Successful M&A IT Integration

It’s an alarming fact that a large proportion of M&A activity fails to deliver the potential business value anticipated. In fact, most research indicates that only 50% of these deals actually result in an increase in overall shareholder value.

The reason is that whilst organisations seek to acquire and merge in order to capitalise on synergies and efficiencies, the reality is these potential benefits are much harder to realise.

One of the major ‘synergies’ companies aim for in much of the M&A activity that goes on today, is the integration of IT systems and processes. However, all too frequently we hear of organisations struggling or even failing altogether to combine their infrastructure, impacting the overall merger success. Often, IT merger projects overrun, do not deliver desired outcomes or are simply abandoned altogether. We have seen instances of some organisations, following a series of mergers, continuing to run multiple silo infrastructures for years, after giving up on consolidating and streamlining their infrastructure.

This common failure is understandable. M&A activity it not just business as usual. These can be lengthy and complicated projects. Gartner forecasts 50% of M&A integration in the finance industry will fail purely because the IT projects are just too complex. There is no secret shortcut to making IT infrastructure integration a success. It requires meticulous upfront planning and due diligence combined with strong leadership, communication and programme management throughout the implementation.

Having assisted organisations with this challenge over the years at Acora, we’ve put together 10 top tips to highlight some of the key areas both IT managers and the business as a whole need to consider in order to make any merger or acquisition IT project a success.