Field Notes & Playbooks
Field-tested playbooks on fractional CIO leadership, private equity portfolio technology, due diligence, and post-acquisition integration. Written for operators, not for search engines.
Hidden data exposure, personal-account dependencies, AI costs, and the evidence PE buyers should examine before close.
Read the article →The twelve KPIs that actually predict portfolio company technology health, formatted for one page. Vanity metrics vs. real ones, monthly cadence, escalation rules, and fund-level roll-up across the portfolio.
Read article →Seven operating-risk areas and a 40-request working list for lower-middle-market deal teams.
Read the checklist →What underwriters actually ask, which controls move premiums, and the 90-day pre-renewal playbook. Includes the twelve questions, the sub-limits that quietly gut coverage, and when to walk from a market.
Read article →What integrating a collapsing global bank taught me about the deals PE firms actually do — and why the first 100 days after close decide the next five years. A field-tested order of operations from Lehman-into-Nomura, applied to today’s mid-market deals.
Read article →A playbook for PE operating partners on replacing an underperforming portfolio-company MSP without triggering credential lockout, ticket backlogs, or a 90-day risk window. Covers the pre-notice phase, hostile-MSP scenarios, and when to renegotiate instead.
Read article →Portfolio-company IT budgets are one of the most under-scrutinized expense lines in private equity. A 20–30% reduction in unnecessary IT cost typically flows straight to EBITDA.
Read article →AI readiness has moved from optional to material in technology due diligence. A framework for evaluating data foundations, governance, and realistic ROI in a 2–4 week diligence window.
Read article →The technology questions that reduce exit multiples are the ones sellers cannot answer clearly. A pre-exit readiness framework for portfolio companies 6–12 months from process.
Read article →The technology decisions that lock in the next three years of a portfolio company happen in the first 100 days. A field-tested 100-day playbook for PE operating partners.
Read article →Most PE deal teams treat technology diligence as an infrastructure checklist. The most consequential issues live somewhere else. A short field guide for deal teams.
Read article →A fractional CIO is not an IT manager, a project consultant, or a technology broker. A complete guide to what a fractional CIO does, when to hire one, and how the role differs from a full-time C-suite hire.
Read article →The cost of an unfilled CIO seat is not the salary you are not paying. It is the compounding cost of every technology decision made without an executive owner in the room.
Read article →MSPs are exceptional operators of the technology decisions someone else already made. They are not who you want making those decisions in the first place. The structural reason why.
Read article →The five inflection points where a fractional CIO stops being a nice-to-have and starts being the highest-ROI hire on the executive team.
Read article →Five diagnostic signals that separate an MSP delivering strategic value from one delivering ticket closure. If three or more apply, it is time for an independent review.
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Sample Deliverable
An 8-page illustrative sample of a Vertex CIO Advisory technology due diligence deliverable — findings register, technology risk score, and deal-model impact from a composite mid-market PE acquisition.
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