Due Diligence...


Minimising technology risk in business ventures
Futurmatix provides technology evaluations and technical due diligence for individuals, companies and government in the Information and communication technology industries including consumer electronics, and all digital technologies.
Futurmatix has the qualified experience to provide you with a reliable, objective evaluation of your business or technology concern, with our highly qualified personnel providing timely yet detailed input for your decision making process.
Futurmatix recognises the need for flexibility in today's fast paced world. Our customized service approach to technology evaluation and due diligence ranges from simple phone calls, emails and faxes to verify and resolve your concerns and questions to a more complex evaluation process depending upon your particular needs and timeframe.

A Due Diligence assignment will be tuned to your particular needs and the phase of negotiations you are within with respect to the target company, but a typical profile may include the following:

Technology Demonstration

Nature and number of potential users
Gearing product features to the business model
Use case scenarios
Transition time from demo to proof of concept implementation

Implementation Context

Existing infrastructure, environment and services assumptions
Hardware, communications, software & services required

Technology trends

Contributing to new platforms or using existing technology
Key existing technology leverage
Cross-vendor platform implementations and interoperability

Innovation

What is new from a technology perspective
Competitive versus complementary elements
Use of existing standards
Contribution to or definition of new standards
Open or proprietary technology interfaces (APIs/components)
Software languages / common firmware & hardware modules

Defensibility

What aspects of the technology are clearly defensible
What is legally protected (patents/IPR/Licensing)
Evidence of patents search
Granted patents analysis

Architecture

Evidence of a solid implementation foundation
Reusability / extensibility
Architectural standards and common methods utilised

COTS / Custom Analysis

Use of existing technology versus custom build
Plans to transfer custom to COTS & support infrastructure
Licensing models and revenue sharing considerations
Relative value assessment of COTS vs custom

Development Performance

Ability to meet objectives / release dates / deliverables
Comfort zone analysis and margins for current development
Key drivers wrt speed, quality, completeness and TTM
Project management, QA, QM, QoS analysis

Development Process

Nature of the development team - size and dynamics
Use of structured methods, best practice
Evidence of and compliance with guidelines and procedures
Team culture, incentives, rewards and results
Systematic approach to technical processes
External groups - Service Level Agreements and contracts
Standards-based versus custom build performance trade-off

Portfolio

Competing or synergistic with existing holdings
Leverage of other portfolio holdings within the new investment

Typical Outputs

Customer Survey
Customer Pipeline and Trend Analysis
Research Review
Analyst Interviews
Product Release Schedule Review
Development Processes, Procedures, and Documentation Review
Technical Architecture Review
Technical Support Group Review
Infrastructure Assessment
Corporate Culture Review
Legal Protection Assessment

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