Case Study

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The Situation

Alliance Manufacturing Software develops and sells software combined with training and implementation services for the emerging manufacturing marketplace. Products handle all of the major manufacturing process functions of a manufacturer: bill of materials, job costing, purchase orders, work orders and inventory control. The company employed 45 people, had its headquarters in Santa Barbara, California and offices in Leicester, UK.

In addition to its primary business, Alliance had funded a new technology in an unrelated area. The company spent a sizable sum developing this technology, but ultimately decided to stop the project. As a result the company lacked capital for growth and its private investor group did not want to contribute additional capital. 

The manufacturing software market was a mature one. There were many competitors and Alliance could not match the marketing and sales capabilities of its larger competitors.

The Response

Given the mature stage of this market, there were many manufacturing software companies that might be reasonable buyers. We undertook an extensive search effort to identify good buyers. However, most of the companies that we contacted already had developed or purchased their own software technology and did not want to switch or acquire a different technology.

The Solution

This was a tough sell. An additional problem was that Alliance's profits were falling. Over a period of many months, we diligently contacted and recontacted many potential buyers. We persevered in our efforts and eventually identified a buyer in the U.K., Kewill Systems PLC, with whom we successfully completed a transaction.

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