NCS Engineers
How NCS Engineers drives strategic growth through acquisitions
NCS is entering a new era—using strategic mergers and acquisitions to fuel its next phase of growth.
1 About the customer
Industry: Civil Engineering
Use case: Scaling M&A function
Region: HQ in Arizona, USA
NCS Engineers (NCS) is passionate about solving complex water and wastewater challenges—offering a full spectrum of services including drinking water systems, water quality research, permitting, construction administration, and reclaimed water solutions. With offices across Arizona, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, and California, NCS serves public and private clients throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Founded in 1998 to raise the standard in water engineering, NCS has grown into an industry leader in treatment systems, hydraulic modeling, and environmental research. Now, in partnership with Clairvest Group, a leading private equity firm, NCS is entering a new era—using strategic mergers and acquisitions to fuel its next phase of growth.
2 The challenge
NCS had limited acquisition activity in its history. Entering the M&A arena meant building not just a strategy—but the operational capability to execute it consistently.
To help lead this transformation, NCS’s CEO, Ram Narasimhan, turned to Steve Winchester, a seasoned executive with over 30 M&A transactions under his belt.
Steve quickly recognized that to scale successfully, NCS would need to move beyond ad hoc dealmaking.
“If you create a new approach for every deal based on personal preferences, that’s a recipe for inconsistent outcomes. What we needed was a repeatable process that delivered consistent quality and results—and a platform to support it.”
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Steven Winchester
Chief Strategy Officer at NCS
3 The solution
Steve turned to Midaxo, an end-to-end M&A software solution, to build the backbone of NCS’ acquisition engine. Midaxo’s platform enabled Steve’s small team to create a well-oiled, scalable machine for the full M&A process: starting with pipeline management and moving into diligence and beyond.
4 The impact
Midaxo's purpose-built M&A software delivered:
Speed & structure: Rather than overhaul everything at once, Steve took a phased approach—starting with pipeline management and expanding into due diligence. Midaxo’s customizable best practice playbooks allowed NCS to show results fast, with key parts of the process deployed within two weeks.
Team adoption through simplicity: Steve credits Midaxo’s intuitive design for enabling quick team adoption. “Midaxo is really well set up for a great user experience,” he said. “It’s intuitive and easy to use. This means our team can follow the process without a steep learning curve—and we get the consistency we’re aiming for.”
Transparency with capital partners: Keeping Clairvest Group in the loop is a priority and Midaxo makes that effortless. “If the partners want to know what’s going on with the overall pipeline or a specific deal, they can log into Midaxo and see for themselves—no extra reporting, no spreadsheets. They love that,” Steve shared. This openness even encouraged more collaboration. If a partner meets a prospect at a conference, they just add it into Midaxo, Steve gets notified and can take it from there. It’s seamless.
Efficiency that pays off: “I thought I’d need to hire a junior person just to keep everything organized,” Steve said. But Midaxo keeps everything in one place and makes reporting effortless without extra headcount.
Organization and discipline helps companies scale.
Ultimately, Midaxo has freed up Steve and the broader NCS team to focus on what matters most: doing great deals. “Midaxo is not going to do deals for me,” Steve explained, “but it facilitates that process to the point where I have more time to focus on other important aspects of a deal’s process and integration.” I don’t spend my time formatting spreadsheets and preparing reports for the Board.”
NCS Engineers has created a scalable M&A process using Midaxo—boosting efficiency with team adoption and transparency.
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