Data plays a pivotal role in making informed business decisions, particularly in business purchasing and acquisition. Applying data analytics to various facets of a business can unlock vital insights, negate risk, streamline operations, and maximize profits.

This article offers a detailed rundown on the power of data-driven decisions in business purchasing and how analytics can be leveraged in business acquisition, procurement, and more. 

The Benefits of Data-Driven Business Purchasing

When you leverage data, you can improve forecasting accuracy, which aids in budget planning and reduces financial risk. Data can also provide insights into supplier performance and quality, allowing you to make informed decisions and negotiate better terms.

Additionally, identifying patterns in your procurement data can uncover opportunities for consolidation, leading to cost savings. Data-driven procurement can enhance your financial stability and improve cost management.

Using Data Analytics for Business Acquisition

Whether you're looking for a restaurant for sale within the US or businesses for sale in Calgary, data analytics can help analyze various aspects of the business. These include:

Thorough Business Evaluation

When buying an existing business, use data analytics to conduct a detailed assessment. This could involve studying the business's past performance, profits, client base, market share, and return on investment. 

Financial Data Analysis

With data analytics, buyers can evaluate the financial health of a business. Important elements to be analyzed include revenue, expenses, profit margins, cash flow, and debt level. Besides, forecasted financials can also be scrutinized to predict future performance.

Customer Analysis

It's very important to understand the customer demographics of the business. Analyzing customer data like customer behaviour, preferences, spending habits, churn rate, and customer lifetime value can help in understanding the business's customer base better.

Market Trend Analysis

Data analytics can help to find out market trends and patterns. By assessing the industry's growth rate, market size, and competitor’s performance, you can understand where the business stands in the market and its growth potential.

Vendor Analysis

Evaluate the business's relationship with its suppliers and vendors. Vendor reliability, quality of products, pricing, and delivery timeframes all play a key role in business operations.

Employee Retention

Data analysis can also indicate the turnover rate within the business and provide valuable information regarding employee satisfaction and potential staffing issues.

Risk Assessment

Analyze data to identify potential risks related to the business. These could be operational risks, market risks, financial risks, and compliance risks. This helps you prepare and strategize accordingly.

The Power of Procurement Analytics

Leveraging procurement analytics provides actionable insights into your company's purchasing activities that can aid in decision-making and contribute to the bottom line.

The benefits are substantial, from improved forecasting for budgeting and better risk management to pinpointed opportunities for consolidation.

The types of analysis involved include descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. Each type offers a different perspective on your procurement process, helping you understand what happened, why it happened, what might happen in the future, and what actions you should take.

Here are some practical applications:

●      Spend Analysis: Unveiling your spending patterns enables cost-saving opportunities.

●      Supplier Evaluation: Analytics can provide insights into supplier performance, aiding in better partner selection.

●      Risk Management: Predictive analytics can help identify potential risks, allowing you to take preemptive action.

●      Contract Management: Data can highlight contract inefficiencies, guiding you to negotiate better terms.

●      Demand Forecasting: Predictive analysis can help anticipate demand, ensuring you're always adequately stocked.

The Role of Tools in Data Handling

You need these tools to extract, clean, and process the enormous amounts of data that come with procurement.

●      Data Extraction Tools: These pull data from various sources into a single platform for easy access and analysis.

●      Data Cleaning Tools: These ensure the data's accuracy by removing errors and inconsistencies.

●      Data Processing Tools: These convert raw data into a more understandable format for analysis.

●      Business Intelligence Tools: These provide visualizations and reports to help you interpret the data.

●      Predictive Analytics Tools: These use historical data to forecast future trends, helping you make informed decisions.

Exploring Savings Lifecycle Analytics

This powerful tool can track and analyze the entire savings process in business purchasing, from identification to implementation. This method allows you to understand not just the 'what' and 'how' of your savings, but also the 'when'.

Savings lifecycle analytics enables you to:

● Identify potential savings early in the procurement process.

● Track the progress of these savings through each stage.

● Analyze how effectively these savings are being implemented.

● Understand the temporal distribution of your savings.

● Make data-driven decisions for future procurement strategies.

This approach ensures that every dollar counts, optimizing your procurement process and maximizing your financial efficiency.

Implementing Analytics in Your Business

You need to identify the key metrics that matter to your business. Then, invest in an analytics tool that can track these metrics and generate insightful reports.

Consider these steps:

● Define your business objectives and identify key performance indicators (KPIs).

● Choose an analytics software that suits your needs.

● Train your team on how to use the analytics tool efficiently.

● Regularly review the data and adjust your strategies accordingly.

With a data-centric approach to business purchasing, businesses not only streamline their procurement process but also achieve a robust growth trajectory.

The concept of interim leadership is becoming ever more important in the world of business, as the benefits of recruiting for specific expertise to deliver large-scale transformation or bolster capabilities to reach strategic objectives at crunch points becomes increasingly apparent.

In particular, interim leaders offer a unique solution to mid-cap, founder-led companies that find themselves grappling with the challenge of making themselves as attractive as possible to potential investors. They can help achieve this, while  maintaining the stability that underscores an organisation’s inherent market value.

‘Interims’ can drive rapid transformations and process improvements, bringing much needed experience and energy to make a company fully ‘deal ready’.

Considering this, Andrew McIntee, Director at people advisory firm New Street Consulting Group examines the crucial role interim leaders play in helping high potential businesses attract and secure the best possible investment deal.

Getting the Dynamics Right

Getting leadership dynamics right is one of the most delicate aspects of preparing for an important funding round. While a change in the leadership team just before a sale might hint at instability, the addition of the right kind of leadership skills and experience in the run up to going to market can significantly enhance a business’s appeal. This is where the strategic incorporation of interim professionals can provide the perfect balance.

These seasoned experts bring a level of flexibility and specialised skill often pivotal in maximising the value of a business and getting the best funding partner onboard. From a stability point of view, they do this without the permanence that could cause friction with existing leadership team members or signal unsteadiness to future investors.

Enhancing Value with Interim Experience

Indeed, the interim role is much more than simply acting as a stopgap; interims are experienced specialists who know what investors are looking for and can drive substantial, sustainable improvements and efficiencies that make a business more attractive to private equity firms. This includes everything from streamlining operations to ensuring the company is future-proofed and set for continued growth.

In addition, the flexibility of interim professionals allows them to undertake significant transformation projects – be it cost reduction, operational efficiencies, regulatory compliance, or even spearheading ESG initiatives – without burdening any potential new investors with long-term resource commitments.

When investors come on board, interim specialists can seamlessly move on, allowing new funders to work with the businesses’ permanent leadership on building on longer-term growth plans from a solid foundation.

Making a Business ‘Easy to Buy’

Of course, a key aspect of preparing for investment is making a business ‘easy to buy.’  Often, this involves a range of specialist issues that entrepreneurial leadership teams aren’t always versed in – for example, dealing with regulatory issues, optimising processes, and preparing rigorous deal rooms.

Interim talent is often ideal for helping permanent leadership teams deal with these requirements. While a situation may be completely new to your board, specialist Interims have seen it all before and know exactly what needs to be done and why.

The Commonality of Interim CFO

Given the value that Interims can bring in getting financial processes and reporting in a strong place for scrutiny by potential investors, it isn’t surprising that the CFO role stands out as the most commonly utilised of all interim leaders.

Specialist interim CFOs – typically highly experienced in helping businesses prepare for investment – act as trusted but temporary advisors, guiding the financial strategy to align with the expectations of potential investors. Not only does this help a business be as ‘deal room ready’ as possible, the fact that an experienced interim CFO is on board acts as a positive signal to potential investors in its own right.

That’s because investors will know they’ll be inheriting a well organised financial situation which has been guided by an experienced hand (and, of course, one who will also be perfectly placed to provide a smooth handover to their permanent replacement).

Interim Leadership and Cultural Integration

The smooth assimilation of operations and cultures between investor and investee is essential for the sustained success of the newly funded business. And another area where interim leaders excel is in facilitating post-investment synergies between company and backer.

Interim leaders, with their experience and strategic insight, are experts in helping existing teams identify and smoothly navigate potential culture clashes and operational roadblocks that might otherwise hinder the post-investment integration process.

Interims: A Wise Investment

For founder-led mid-cap businesses eyeing investment, the deployment of interim talent can be a game-changer. They not only bring the expertise necessary to enhance a company’s value and attractiveness to investors, but also offer a level of flexibility and strategic insight that can be difficult to replicate with permanent staff alone.

As businesses navigate the complexities of pre-buyout preparation, the decision to engage interim expertise could very well be the difference between a good investment and a great one.

New Street Consulting Group is the UK’s number one interim service provider^[1] , and has recently invested in a new Academy to tackle the shortage of Interim Management specialists in recruitment. For more information contact its team of consultants here.

Notes to editors
NSCG is a people advisory business that helps organisations find, assess, build, and accelerate teams and leaders who are as good in practice as they are on paper.

The business does this through services which can be accessed individually or as an integrated service, from interim management and executive search through to talent intelligence, leadership assessment and development.

NSCG can tailor solutions to any c-suite challenge with solutions such as finding great leaders, developing strong talent pipelines and building high-performing, flexible teams with all the right skills.

[1] https://iim.org.uk/service-providers/

The acquisition of Jim Burton Insurance Services comes on top of two successful acquisitions completed in 2021, all part of the broker’s continued plans for expansion.

Following this acquisition, Dickson & Co Insurance Brokers now trades with a premium value of in excess of £30 million. The company is focused on growth, both organic and through acquisitions, targeting brokers with a good quality business to become part of the Dickson & Co brand and extend its reach to customers, primarily in Northern Ireland, but with the view of expansion into Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

Ashley Dickson, Managing Director of Dickson & Co Insurance Brokers, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Jim Burton Insurance Services into our business. Like Dickson & Co, it’s a family-owned business sharing the same values and the range of services provided aligns well with Dickson & Co. We are committed to continuing to offer high-quality insurance products to the market and utilising our expertise within the sector.

“Dickson & Co Insurance Brokers has grown exponentially over the past few years and as the business evolves, we are able to grow our team and reaffirm our commitment to be able to provide insurance products offering wide cover options and competitive premiums to our customers.  In this age of online servicing, we have developed a training academy for all our current and newly acquired staff to avail of, to ensure we provide the best offers out there. We are finalising a new digital trading platform which will be available for customers to use from the end of Q1 2023.

“However, we are acutely aware that many people still prefer the familiarity of coming into our premises and so with our continued growth and acquisitions, we are able to provide independent advice in local, easily accessible offices in provincial towns across Northern Ireland.”

The Lambadarios Law Firm, working together with Bracewell, advised Fotowatio Renewable Ventures on its acquisition of the majority stake in a 600-megawatt battery storage platform in Greece.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures is a sustainable energy solutions developer.

The Lambadarios team included Managing Partner Constantinos Lambadarios and Partners Yannis Kourniotis and Melina Katsimi, with the assistance of their colleagues Sophia Alonistioti and Stavroula Biniari.

The team conducted the due diligence on the target entity from a corporate, regulatory and real estate aspect and assisted with the drafting of the corporate documentation (SPA/SHA) from a Greek law perspective for the acquisition.

You have to collect a huge number of documents that concern your company, even indirectly. Then, another employee from another company has to check it all; all the contracts have to be done correctly, and everything else. This used to be quite a complicated process, but today, with the influence of modern information technology, it has become much easier. The best data room providers can provide you with exceptional opportunities to optimize your time and automate this process. Read on to learn more.

Who can use VDRs for M&As and how?

The technology behind virtual data rooms is distinguished by a wealth of functionality and a relatively flexible application for the majority of business operations that take place within a certain firm. You don't need to be concerned about the nature of your business. For whatever reason, several business owners believe that they might not be able to permanently employ virtual data rooms for mergers and acquisitions in their organization. This is an error and one that happens rather frequently. Right now, most firms of any size can use this technology.

You will undoubtedly receive a good response to your question about whether a virtual data room can assist you in navigating the merger and acquisition process. You can accomplish the following tasks with the aid of a virtual data room review:

● Your coworkers who assist you in the merger takeover procedure will adore how simple it is to deal with the documentation now and how well it is laid out. In addition to using the full potential of contemporary technology, it helps to drastically reduce time, as noted in the case of due diligence. Additionally, the majority of virtual data rooms contain high-tech encryption and other deterrent security measures that prevent hackers from obtaining any information from your business.

● Due diligence will be carried out pretty swiftly and without the trouble you previously experienced. The technology being discussed in particular, which is modern, is advanced since it maximizes time. For contemporary businesses, time is the most valuable resource since failing to save time results in significant financial loss. By using data room software, you may nearly automatically compile all the paperwork needed for due diligence, save it for the future, and establish a safe environment where sensitive information can't be taken by unauthorized parties.

● Additionally, this technology will aid business owners in the merger and acquisition procedure itself. Because some businesses are adaptable and others are not, this technique has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. As a result, some businesses succeed in the market while others fail. This procedure is what makes mergers and acquisitions so common in today's business world. You may be confident that after installing virtual data rooms, your business will be nimble. For third parties that work with you on the issue, all of the material you have will be safeguarded and presented most practically.

Even if we do not particularly take mergers and acquisitions into account, all of these aspects are crucial in the process of going through any company deal. Entrepreneurs assert that they are ecstatic about using this software. Independent studies have shown that all businesses that have adopted this technology are growing much faster than similar companies that use traditional management.

Reasons why you should try this technology in the M&A process

Today's year will be the year of modern technology, which is being developed at an even greater rate than it was in 2022. The popularity of modern technology and enterprise solutions for automating the entire workflow is no accident. Today's economic crisis, which has been caused by a multitude of factors, is forcing companies to move to fully centralized and digital power. What does this mean for corporate executives? It means that you must adapt to the modern conditions that the outside world is putting up with. Virtual data rooms are one tool and one solution for adapting your business to these conditions. Moreover, if things change in the future, the best virtual data room providers can help you adapt to those changes as well. This is not only an active tool but also a preventative one.

Here we give you the top five reasons why you should try a virtual data room within your company. These reasons will be described below:

● As mentioned above, a virtual data room allows you to adapt your business to today's environment. This is one of the important reasons why most entrepreneurs buy it and keep it in their company indefinitely. If we're talking about routine work, a virtual data room allows you to automate and optimize any process that goes on within the company. Even if you look at any subjective process, like communication level, the data room vendors fix that. This is a proven fact from independent researchers and users of this enterprise software and solution.

● The next reason to try this solution is to automate short-term business processes like mergers and acquisitions or crowdfunding campaigns. And you may not have known, but most entrepreneurs are afraid to buy a virtual data room permanently. There are reasons for that, like expensive technology and some installation complexity. Entrepreneurs are starting to buy virtual data rooms as temporary tools to help with business transactions. In addition, once a business transaction has passed, most entrepreneurs realize the importance of virtual data rooms even for routine tasks and continue to use the technology indefinitely. A virtual data room is used to automate business processes and to demonstrate due diligence. It significantly reduces the time and costs that you would need to cover if you were using traditional management.

● Technology is evolving. Online data room software is one of the great embodiments of modern technology that is constantly improving. If you are a conscious entrepreneur who understands the importance of technologies like artificial intelligence or blockchain in corporate tasks, then a virtual data room is for you. Most developers are now using massive artificial intelligence to help optimize costs within the company.

● It helps you connect with your customers. You'll be given a huge variety of tools to help you communicate with customers and understand their real needs. This was quite difficult to do before because your job evaluations were not objective. The data room services provide an overabundance of tools that let you know the real mood of your customers and help improve your business with feedback.

● Your employees will work together and make decisions faster. All of this is accomplished through technology, such as electronic document signing and, in general, finding documents completely in the digital space. This is convenient and secure at the same time. Paper, at the moment, is not a secure device to store any information. It can be stolen or destroyed. In some cases, it can be done without leaving any trace for investigation. This is not possible with digital technology, where the offender always leaves a digital footprint.

These five reasons are the most important. Notice the fact that the reasons don't end there. If you are an entrepreneur with goals for the future of your company, then you just have to look at the possibility of implementing a virtual data room into your business structure.

Conclusion

Future-oriented, the virtual data room trend is not even a moot point. According to unbiased researchers, this technology will only advance in the interest of enhancing business communication and data security. Several technologies, including artificial intelligence and frameworks, are being utilized to enhance departmental communication.

For any company's growth and development as well as the success of the M&A process, departmental communication is a crucial first step. If a worker doesn't comprehend their supervisor, the business will perform poorly and incur significant losses. The electronic data room assists you in solving this problem in the most convenient way for you and adjusting to the changing world as well as your colleagues with whom you are working on the M&A deal.

CMD was previously owned by Rubicon, who created the business in 2001 through the integration of three separate companies. Today, its business portfolio includes workstation power, power distribution and ergonomic solutions for employee performance, with 158 employees between its Rotherham manufacturing unit and London showroom. Managing Director Jon Holding will remain in position following the acquisition, as will the rest of the existing management team.

Rubicon is a London-based investment partnership with a focus on the acquisition of complex industrial businesses across Europe and North America. CMD will be the sixth investment made through its Fund V, which also includes Amey’s utilities division.

Antony Cotton and Claire Rigby led Druces’ corporate team in advising IDEAL. Other members of Druces who supported Antony and Claire on the deal included Neil Pfister in respect of Intellectual Property, Paul White in respect of Tax and Adrian Footer in respect of Real Estate.

This decision follows the unconditional clearance by the European Commission of all other EEA countries and referral back to the ADLC for France.

The deal involved overlaps in the wholesale and retail distribution of pharmaceutical goods in several European countries. The ADLC considered both local markets and a national market taking into account the buyer power of the Pharmaceutical Purchasing Groups which mainly operate at national level. CRA played a pivotal role in showing the role of PPGs and the increasing competitive constraints from players evolving outside the defined market, convincing the ADLC to accept the proposed behavioural remedies.

A CRA team including Laurent Flochel, Romain Bizet, and Sylvestre Boittin Duchesne advised both Parties for the European Commission and the ADLC proceedings.

Q&A with Laurent Flochel

Vice President at Charles River Associates

Tell us more about your involvement in the acquisition.

We have assisted both Parties since the beginning of the project. We have worked extensively to gather the relevant data for each Party and carried out all competitive analysis in the prenotification and then during the notification phase. We have also helped the legal teams with the design of potential remedies.

During the prenotification phase, we assisted the Parties to answer to the numerous questionnaires issued by the European Commission, which has been a very heavy task. The Commission cleared the case in Italy and referred back to the French Competition Authority (ADLC) for the analysis of the French market. We then assisted the Parties in this new phase.

What were some of the challenges you were faced with?

In this market, the competitive interactions between the wholesalers and their clients take place at two levels: at a national or multiregional level with the pharma purchasing groups and at a local level with the pharmacies. The Commission and the ADLC carried out their competitive analysis both at the level of the catchment area of each depot and at the multiregional or national level.

FunBox is an amusement arcade business that recently opened an outlet at Gravity Wandsworth in London and has another location scheduled to open in Liverpool later this year, with a third location reportedly in the works for London’s Westfield Stratford shopping centre. Its acquisition by Urban Fun spanned three jurisdictions across the UK, US and Germany.

A holding company established by Sega Amusements International CEO Paul Williams, Urban Fun will retain FunBox founders Albert Corrigan and MatthewDeith on its leadership board following the acquisition. Paul Williams will remain CEO of Urban Fun, with Matthew Deith becoming managing director and Albert Corrigan becoming operations director.

In addition to the services provided to FunBox Gmbh by Werner, Luger & Partner, global law firm Taylor Vinters advised sister company FunBox UK, while Menn Law Firm Ltd advised US software company Garner Green on the sale of intellectual property rights. Menzies advised the buyer.

The transaction enables Cerved to better support the growth of Italian companies, facilitating their access to funds related to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, increasing its presence in the field of soft finance, supporting both banking and corporate sectors. Cerved will offer its services directly to companies through its own sales network, supported by Gruppo Del Barba Group’s specialists.

Marcello Benetti, Partner at Studio Legale Benetti advised Del Barba Consulting on the transaction. "It was an honour to assist the company with this operation that allows it to continue its growth path and become a part of one of the most important Italian companies,” commented Mr Benetti.

Ferox Legal, Addleshaw Goddard and Norton Rose advised Frischezentrum Frankfurt am Main – Großmarkt GmbH. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised the City of Frankfurt.

The transaction was led by Ferox Legal and Partner Thomas Hopf (Real Estate), as well as Partners Dr Dennis Geissler (Financing and Litigation), Jürgen Heilbock, LL.M. (Corporate) and Dr Madeleine Arens as an external adviser.

The Fresh Centre was also advised by Addleshaw Goddard, led by Nadine Bourgeois (Banking and Real Estate Finance) and Pulch, led by Michael Pulch (Tax). The City of Frankfurt am Main was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, led by Dr Friedrich Heilmann.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team included Partner Dr Marco Niehaus (Corporate, M&A), Associates Jan-Peter Heise, Dr Ariane Theissen, André Hartmann (all Corporate/M&A) and Anna Maria Baorda (Banking).

Immofinanz has acquired Croatian company ENS DEVELOPMENT d.o.o., a developer of in total 23 stop shops throughout Croatia. Immofinanz is a commercial real estate company that manages and develops properties in the retail and office segments in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and now Croatia.

Marohnić, Tomek & Gjoić advised Immofinanz and Anđelovic, Siketić & Tomić advised the sellers on the deal.

MTG’s team included Partners Josip Marohnić and Tena Tomek, and Attorney Ivona Zagajski.

AST’s team consisted of Partner Marko Tomić, and Associate Domagoj Perić.

The French-headquartered Sicame Group, a leading designer and manufacturer of electricity transmission and distribution network equipment, has acquired Boddingtons, a UK-based supplier of insulated tools.

The transaction is intended to support the development of Sicame Group, which employs over 3,000 people worldwide. The firm plans to increase its production and development of insulated tools and respond more efficiently to growing product demand around in the 150 countries to which it distributes. Boddingtons will also be able to broaden its product offering to Sicame’s international client network.

Holmes & Hills Solicitors’ Corporate & Commercial Team represented the shareholders of Boddingtons regarding their negotiations, the legal due diligence process and the drafting of extensive transactional documents. The team was led by senior solicitor Natalie Stoter, who also advised Boddingtons’ shareholders in relation to commercial property and employment matters.

Holmes & Hills’ team of specialist corporate and commercial solicitors worked closely with Forward Corporate Finance, the lead corporate finance advisers on the deal. Browne Jacobson also advised on the transaction.