Independent oversight of the systems investments your returns depend on.
You already appoint independent advisers for debt, for diligence, for the numbers. An ERP programme is one of the largest operational risks in a portfolio company — and rarely has anyone independent watching it. That is the seat Cedar Ridge takes.
Start a conversationWhen ERP drifts, it doesn’t stay an IT problem
It moves straight onto the value creation plan. Independent oversight keeps a systems programme from quietly eroding the three things you care about most.
A programme that overruns or under-delivers hits the operating numbers the thesis was built on.
Poorly handled ERP change disrupts inventory, invoicing and cash collection at exactly the wrong moment.
A messy or half-finished systems landscape is a discount at exit. A clean, well-run one is a story.
Where an independent adviser earns their place
Pre-deal and diligence
An informed view on the ERP and systems risk sitting inside a target — what it will really take to fix, and what it should cost — before it becomes your problem post-completion.
Across the portfolio
One consistent, independent lens on every portfolio company running or planning an ERP programme, so risk is visible at portfolio level rather than buried in a single management team’s update.
When a programme is live
Independent assurance on an in-flight implementation — an early read on whether the plan, the budget and the partner are telling you the whole story.
When something is drifting
A calm, experienced hand when a portfolio company’s programme has stalled or lost the board’s confidence — finding the truth quickly and resetting the plan.
The management team is close to the programme, and often hearing only one side of the story — the vendor’s and the partner’s. Both are paid to keep the project moving, not to tell you uncomfortable truths early.
Cedar Ridge answers only to you. Nothing to sell, nothing to protect except the outcome.
I’ve spent more than twenty years leading these programmes from the inside, latterly as Senior Director of Professional Services at a FTSE 100 software company. I know where they drift, and I know how to give an operating partner a straight answer to the only question that matters: is this on track, and if not, what do we do about it?
A short conversation about your portfolio’s ERP risk.
Whether it’s a single company or a portfolio-wide view, the first step is a confidential discussion — no pitch, no obligation.
Start a conversation