How your IT department will be affected by an Acquisition

Your IT department will be busy during an Acquisition.

Once the decision is made which system will be the surviving system – yours or the acquisition’s system – that is when your IT department will get even busier. They may even be involved with comparing the systems and determining which might be the better system to consolidate the data into.

The obvious part your IT department will play is data extraction and data mapping for the data that needs to copied and converted from the sunsetting system and moving it to the surviving system. All of your interfaces need to be reviewed to determine which of those need to be moved or adjusted to continue “talking” to the surviving system.

When considering an acquisition there are many considerations. Some of these are:

How much history needs to be converted from the sunsetting system and moved to the surviving system?

How will historic transactions continue to be accessed from the sunsetting system when needed?

Coordination between IT departments (acquiring company and acquired organization) on current interfaces and how they will be handled in the combined organization.

Make sure to start with a BRD – Business Requirement Document – so you have a road map of what is expected throughout the process. This helps all involved – the acquired company, the acquiring company and any partner you may engage – know what is expected from all parties.