments assessments builds on the initial technology due diligence to measure progress with mitigating the risks that were identified in the initial assessment.
In some case, an internal due diligence will pinpoint the lack of a coherent technology strategy as a key risk to the business. In this case Rosewood is able to formulate a technology strategy that is designed to support the business' strategic goals.
Advisory CTO services are ad-hoc engagements, typically at the board or executive level, to provide independent and objective advise and support for executive decision making.
As fractional CTOs we engage more deeply with a business - assuming the role of CTO, and guiding the technology (and sometimes the product function) directly.
Areas of Assessment
During a technical due diligence, we consider the following areas of the organisation's technology assets, which we document in the due diligence report. The purpose of our report is to enable the investor to make an informed decision regarding the risks inherent in the technology platform and the potential costs involved in maintaining and expanding the platform.
People
People are the heart of any business. We evaluate development, operational, and support teams, including their structure, skills, and technical competencies.
Software
We assess the architecture of the target platform, along with the source code that implements it, to determine the level of performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Process
We evaluate a number of processes, including operational monitoring, SecOps, DevOps, quality assurance (QA), and the software development lifecycle (SDLC), including the use of AI and ML tools.
Infrastructure
Many platforms rely on cloud infrastructure, whilst some benefit from on-premise hardware. We evaluate the inventory of infrastructure for both cases.
Product
Technology embodies the product. To assess the technology, we also evaluate how well suited the tech is to the product, and how well it supports the product vision.
Security
Although we do not conduct vulnerability and penetration tests, we asses whether the existing tests, mechanisms, and processes adequately secure the platform.
Our Workflow
Our proven technology due diligence process is composed of five major steps, executed in a timely fashion, so that we can limit impact on the target company.
01
Preparation
During this initial phase, our goal is twofold. First, we set out to understand the requirements of our customers. These requirements differ depending on the type of the investor, their particular goals, and the stage of the target company’s lifecycle. Second, our goal is to become acquainted with the target company and to be introduced to their technology team. During this phase, an information request is shared with the target company, giving them a structure to use for preparing for the upcoming meetings and interviews. The questionnaire is customised to suit the requirements of our customer.
03
Debrief
Once the information gathering phase is complete and we have performed a high-level analysis of the information, we then hold a debriefing session with our customers. We provide a summary of the most important risk factors we have identified, and present a headline-type overview of the target company’s technology department. The session provides our customers with the opportunity to request further investigation of any aspect of the findings.
05
Closure
This final phase involves discussing the conclusions, the identified risks, and the mitigation measures documented in the report. During this phase, we offer our customers the option of doing follow-up assessments. In our experience, software-driven companies rapidly go through lifecycle changes - and it is necessary to safeguard the investment by ensuring that technical recommendations are implemented as agreed on. The closure phase sets out a roadmap for future interactions with the technology team, and delivers the information that our customers require to reduce the risk of technology-related problems arising in the future.
02
Interview
This phase comprises information gathering activities. The target company puts together a response to the information request, and shares the supporting documents in a virtual data room. We review the response and, based on that response, schedule on-site or remote interviews with all key technical personnel. We typically require access to monitoring and analytics systems and other relevant data sources.
04
Delivery
The delivery phase follows next. During this phase, we complete the final due diligence report, which includes an executive summary, traffic light report, investment considerations, narrative, technical glossary, technical documentation, and recommendations for future development. The report is supplemented with a summary in presentation (PowerPoint) format.