When a company changes hands, so do its applications
An in-house CRM, a customer portal, a quoting tool: they are sold with the company. Before the signing, find out what state they are in.
Sound familiar?
You are selling your company, or buying one. It runs on a tool built for it: an in-house CRM, a customer portal, a quoting tool, a web or mobile application. It is part of what is being sold, just like the customers and the contracts.
During the sale, the accounts, the contracts and the staff get examined. The tool, less often: nobody around the table reads code, and whoever built it is not always there to explain it. The seller cannot show that the tool is not a liability. The buyer finds out what they bought after the signing.
What an unknown tool costs in a sale
These questions always get an answer. Before the signing, it is negotiated. After, it is paid for.
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The price
Does the price of the company account for what the tool will cost to keep alive, or to replace, over the next twelve months?
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The person who knows it
Who built the tool, who maintains it today, and will they still be around after the signing? Sometimes it is the seller themselves.
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The keys
Are the code, the hosting, the domain name and the administrator accounts in the company's name, or in the name of someone who is leaving?
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Moving onto the buyer's systems
If the company moves onto the buyer's tools: which data to carry over, in what order, and how long must the old tool keep running?
Check before the signing
For the seller, it is the file to prepare. For the buyer, it is the questions to ask.
- The inventory. The tools the company depends on, custom-built or bought: who uses them, and what stops if they go down.
- Source code. Where is the repository, who has access, and who owns the code under the contract signed with whoever developed it?
- Domain name and hosting. Whose name are the accounts in, who pays the invoices, and when are the renewals due? An account in the name of the departing owner does not follow the company.
- Access. The administrator accounts for the application, the server, the database and third-party services: who holds them, and how will they be handed over?
- Subscriptions and licences. What they cost a year, whose name they are in, and whether they can be transferred.
- People. Who maintains the tool today, under what contract, and does that contract survive the sale?
- Data and backups. Where is the data, and has a backup ever been restored to check that it works?
- Documentation. Is there a document that explains the tool to someone who did not build it?
- Afterwards. If the company keeps its systems: who will maintain them? If it moves onto the buyer's: which data to carry over, and for how long will both run side by side?
The full checklist, and why each point matters: taking over an application that nobody maintains any more.
How we help
In both cases: whether the company keeps its own systems, or moves onto the buyer's.
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The technical assessment
In two weeks, our health check tells you what state the applications are in, what they cost, what will break first and what they will need. It ends with a written report, with the work priced.
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The integration
When the company moves onto the buyer's systems, we advise on the integration (which tools to keep, which data to carry over, in what order), or we carry it out at a fixed price. It also starts with the technical assessment: you can only migrate well what you know.
- For the seller: show that the applications are not a liability, and defend the price.
- For the buyer: know what you are buying, rather than finding out after the signing.
Independent and confidential
The report prices the work, it does not sell it. In a sale, its estimates serve the negotiation. We only offer to do the work after the signing, and only if you want us to.
We sign your non-disclosure agreement, and we never mention a sale, before or after the signing.
Where to start?
Are you the seller? The free self‑assessment gives you a first idea in ten questions.
Do you advise on company sales, as an M&A advisor, company auditor or accountant? Our one-page sheet (PDF, in French) can be passed on to a seller or a buyer. Or let's talk.
Every situation: legacy application takeover.