Almost 30% of respondents said that their post-merger integration fell short of success.*

This revelation comes from Deloitte’s Post-Merger Integration Survey & Report 2015, which focuses on the post-merger integration phase of the merger and acquisition lifecycle, collating the views of 800+ executives.

So how do you go about combining two separate entities to make one perfect environment?

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Are Your Teams Working in Harmony?

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Post-merger integration success becomes impossible if the IT teams of the two separate companies that are about to become one are incapable of working harmoniously with each other. This could be down to personality clashes, operational issues or an inability to generate the needed synergies.

Unfortunately, conflict between IT departments is a common problem in mergers as teams can be disparaging of opposing systems and processes – preferring the benefits of their own. In these cases, outside intervention is needed to weigh up the merits of all systems and work out a way forward to successfully combine the best of each.

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Post-Merger Integration Planning

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With the right post-merger integration planning, you can take all the good stuff from each of the merging companies and discard the bad.

But you must assess how much you need from the acquiring company and how much from the business being acquired. First, analyse your business’s current infrastructure and consider what you’re likely to require in the future; then you can begin to map out an integration plan.

Next, review your current strategies against your goals for the future. What are your core business competencies?

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Consolidating Two IT Landscapes

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The next step is to check to see if there are overlaps between systems. Can they be easily integrated to eliminate duplications and form a basis for your new infrastructure?

Remember, if you don’t have a central repository, then you’re going to end up with siloed information. This scenario is a bad starting point for any M&A integration.

Your aim is to create a platform that will provide the foundation for a comprehensive set of applications that integrate and work well together and don't result in duplicated functionalities.

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Developing Your Post-Merger Integration Plan

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At Beyond Migration, we support IT teams going through a merger and help them to develop standard processes, robust plans and tools so that an acquisition can be absorbed more effectively.

By working with all of the stakeholders, we can help your key decision-makers select the right IT systems and the best IT personnel to make your business vision a reality. This includes deciding which legacy systems should be left behind and which ones can be successfully migrated into the acquiring company's system.

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The best value from your M&A deal can only be achieved if you adopt an approach that takes into consideration all of the socio-technical systems of two or more companies and combines them to form a new technology environment that’s geared towards growth.

If you’d like to know how to prepare your teams and systems for post-merger integration success and get maximum value from your IT, contact us for a friendly discussion regarding your particular business needs on 0800 622 6719.

*Sources:

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/mergers-and-acquisitions/articles/integration-report-2015.html

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