Case Study: How a Software Portfolio Company Tripled Its M&A Pace with DCS

Building a Scalable Deal Process

A portfolio company of a mid-market private equity firm had a clear mandate: grow through acquisition. The company, a niche enterprise software developer, had completed one acquisition in the prior year. That deal, led by the CFO, consumed months of manual effort.

Mandate: Accelerate Inorganic Growth with M&A Software

Diligence coordination was slow, document sharing was fragmented, and legal bills piled up.

To meet a new target of four tuck-in acquisitions per year, the company hired a head of corporate development and adopted DCS to optimize its deal process. The focus was on diligence and document control. DCS’s diligence request tracker and integrated virtual data room provided the team with a central system to manage documents, coordinate with outside counsel, and run faster, more efficient processes.

Early Results: Faster diligence, and Quicker to Sign

Within the first quarter of using DCS, the company signed two LOIs and had three additional deals in early-stage diligence. By linking diligence checklists directly to the data room, the team was able to vet targets more efficiently, schedule diligence calls earlier in the process, and reduce the back-and-forth that typically delayed legal review.

Operational Benefits: Speed and Savings

Legal costs declined as outside counsel worked from structured files and pre-cleared documentation. Internal bandwidth improved, enabling the team to manage multiple live transactions simultaneously; a first for the company.

Adoption at the Fund Level

The private equity sponsor, impressed with the transparency and speed of execution, has begun rolling out RedlineDCS across its broader portfolio. Discussions are underway to use the platform for internal investment committee workflows and fund-level diligence as well.

DCS continues to support the portfolio company as it scales its acquisition engine, allowing its deal team to move faster, reduce friction, and focus on what matters: finding and closing the right targets.

Written by John Thompson, a guest writer