AI for portfolio companies, proved on one desk job before anyone commits.

Two readers, one plan. The operating partner works with a company for the fund; the owner or CEO runs it every day. A 2022 ACG Insights article puts operating partners on the board beside the deal partners and calls working out the value creation plan after close a key part of most of their jobs. One firm in it treats that plan as the equivalent of a traditional 100-day plan. Here, the owner means whoever leads the company day to day, because that person names the reviewer: the one on the company's team who knows the job best.

The first 100 days are already full. In a 2024 AlixPartners interview, the top team's attention between signing and close goes to three things: the leadership team, a narrative and communication plan, and a value creation plan with clear accountability. A desk-job test belongs after that, once the plan names the back-office work it wants changed.

Every add-on brings its own desk. Bain defines buy-and-build as a well-positioned platform company making at least four repeated add-on acquisitions of smaller companies, and one company in its 2024 report created value by unifying ERP and IT systems. Until that work is done, each add-on keeps its own order desk, payables habits and systems, and one job gets done several ways under one roof.

A carve-out runs on borrowed systems. After a fund buys a division out of a larger company, a transition services agreement can keep the seller providing defined services for a set period. L.E.K. counts IT systems, back-office infrastructure, and HR and payroll platforms among the gaps it covers, and notes that financial reporting may not fully move until the ERP has its own instance. A test that never logs in to anything doesn't wait for that.

The exit has its own reader. When the fund sells, most buyers require a quality of earnings analysis, for their own use or for their investors and finance partners, according to the accounting firm Warren Averett. It covers adjusted EBITDA, proof of cash and working capital. Overdue invoices sit inside working capital, and the month-end package is where the board reads the numbers a buyer will later test.

A scored answer before a rollout. After SuperReturn 2026, the consultancy OMMAX wrote that most PE-backed companies are running AI and few are creating measurable EBITDA impact. We can't tell you what this test will find. It gives you a scored answer on one job, on that company's own documents, against success criteria set before it starts, while nothing has been bought.

Two companies in one portfolio still differ. Even in one industry, their documents, exceptions and systems are not the same. A job that passed at one company is tested again at the next, with its own reviewer, NDA and price. What carries across is knowing which job to pick and who should judge it.

The company judges. The operating partner can ask for the test, choose the company and read the scores. The call belongs to the reviewer the owner named, on that company's team, because they are the ones who will live with the job once it runs.