Velosio & Microsoft: Agile Partners for Private Equity

Microsoft is taking the bold step of positioning itself as a partner in helping private equity firms manage their portfolio companies. The company has recently launched Microsoft Private Capital to provide private equity (PE) and venture capital firms with a technology and business service offering for their portfolio companies.

Velosio has focused on private equity for years. We bring extensive knowledge and a depth of expertise to offer consulting on IT roadmaps and strategies for PE firms and their portfolio companies or newly planned acquisitions. Our experience helps us align a PE firm’s goals, budget, and exit strategy with the day-to-day functionality needed within any of their portfolio companies to stabilize and grow the business.

Understanding the Legacy Technology Trap

Firms evaluating which companies to invest in need to understand the current state of their technology as they perform analysis and due diligence. They’ll often find that the companies they want to invest in will have outdated on-premises technology that’s complex, at end-of-life, or comes with cybersecurity issues. More important, this legacy technology creates a short-term risk to the potential investment. Why would any private equity firm want to gamble on a business that has ancient technology?

The answer is: that they don’t need to if they take the proper steps.

Performing a technology audit and assessment before an investment is essential for those who want to maximize ROI or avoid losing money.

Cloud is No Longer Optional

Over the past year, modernization went from an expansion tactic to a survival strategy. Even businesses that weathered the pandemic saw the obvious value of digitizing processes and upgrading technology. The emerging shift to an increasingly remote workforce will reshape how employees work together – and where companies will find their workforces.

For PE, there are many short- and long-term benefits to enhancing the technology within a portfolio company.

Leveraging the cloud allows private equity firms to begin digitizing and modernization early in the funding process, granting the agility to grab opportunities more quickly and improve performance. The long-term benefits of moving to the cloud include savings to PE portfolio companies past the investment, such as how having a standardized cloud-based business applications suite for their entire portfolio can have significant economies of scale.

The Importance of Finding the Right Partner

An agile partner in cloud-based technologies can quickly cause challenges and situations.

The key is to choose the right partner. Private equity firms need to work with professionals who know both the technology and the business application functionality. They need to work with a technology company with a dedicated practice that focuses on PE-backed companies. A proven tech partner would be able to show how they’ve been successful in the past in migrating companies to cloud-based apps with packaged services that lower risk, and cost – while working under an accelerated implementation schedule.

Finding the right partner will help prevent projects from getting mismanaged, avoiding implementation delays and creating outcomes that are too costly.

What Velosio and Microsoft Can Do for Private Equity Firms

Microsoft helps companies grow, and  Velosio delivers for portfolio companies with the Microsoft Cloud:

• Simplify the digital journey – Our integrated solutions include Dynamics 365 business apps, Microsoft 365 productivity solutions, and Azure infrastructure and development solutions to help you untangle your IT
• Realize business value faster – We’re a leader in speeding the deployment of business solutions by bringing best practices, business process maps, and learning tools that get your portfolio companies up and running fast
• Cultivate fresh ideas and innovation – We lead in developing new ways to manage cloud services, incorporating Microsoft’s Power Platform into innovative solutions, and working with leading third-party providers
• Interact with peers and experts – Help your portfolio companies learn how others are solving challenges and develop deeper expertise into their business solutions
• Gain deeper insights – Our goal is to uncover the information you need to help drive your portfolio’s profitability

With Velosio, private-equity-backed companies don’t have to worry about technology not keeping up. Velosio can quickly adapt and implement solutions to allow portfolio companies to run or scale fast. We have agile consultants, and we build our solutions as a platform for growth. You can review our services and learn why Velosio is the perfect partner to help you achieve your business goals. Don’t forget about Microsoft Dynamics 365 for private equity and how it could also help your organization out.