Six Considerations When Choosing an M&A Software Solution

The M&A software market is relatively new to the B2B technology landscape.

Consequently, it can be difficult to have a firm grasp on the questions you should be asking ā€” as well as the criteria you should be leveraging ā€” to effectively narrow down the best M&A software solution. The adoption and success of a new software solution is contingent on a number of criteria. We asked several of our customers to find out “Why Midaxo?” This article discusses key solution criteria that many of our customers prudently considered before they ultimately went with Midaxo.

Here is a summary of the criteria considered and the key questions they help answer.

QuestionsCriteria Considered
Will it fit our process and help us grow and scale?Flexibility and End-to-End Support
Will I be able to learn best practices that will elevate our processes?Content and Ecosystems
Will my team actually adopt it and want to use it?Usability and Support
Does it work with my companyā€™s security requirements?
Can I collaborate with users internal and external?
Security and User Controls
Is the solution trusted by top knowledge work teams?Trust and Proven Benefits
Does the vendor have a strong future?
Will the functionality continue to improve?
Company Health and Innovation

1. Flexibility and End-to-End Support

For any new software solution, you want to ensure that it fits in smoothly with your organizationā€™s existing processes and objectives to minimize change management. You want a software solution that was designed to fit your process, but not something so fit-for-purpose that it is impossible to customize.

Additionally, you donā€™t want a solution that only fits one part of your process. For any knowledge work processes in M&A and Corporate Development, it is essential for fast, informed decisions to have an end-to-end solution for identifying, evaluating, and completing projects. Many M&A tools are built for one, but not for all three, forcing you to combine multiple solutions and deal with data transfer.

Why Midaxo?
Designed and tested for use in M&A, Midaxo is trusted by 300+ teams worldwide to streamline M&A pipeline management, due diligence, and post-merger integration. Midaxo is flexible enough to be leveraged in other corporate, legal, and knowledge work processes. These processes include, but are not limited to, M&A, Divestments and separations, Partnerships, JVā€™s, and Corporate Venturing.


2. Content and Ecosystems

Does your M&A process have room for improvement? Itā€™s okay, you are not alone. A platform for uploading and executing your current process is not always enough, especially if your team is low on experience. You may have a successful project where you can reuse what worked well or an M&A veteran who can create guidelines for greener talent.

For some, it is helpful to know how other teams tackle their M&A and corporate development processes. From setting it up and working within it to reporting on it, there is power in collective best practices and expert knowledge.

Why Midaxo?
Midaxo works with 300+ happy customers and 6+ consulting firms (including Big 4 firms) that currently leverage Midaxo in transactions and engagements. Some work with our development team to ensure weā€™re best in class. We have leveraged the expertise within these groups not only for the product development, but many have also volunteered to work with us and share their best practices to help us develop our baseline 100+ M&A playbooks (task lists, task guidance, document templates) and dozens of reconfigured dashboards and reports.

3. Usability and Support

Weā€™ve all seen it before: someone buys a hot new software, but it is so unintuitive and difficult that their team doesnā€™t adopt it and it is ultimately abandoned. You donā€™t want to be that person. The solution you choose needs to be intuitive and support your process, essentially fading into the background as you carry out any number of due diligence or post-merger integration project tasks.

Additionally, a solution that comes with M&A experts to talk to that are committed to your success will help you further ensure adoption and happy users.

Why Midaxo?
The platform is intuitive, simple, and easy for your team to adopt and use, so you will maximize the value. Our Customer Success team is with you every step of the way to ensure user adoption and comfortability with the platform. We’ve also created self-service how-to videos for new and infrequent users to refer to when completing common steps.

ā€œThere is no tool that compares to Midaxo in terms of ease of use and user-friendly interfaceā€ -Sergio E. Letelier (VP & Assoc. General Counsel, HPE)

ā€œThe team described Midaxoā€™s onboarding process and training as efficient, supportive, and customized to their exact needs.ā€ ā€“Max Cheprasov (previously iProspectā€™s SVP of Operations and Integration.)


4. Security and User Controls

Your organizationā€™s M&A and corporate development plans and all associated information ā€” plans that represent your company at its strategic core ā€” must be guarded with the utmost care and technological savvy. Ensure the highest level of security for sensitive corporate material. Avoid increased M&A security risk by having temporary external users in your internal network. Secure sensitive data while supporting and encouraging for stakeholdersā€™ participation.

Why Midaxo?
Midaxo is ISO 27001 Certified (by KPMG) and our security practices are regularly audited by third-party auditors and our customers. We work with a third party to ensure our platform is ironclad with regular penetration testing. To maintain ISO 27001 status, Midaxo must undergo certification once a year, which is available upon request.

If you should ever choose to discontinue use of the platform, it is easy to download your own data from the solution.

5. Trust and Proven Benefits

Who uses this and are they willing to put their name on a testimonial or positive review? If you are the type of person or organization that won’t buy something unless it is used and vetted by people in your network, you are not alone ā€” it is human nature. We are all trying to reduce the risk of a bad deal!

Knowing that other people are happy and satisfied with their experiences and are actually achieving real value makes it much easier to see yourself having a similar experience and achieving similar results. 

Why Midaxo?
Midaxo has 10+ customer case studies and testimonials available on our website, sharing benefits like 50% less time in due diligence, more visibility, and 40% shorter post-merger integrations. We have worked with 16+ customers on shared public presentations, including with Daimler at the MergerMarket Germany Forum in March and with Hewlett Packard Enterprise at the CLOC Event in May. 

6. Company Health and Innovation

After partnering with a vendor, training their teams, and adopting anĀ M&A platform, the last thing anyone wants to do is evaluate solutions again in a year or two. Avoid getting caught in the providerā€™s financial issues and ensure full control of your data in all cases by investing in a solution with vendor with secure financials and a low risk of closing shop.Ā 

It is also important to avoid ā€œdeadā€ solutions. These are abandoned projects built in-house or acquired that just aren’t seeing investmentsĀ anymore. They are not like likely to grow and improve with new and emerging technology.

Why Midaxo?
Midaxo is working with 300+ happy customers and 6+ consulting firms, including more than 75 companies on the Fortune 2000 list, such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Philips, GroupM, and Samsung. We have gone through Series B funding and are backed by distinguished investors, such as Idinvest Partners, Tesi, and EOC Capital. Weā€™re proud of our large, dedicated, and nimble development team and we have been busy rapidly developingĀ new product innovations.

Learn How Midaxo Can Power Your Dealmaking

Contact us for a live demo or simply to discuss how Midaxo can improve the productivity of your team