Business, Financial, and Professional Services
From facilities management and IT consulting to project management software and staffing services, the business and professional services sector is remarkably diverse. Successful deals in the space require careful Diligence on what truly drives: client and customer acquisition; retention and churn; scale and scope economies; commercial synergies; actionable adjacencies; and ultimately the value in the business/firm (vs. value in key personnel). Services can be sticky but undifferentiated, differentiated but easily switched—and everything in between—which means that a strong understanding of the fundamental industrial logic that surrounds an acquisition is critical to projecting growth and risk.
Understanding service markets requires careful attention to detail and a willingness to explore nuances, rather than oversimplifying the complexity. Most service companies operate in complex, multi-stakeholder environments, often with channel participants (and sometimes channel partners) that provide tools or referrals. These adjacent and overlapping service providers act variably as referrers or competitors, amidst constantly shifting industry needs and other factors. Thus, commercial due Diligence must consider the holistic environment to understand the prospects of a business: not only is direct feedback from end-users and decision-makers key, but so is mapping the company reputation and broader market forces across the entire ecosystem.
Investors target sticky, recurring revenues that can underwrite leveraged returns, and sellers are aware of this. As a result, many Management Teams are seeking to make the transition from re-occurring to actual recurring revenue through multiple means—contractual, business model, and offering construction.
Understanding what is actually possible is critical; for instance, there will be limiting factors. A key question is often: how much headroom is there in the new model? And, where is the target in terms of its maturity/journey from the perspective of building the necessary capabilities to support the transition?
Matters Graph is called upon to address these questions from a Voice-of-Customer perspective, providing independent validation of the business's performance and opportunities. Voice of Customer (and "Voice of Channel", partner, etc.) research allows investors to gain a critical perspective on key questions: headroom for growth, pace of adoption and SaaS potential, TAM vs. SAM vs. SOM (right to win), price sensitivity, competitive alternatives, and how service quality or domain expertise impacts market opportunity, risk, and company prospect.
Matters Graph has experience supporting acquisitions across a range of subsectors in business services, financial services, and professional services, and has tackled everything from platform builds and add-ons to niche specialists to MSPs (and channel partner solutions, etc.), among others.
Recent Matters Graph Business, Financial and Professional Services project examples include(for details on Matters Graph Diligence exercises covered by PitchBook, click on the PitchBook 
icons below to view deal details):
Business Services
- Channel partner management solutions
- Community bank and credit union services
- Community and stakeholder engagement software
- Compliance training software & systems
- Corporate employee giving platform
- Decision-making software
- Digital transformation services
- Document management services
- E-commerce enablement
- Employee experience software
- Employer-of-record services
- Environmental services: spills clean-up
- ERP implementation services
- Facilities management services
- Facilities management consulting and delivery services
- Facilities management work orders and marketplace
- Facilities repairs and maintenance (R&M) management process solutions
- Federal, state and municipal contracting (equipment and services)
- FMCG data analytics services
- FOIA business process management solutions
- Freelance/gig labor online marketplace
- Global corporate relocation and housing
- Global Professional Employment Organizations (PEOs)
- Grounds maintenance & outdoor compliance
- Hiring assessments, video interviewing platform, and AI-based candidate analysis
- Hotel development and operations outsourcing
- Human capital management software
- Innovation consultancy services
- Janitorial services
- Legal process workflow and regulatory and government data access tools
- Logistics and brokerage
- Managed services provider (MSP), vendor management system (VMS), and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)
- Marketing services
- Outsourced recruiting solutions (RPO)
- Packages and shipping services
- Pallet management services
- Property management
- Recruitment automation/sourcing software
- Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)
- Short term vacation rental property management
- Specialty channel book publishing distribution services
- Sports data aggregation and services
- Staff augmentation services
- Supply chain, merchandizing, and marketing services for B2B distrbution
- Talent research
- Trade show and corporate events GC services
- Travel booking
- Workforce analytics (data services)
- Workforce management engagement software
- Workforce management software
Financial Services
- Asset management software
- Capital equipment finance
- Citizen engagement program design and implementation services
- Commercial machinery rental and leasing
- Commodities trading
- Compliance & risk management software
- Financial data services
- Financial services consulting
- Predictive cost analytics tools
- Procure to pay services
- Procure to pay online platform
- Procurement frameworks & services
- Risk management and compliance
- Semiconductor manufacturing contingent labor services
- Specialty commercial aircraft leasing and piloting services
- Specialty finance
- Specialty vehicle finance
- Wealth advisory (inclusive of RIA)
Professional Services
- Accounting, payroll and treasury services
- Hotel operation outsourcing
- Professional training and certification
- Project management software
- Press release distribution
- Public relations tools and distribution services
- Public sector civil penalty administration outsourcing
- Public sector procurement management services
- Public sector recruitment and HR advisory services
- Real estate closing transaction support services
- Real estate commercial property management
- Restaurant/leisure/retail site design and build
- Royalty and licensing audit and revenue recovery
- Soft skills training solutions
- Staffing services
- Technology and life sciences staffing services
- Venue management SaaS platform
- Workers' compensation care administration outsourcing
