Waterstons: a trusted partner for IT/legal collaboration

We’re not afraid to admit that as technology businesses go, we’re a bit different at Waterstons. Over the last 26 years, we’ve grown from our founders’ basement to a 200-strong business with offices in the UK and Australia, 24/7 operations, cybersecurity, bespoke software and consultancy teams. Same old, same old, you say?

What makes us different is our relationships with our clients. We’re driven today by the same values that the business was founded on: always doing the right thing for our customers; only doing work that adds value; always being honest and objective (we don’t promote or favour any vendors or products over others); putting our people and our customers’ people first, and always innovating.

M&A specialism

It’s that spirit of innovation that led us to the creation of a mergers and acquisitions practice. Working with customers including private equity firms, and our existing customer base, we had provided technology due diligence services, helped integrate and separate businesses after deals, and advised on all aspects of technology in the deal process. Creating a dedicated team to provide this support on an ongoing basis to our customers was an obvious choice, and it continues to go from strength to strength.

It’s our experience of working alongside commercial, financial and legal due diligence teams that led to us forming relationships with a number of those firms we’ve worked with, to whom we provide support when they need it. We’re fortunate to have our own in-house legal experts, who speak your language to provide technology-focused, unbiased advice on techno-legal matters. We undertake due diligence activities to identify key risks and opportunities which then inform the deal structure as well as the drafting of sale and purchase agreements, warranties, guarantees, conditions precedent and transition service agreements. We can also assist with negotiating IT contracts, reviewing licensing for transferability or scalability, and identify where steps need to be taken to secure contract positions to prevent stranded costs, licence infringements and detrimental financial, legal and operational consequences.

Broad expertise

It’s Waterstons’ broad range of expertise and commitment to objectivity that really adds value, however. When a project requires a software developer to appraise an app or write an integration between systems, we can help. If cybersecurity is a concern, we have accredited experts who can help gain ISO27001, IASME, or Cyber Essentials certification. It will come as no surprise that our technology projects experts can implement the latest technologies, whether locally or on a global scale; nor that we can provide ongoing 24/7 support for those implementations.

Whatever your requirements, we can provide our support flexibly and rapidly to help. From “due diligence as-a-service”, where we are retained to provide ad hoc advisory services during deals on a flexible basis, to providing an interim CIO, IT manager, or dedicated support to you or your clients, we can work with you to determine the optimum model for supporting you not just in day-to-day IT operations, but to help you deliver better outcomes for your own clients.