How to Evaluate a VDR‑to‑IC Memo Pilot

A useful pilot answers a concrete question: can this deal team prepare a reviewable IC working draft from this authorized source pack, in the firm’s expected format, with an inspectable evidence record?

Agree the working boundary

Choose one live, anonymized or controlled source pack. Confirm the permission to process it, the intended users, a named analyst and a named senior reviewer. Record the template, terminology, writing conventions, citation approach and output path before work begins.

The source boundary matters. A workflow should not depend on documents it cannot access or market-data rights the firm does not hold. Confirm the source permissions and security requirements before starting.

Baseline the complete preparation job

Record analyst active effort from source receipt to the review-ready draft. Include extraction, comparison, analysis, evidence follow-up and formatting. Measure senior-review effort separately, including time spent tracing support and returning unclear content.

Elapsed time and active effort answer different questions. A shorter cycle does not establish a cash saving. Released capacity becomes economic value only through an agreed realization mechanism.

Define reviewable output

A generated document is not automatically a usable IC memo. Ask the analyst and reviewer to inspect material claims, their citations, assumptions, qualifications and unresolved questions. Record whether the artifact can enter the existing IC process without complete manual rebuilding.

Agree success thresholds and how exceptions will be adjudicated. Evaluate citation coverage, unsupported material claims found in review, evidence-request handling and additional verification effort alongside drafting time.

Test revised evidence when it is in scope

A controlled revised-source scenario can test how the team compares definitions, periods and source authority, decides which content is affected and resubmits that work for review. Different reported values are not necessarily contradictory. The reviewer must first establish whether they are comparable.

When included in your pilot, Underlying can propose memo claims affected by changed evidence. Reviewers decide whether to revise them. Changes are not automatically applied across every tool or silently substituted for approved conclusions.

Make the expansion decision from observed use

Review the agreed artifact, actual effort, remaining manual work and the reviewer’s willingness to use the output. Expansion should follow a demonstrated result and confirmed buyer support.

Start with a fixed-scope paid VDR-to-IC pilot. Review the pilot scope or discuss your team’s process.