Everything You Need to Know when Running a Factory

The Strategic Valuation Audit is free. It is the first step in every ConTech engagement and requires no contract, no commitment, and no purchase order. The audit takes 2–3 weeks and involves structured conversations with your CEO, COO, or CFO, a review of your current revenue structure and channel architecture, and analysis of your valuation position relative to comparable transactions in your sector. The output is a written report — your current estimated EBITDA multiple range, the specific platform components that would most directly impact that multiple, and a 3-to-5-year enterprise value projection under conservative, base, and upside assumptions. The audit is free because we only proceed to a paid engagement when the math supports it for your business — and we need the audit to know whether that is the case.

Platform-layer engagements are project-priced based on scope — not per seat, not per user, and not per workflow volume. The scope is defined by which components we build: a dealer portal, a customer configurator, a CPQ engine, a customer dashboard, or some combination. A single-component build (for example, a dealer portal for a manufacturer with one product line and 50–200 dealers) typically runs in the range of $150k–$400k for the full build. Multi-component builds for manufacturers with complex catalogs, multiple dealer tiers, or multi-site ERP environments range from $400k–$1.2M. Exact scoping and pricing follows the Strategic Valuation Audit. We produce a fixed-price project proposal with defined deliverables and milestones — no open-ended time-and-materials billing.

In most engagements, no — pricing is project-based and paid in cash against milestones. For PE-backed portfolio companies where the investment thesis is closely tied to the platform build, we are open to exploring hybrid structures: a reduced project fee combined with a warrant or success fee tied to enterprise value improvement at exit. These structures are negotiated case by case and require alignment with your PE sponsor. If your deal team wants to explore a performance-linked structure, the right time to raise it is during the Strategic Valuation Audit, before we scope the engagement. We have completed performance-linked arrangements with PE-backed industrials and are comfortable with the structure when the business case supports it.

The engagement has three distinct phases. The Strategic Valuation Audit (free) is the pre-engagement analysis — it tells you and us whether a platform build makes sense for your specific business and which components would have the most impact. The engagement (project-priced) is the 6–12 month platform build — designing, building, integrating, and launching the platform components defined in the audit. Ongoing platform operations (optional retainer) is post-launch support and operating services: keeping the platform current, managing dealer onboarding, expanding the CPQ rules library, and producing the platform metrics reporting your PE sponsor or board requires. Most customers run the audit, then the engagement, then choose whether to take the platform in-house or continue with ongoing support.

Yes. Approximately 40% of our engagements are initiated or co-sponsored by PE operating partners rather than the portfolio company CEO alone. We understand the operating partner dynamic: you need to demonstrate value creation on a defined timeline, you need metrics that survive a quality-of-earnings review, and you need a vendor who can engage at the board level, not just with the ops team. Our engagement model is designed for this: the Strategic Valuation Audit is structured to produce a document suitable for an investment committee or LP update, and our quarterly business reviews include the platform metrics in the format PE sponsors use in their reporting. If you are an operating partner evaluating ConTech for a portfolio company, contact us directly — we have a dedicated track for PE sponsor engagements.

For a mid-market US manufacturer ($20M–$100M revenue) building a single primary platform component — typically a dealer portal or CPQ engine — the 12-month total investment ranges from $200k–$500k, covering the audit (free), the platform build, and the first year of platform support. At 24 months, if the customer expands to a second platform component, total cumulative investment typically runs $350k–$800k. For manufacturers with complex multi-site, multi-catalog, or multi-channel architectures, the 24-month total can reach $1M–$1.5M. These figures are investment in platform infrastructure, not recurring SaaS subscription — you own the platform after the build, not a license you lose if you stop paying.

Multi-site manufacturers — common in PE-backed platforms that have grown through acquisition — typically have separate ERP instances, different pricing structures, and inconsistent processes across locations or brands. We scope these engagements in phases: phase one establishes the platform architecture and the first integration (usually the largest or most complex ERP instance), phase two extends the platform to additional sites or brands using the same underlying architecture. Each site or brand extension is priced at a reduced rate compared to the initial build because the core infrastructure is already in place. PE sponsors running multi-site industrials should expect to scope the full platform vision during the audit, then sequence the rollout across sites based on revenue impact and integration complexity.

The platform we build is yours. All code, configuration, integration credentials, and documentation are transferred to you at the conclusion of the build engagement. We do not use proprietary black-box technology that creates vendor lock-in — the platform is built on documented APIs, standard integration patterns, and your own ERP data. If you want to take it in-house, your engineering lead or IT team receives full technical handoff documentation, and we offer a 90-day transition support period to answer questions as they ramp up. In practice, approximately 30% of customers take the platform fully in-house after the build; the remaining 70% continue with ongoing platform operations support because the cost of keeping our team on retainer is lower than the cost of hiring the equivalent capability internally.