Web Design, Development and
I.T. Consulting Companies

Sections:
                    Company Basics
                        Personnel
                        Data Center and Systems
                        Web Hosting Customers
                        Web Design, Development and I.T. Consulting Customers
                        Web Design, Development and I.T. Consulting Services Performed
                        Financials

Company Basics

  1. When did you incorporate and in what state?
  2. What is the legal structure of the company (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp)?
  3. List active and passive owners with their equity percentages
  4. List each office location per City, State and Country, and the functions performed in each.
  5. What is the reason for selling the company?
  6. What is the asking price and is this an asset or stock sale?
  7. Provide copies of press releases and articles pertaining to the company for the past two years.
  8. Is there any threatened or pending litigation?
  9. List any trademarks and trade names included with the sale.
  10. List copyrights and patents included with the sale.
  11. Is there a First Right of Refusal for any of the assets or the company as a whole?

Personnel

  1. Provide an organizational chart, note the part time employees.
  2. Include salaries and bonuses
  3. Include how many employees have the following title and which office location each is located:
    1. Management & administrative
    2. Sales & marketing
    3. Designers (artistic and web designers)
    4. Developers
    5. Systems/network engineers
    6. System administrators
    7. Programmers
  4. Submit resumes for each or provide the formal education degrees for each. 
  5. Also provide the certifications and programming/networking qualifications for each.

Data Center & Systems

  1. Billing system software/platform/revision number
  2. Client tracking
  3. New client sign-up procedures
  4. Control Panel Used  Cpanel, Ensim, Hsphere, Sphera, Plesk, Custom?  If custom does it have mysql backend?
  5. Servers:
    1. # of Servers used for each service offering:  Shared, dedicated, and co-lo
    2. If more than one data center is being used, I need to know at each data center how many shared vs. dedicated.
  6. Operating System:  Windows vs. Linux or combo
  7. Provide Network Topology (in Visio)
  8. Bandwidth usages (average and peak), and cost for each of the last 12 months
  9. Data Center: 
    1. If the servers are leased, and/or if servers/racks are co-located, which data center is it, AND what are the terms of the lease with the IDC. 
    2. If owned give a full description of the investment.
  10. Assets:
    1. List the assets included with the sale.
    2. Indicate any leased assets the basic terms of the lease.
    3. Are there any liens associated with any of the assets?
  11. List software and licenses, and describe the utilization. 
  12. Who do you use for domain registration?
  13. How many active domains you have and what is the annualized revenue from this?
  14. List all company owned domains which are included in the sale.
  15. Is support offered in other languages in addition to English?
  16. What type of support is offered?  Is it in house?
  17. What is the average # of tickets either per day, week or month?
  18. Do you own your own name server?

Customers

            Web Hosting Customers:

  1. What is your typical customer profile, for example 30% SOHO, 40% small business, 10% medium business, 20% non-profits?
  2. What % of your customers are based in the US?
  3. Do you have the customer’s credit card information?
  4. Do you use a payment processing center?
  5. Do you send out invoices?
  6. Total customers  Hosting base presently; shared, dedicated and co-los
  7. Gross new sign ups for each of the last 12 months
  8. Gross cancellations for each of the last 12 months
  9. Reseller Customers:
  10. Total number of resellers
  11. How many customers to each of them have currently: shared, dedicated and co-los
  12. Billing- Number of clients on each billing period, monthly, quarterly, annual.
  13. Current payment methods accepted (credit cards, PayPal, checks, etc.)

Web Design, Development and I.T. Consulting Customers:

  1. Who are the top 20 customers in terms of revenue and how much did you bill out to each in each of the last 12 months.
  2. How long have each of these top 20 been a client of the company.
  3. Describe the nature of the service provided to each of the last 20.
  4. Does the company have an industry focus?  Regional focus?
  5. Is there any type of Client Classification such as “Platinum, Gold Silver” or “Level 1,2,3.”  If so describe how a customer is assigned to each of these.
  6. Describe/diagram the sales process from the initial contact to the completion of the first project.  For example:
    1. Account Mgr. meets with new client and discusses the needs of the client.
    2. Account Mgr. meets with Company employee to discuss the project and comes up with an estimate.
    3. Account Mgr. and Company employee meet with new client to discuss the project.
    4. Account Mgr. reviews the account each Monday morning.
  7. Provide a copy of all documents used by the company:
    1. Scope of Services
    2. Project Cost Analysis
    3. Project Status Forms
    4. Client Contract

Web Design, Development, and I.T. Consulting Services

  1. In a short paragraph describe the different services the company offers and its approach to marketing and operations.
  2. List vendor partners.
  3. Out of the following, what all does the company provide.
  • Web Site Design and Development
    • SEM and SEO
    • eCommerce
  • Database Services
    • DB Architecture Design
      • Hierarchical
      • Network
      • Object Oriented
      • Relational
    • DB Development
    • Data Extraction and Transformation
    • DB Administration
    • DB Backup, Storage and Disaster Recovery
  • Wireless
    • Applications
    • Architecture
    • Security
  • Network:
    • Design, Development and Monitoring
    • Vulnerability Assessment
  • Development Platforms
    • Microsoft.net 2.0,1.2
    • J2EE
    • Apache Server
    • TomCat & IIS
  • Programming Languages
    • Visual Basic.net           Cobol
    • Visual C                       AJAX
    • C++                              PHP
    • ASP                             Perl
    • PL/SQL                        XML
    • Java                             HTML
  • Application Development Services:  Maint. And Integration
  • Platform Migration:  Linux, Unix, Wintel, J2EE, .net
  • Compliance/Risk Assessment
    • Sarbanes Oxley
    • HIPPA
    • Gramm Leach Bliley
    • ISO 27001/7799

Financial Statements

  1. An income statement for each of the last 24 months or for the last 8 quarters
  2. A balance sheet for each of the last 24 months or for the last 8 quarters
  3. How much revenue was generated by each of the top 5 customers in each of the last 12 months or 4 quarters?
  4. Are there any debt arrangements, guarantees or indemnification between investors, officers, directors, or shareholders … and the company
  5. List the banks the company does business with, and describe the nature of the relationship.
  6. Last 3 years tax returns.

 

Please forward information to the following:

M. Eric Furlow
eric@furlowconsulting.com
Furlow Consulting
362 Gulf Breeze Pky. #202
Gulf Breeze, FL 32561

850-982-8102 mobile