You just acquired a company.
Two ERP systems. Two HR platforms. Two email domains. Two cultures with strong opinions about their tools. Post-merger IT rationalization is one of the hardest problems in enterprise technology — and the timeline is never long enough.
The stakes are higher, the timeline is compressed, and the politics are intense. Every system touches people who are already anxious about the merger. Every decision has a stakeholder in two organizations with conflicting opinions.
Standard IT project management frameworks fail here because they assume a single chain of command, stable requirements, and tolerance for delay. M&A has none of those.
Inventory both portfolios. Identify overlap, integration conflicts, and immediate security risks that need Day-1 attention before the deal closes.
Ensure critical systems are accessible to all employees on Day 1. Handle identity federation, email routing, and access provisioning without disruption.
Execute the highest-value consolidations first — the duplicate systems with clear winners. Migrate data, terminate contracts, and document cost savings.
Define the 12-month integration roadmap for complex systems (ERP, HRIS, core platforms). Establish governance for ongoing decisions.
M&A has a 100-day clock and a board watching. We prioritize decisions that unlock value fast while deferring complex migrations that need more runway — not because of bureaucracy, but strategy.
We've done this across acquirer and acquired teams with very different cultural relationships to their tools. We facilitate decisions that would otherwise stall in committee for months.
Key employees from the acquired company are attrition risks when their tools disappear. We sequence platform changes to minimize disruption to your highest-value hires during the integration window.
Ideally, pre-close — during due diligence. This gives us time to inventory both portfolios, identify integration conflicts, and plan Day-1 readiness before the deal closes. Engaging pre-close saves significant time and cost. That said, we work post-close regularly and can still deliver a 100-day plan from the date of engagement.
We operate as a neutral third party with a clear mandate from executive sponsors. Decisions are made using transparent criteria — usage data, cost, integration complexity, and strategic fit — not political preference. This reframes the conversation from "who wins" to "what's best."
Healthcare, financial services, technology, and professional services. Healthcare M&A is particularly complex given EHR interoperability and compliance requirements — we have specific experience there and have documented it in our case study.
The sooner we start, the better positioned you'll be on Day 1. Book a 30-minute call with no commitment required.
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