Map how the platform really runs once. Then see each add-on against it: what matches, what varies and what has to change, confirmed by the people who do the work and signed off before integration decisions.
Interviews take about 20 minutes, by voice or chat, on each person's own time.
COOs and integration leads at the acquiring company. One baseline, a fit-gap for every add-on, and requirements your ERP implementation partner can build from.
Operating partners and portfolio operations. One integration playbook and baseline format across every platform you back.
M&A integration advisors and interim integration leaders. Run fixed-scope integration discovery on ClearWork for the deals you support, and hand your client a record they keep.
Know how each add-on really runs before you decide what to change, measured against the platform baseline instead of starting from zero.
Current state, requirements and fit-gap from every role across the companies you're consolidating, before the build starts.
Document how the platform runs today, so every future add-on has something to be measured against.
Build initiatives on how the work actually runs, not on assumptions.
See every manual step and workaround by role, so changes land where they pay off.
Document how the business runs on its own before transition services end.
Deals now need 10–12% annual EBITDA growth where 5% once did, and buy-and-build platforms lean on add-ons to get there. A consultant-led process assessment typically runs 4–8 weeks, and each new add-on often needs another one. Meanwhile the know-how sits with a few key people at the company you just bought.
Sources: Bain, via Stanton Chase; Umbrex.
Every step, handoff and requirement is confirmed by the people who do the work and traced back to who said it.
Order to cash at an add-on, measured against the platform baseline. Illustrative sample. How each output is built →
How the work really runs, including the workarounds nobody wrote down.
Orders over $25K need credit approval before release.[1]
At Harbor, the sales manager approves by email; no record is kept in the ERP.[2]
Conflict: two approval limits namedEvery line links to the interview or document it came from.
What to change, keep or harmonize before integration decisions.
Time, volume and key-person risk, so you know where to act first.
Start with one focus area, such as order to cash, at one company: the platform or the company you're acquiring. Your team runs it in ClearWork with our white-glove support: about 3 hours of your team's time (1 hour to scope, 1 hour to set up and 1 hour to analyze the interview responses), plus about 20 minutes from each interviewee. In 30 days you have a signed-off current state, and the fit-gap follows once both companies are mapped. It's a fixed-fee sprint, credited toward an annual plan if you continue.
Pick the company, the focus area and the people involved.
Clarity, ClearWork's AI interviewer, interviews everyone, by voice or chat, on their own time.
People confirm what was captured, conflicts get resolved, owners sign off.
The signed-off current state, requirements, key-person risk and ranked opportunities.
Smaller scopes often wrap up in two weeks.
The first run documents the platform. Each add-on after that is a fit-gap against it, so integration discovery gets faster with every deal. Short follow-up interviews keep the baseline current as the platform changes, and the same record carries into ERP selection, AI initiatives and exit preparation.
Later add-ons run on the same platform plan, so each one doesn't start a new purchase.
Run the same integration playbook on every platform, and give each new operator a head start.
M&A integration advisors and interim integration leaders run fixed-scope integration discovery on ClearWork for the deals they support. Interview everyone in parallel, hand your client a signed-off fit-gap, and keep the engagement margin.
About 20 minutes each, by voice or chat, on their own time. People at the platform and the add-on review what was captured before it's used, and we help you explain the interviews to them. It's a shared picture of how the work gets done, not a performance review.
Usually the acquiring platform's operations or integration team, which owns the baseline and each add-on's fit-gap. Sponsor operating teams use it to run the same playbook across platforms, and integration firms run it for their clients.
No. Each add-on is measured against the platform baseline you already signed off, so later runs are faster and focus on what's different.
Up to 30 days for one company's current state. Most finish in two to four weeks, depending on scope and how quickly people complete their interviews. The fit-gap follows once the platform and the add-on are both mapped.
Yes. The fit-gap and requirements export to Word, PDF and structured requirement formats, and process maps to Visio and draw.io, so your implementation partner starts from a signed-off picture.
A typical consultant-led diagnostic interviews a sample of people over several weeks. ClearWork interviews everyone involved in parallel, gets their account confirmed and signed off, and leaves a baseline every later add-on builds on. Consultants can run it on ClearWork too.
Interviews are short and on their own time, people review their own answers, and we help you explain the purpose up front. It isn't an evaluation.
All data is stored in AWS in the U.S., encrypted in transit and at rest, never used to train AI models and never sold.
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Bring one real process to the demo. We'll show you what comes out of it.
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