Technology Due Diligence Exercise

IONA is an M&A decision-making project originated by a large private equity fund for assessing the integration possibility between an online digital bank and a private retail bank. GreySpark was responsible for delivering the Technical Due Diligence.

Since the online digital bank mainly depends on its IT intellectual property, the assessment and evaluation of the technology potentials and risks played an important part in this deal

The following technology perspectives have been assessed: client-facing technology, core technology, software development process, IT infrastructure, IT operations, project and product management, resourcing and talent management, regulatory readiness and IT spend and budgets.

1. Virtual Data Rooms (VDR) were set up for both banks. Different approaches were adopted to collect the required information.

2. GreySpark’s assessments were based on all information and data collected. A comparison of the current and in-plan IT intellectual property, industry best practices and latest technology trends from every perspective was completed.

3. GreySpark’s team worked on nine topics and 72 scopes in total. Every topic was assessed in three pillars: information provided, evaluation and risk assessment, which were based on the results from its sub-scopes.

4. A final assessment of the executive summary was subsequently conducted.

5. A technology integration analysis and plan was proposed.

GreySpark provided the client with a TDD final report.

• The client understood Bank A’s technology intellectual property from GreySpark’s investigation and research work which can serve as the guide for future M&A strategy.
• The client was given a whole picture of Bank A’s high-level functional architecture for the digital platform and their IT software delivery process architecture for DevOps management flow.
• The client gained an executive summary of the technology assessment and risks. They also received a good estimation of Bank A’s IT spend, budgets and the cost forecast for the next one year and a half.
• GreySpark offered a detailed IT integration analysis and plan for the two banks post-M&A.