IT That Holds Up When the Deal Clock Is Running
Diligence, carve-outs, the 100-day plan and the hold period, delivered for private equity portfolio companies and the sponsors behind them.
If you are the sponsor
You need IT that holds up in diligence and stays quiet through the hold
Pre-close, you want a straight read on what you are buying. Post-close, you want a 100-day plan with an owner, a consistent security baseline across the portfolio and reporting you can put in a board deck without reformatting.
If you run the portco
You need a partner who can deliver on the deal's schedule, not IT's
The TSA clock is running, the sponsor wants evidence, your customers still send questionnaires and someone has to keep the business running while all of it happens. You need one team that has done this before.
Who this page is for
Sponsors, operating partners and portfolio company leadership in the lower-middle-market. If one of these is on your calendar, keep reading.
Diligence is coming
Sell-side or buy-side, the IT and cybersecurity questions arrive with a deadline. The answers move the close, the retrade conversation and the price.
A carve-out is on a TSA clock
Separating from parent-company IT means standing up identity, email, network, security and backups from nothing before the transition services agreement expires.
The 100-day plan needs an IT owner
The sponsor's post-close plan assumes someone will standardize the platform, close the security gaps and report progress. That someone has to exist.
Exit is 18 to 24 months out
The next buyer's diligence list is predictable. Building the documentation now protects valuation later and removes the reasons to retrade.
What we handle
The full transaction lifecycle, from the first diligence request to the next buyer's diligence request.
Sell-side and buy-side IT diligence
For sellers, we assemble the cybersecurity program documentation, tested backup evidence, incident history and vendor inventory a buyer's diligence team expects. For buyers, we read what the target actually runs and tell you what it will cost to make it right.
Carve-out execution under a TSA clock
Standalone identity, email, network, security stack and backups designed and built before the transition services agreement runs out, with a cutover plan that does not stop the business. We have done this on a live deal timeline and know where the surprises hide.
The post-close 100-day plan
Immediate control of identity and remote access, EDR and immutable backups in the first weeks, a NIST CSF 2.0 baseline assessment and a prioritized roadmap the operating partner can track against. Day 100 ends with evidence, not intentions.
Add-on integration and platform standardization
Each add-on lands on the same identity, security and support platform as the rest of the portfolio. One baseline, one reporting format and no orphaned environments carrying unknown risk into the next diligence.
Hold-period managed IT with sponsor-facing reporting
Day-to-day managed IT and security operations for the portfolio company, plus a monthly and quarterly cadence that serves the CFO and the operating partner at the same time. Evidence-backed status, not ticket counts.
Exit readiness
Starting 18 to 24 months before a transaction, we build the IT and cybersecurity story the next buyer will test: documented program, tested recovery, clean incident history, cyber insurance in force and a roadmap with no surprises.
How an engagement runs
Pre-close diligence
A scoped review of the target's environment, or preparation of the seller's evidence package, delivered on the deal calendar.
Carve-out and TSA exit
Standalone environment designed, built and cut over before the parent's services expire, with the sponsor's security baseline in place from day 1.
The 100-day plan
Identity, endpoint, backup and access controls locked down first, then the baseline assessment and the roadmap the operating partner tracks.
Hold-period operations and reporting
Managed IT and security operations with quarterly business reviews written for the board deck and the CFO's budget in the same document.
Exit readiness
The evidence library the next buyer's diligence team will ask for, assembled and current before the process starts.
Engagements enter at whichever step the deal is on. Not every portfolio company needs all 5.
Read more
Pillar guide
PE Portfolio Cybersecurity Guide
24 buyer questions on sell-side preparation, buy-side diligence, enterprise value, the 100-day plan and carve-out work.
Pillar guide
Cyber Insurance Renewal Guide
What underwriters expect and the 90-day preparation sequence, the same controls diligence teams check.
Reading for PE portfolio operators
All PE portfolio posts →May 12, 2026
PE diligence in food processing: what sponsors look for
The 10 cybersecurity diligence items that move price or kill deals in food processing PE transactions. Where dairy, meat and nut processors typically fail.
May 5, 2026
Detroit, PE portfolio cybersecurity in the sponsor-office corridor
Why the Detroit metro's sponsor-office density makes portfolio-company cybersecurity a different operating problem than it is in lower-density PE markets, and what works.
April 20, 2026
Cybersecurity and enterprise valuation, how much it actually matters
A practical view of how cybersecurity posture affects transaction outcomes, deal multipliers and retrade risk at mid-market PE exits, with honest ranges for the magnitude of impact.
Common questions
Do you work with the sponsor or with the portfolio company?
Both, usually on the same engagement. Sponsors and operating partners bring us in for diligence, carve-out planning and portfolio-wide standards. Portfolio company leadership engages us as the day-to-day managed IT and security partner after close. The reporting serves the operating partner and the CFO at the same time.
Have you actually done a carve-out?
Yes. We support a lower-middle-market PE portfolio company we carved out from its publicly-traded industrial-services parent operator. We built the standalone IT and cybersecurity environment under the TSA, cut it over on the deal timeline and operate it today as the post-close managed IT and security partner.
What size of deal and company do you fit?
Lower-middle-market portfolio companies, typically 25 to 250 employees, often industrial or manufacturing operators with 1 to several sites. Diligence depth scales with deal size and we scope to match, from a questionnaire and document review to a full technical assessment.
How fast can you move on a deal timeline?
Diligence reviews are scoped in days. A carve-out standalone build runs on the TSA clock, usually 90 to 180 days from signing to cutover depending on what the parent provided. The 100-day plan starts the day after close with identity and remote access under control in the first 2 weeks.
What do sponsors actually get in the reporting?
A monthly evidence-backed status against the roadmap and a quarterly business review covering security posture, backup test results, open risks with cost and timeline, cyber insurance readiness and anything a future diligence team would flag. It is written so the operating partner can put it in front of a board without rewriting it.
Can you standardize IT across several portfolio companies?
Yes. Each add-on or platform company lands on the same identity, security and support baseline with the same reporting format. That removes the orphaned environments that carry unknown risk into the next diligence and lets the sponsor compare posture across the portfolio on one page.
Does a clean cyber program raise the multiple?
Rarely on its own. What it does is enable a faster close, fewer retrade conversations and stronger leverage on other terms, because it removes the reasons a buyer discounts. The premium comes from financial performance and market position. A clean program keeps that premium intact.
Do you also do SOC 2 for portfolio companies that need it?
We guide portfolio companies preparing for SOC 2 Type I and Type II audits, building the control environment, operating it long enough to produce the evidence the auditor needs and coordinating with the SOC 2 audit firm. We are not a SOC 2 audit firm ourselves; we are the MSP that makes the audit reach a clean opinion.
Deal on the calendar?
Grab 15 minutes with us. Tell us where the deal is and we'll tell you honestly what IT needs to look like by close, by day 100 and by exit.
- No obligation
- No sales pitch
- Straight answers