Without Enterprise Architecture, Your M&A is a Plan for Failure

September 7, 2021

Planning for Post Merger Technology Integration

IT systems tailored to the organizational structure of your business are not just a best practice for digital products and services, they are the backbone of your entire company. The success of M&A hinges on the rapid integration of multiple, complex, technological backbones, and the assumption that they can be integrated. Enterprise Architecture is ideally suited for accelerating accurate IT due diligence and for ensuring the long-term success of post merger technology integration.

The recent surge in M&A activity targeting digital companies or assets has brought issues with implementing newly acquired capabilities throughout the organization to the forefront. Despite the ubiquity of digital products in today’s corporate world, the integration of business systems and technology remains one of the most challenging and error-prone aspects of M&A.

The Devil is in the Details

The struggle to realize the full potential of technology starts with IT due diligence. The team collecting due diligence often has a short time to gather, analyze and deliver their report. They’re likely starting from scratch and have to spend time deciding what information they need, in addition to finding it. Because of the time pressure, they’re forced to make educated guesses and assumptions, which decision-makers take for fact.

Then, only after the deal is signed, does a completely different team begin putting together a post merger technology integration plan. This team begins the information collection process all over again and must try to wedge the reinvention of the IT foundation in between daily operations. In too many cases, the integration team runs into critical issues that dramatically increase the time and cost of integration. Even if these issues are mitigated, the magnitude of the integration often means that while it is ongoing, the new organization is not able to keep up with the pace of change in the industry. By the time the integration is complete, a new transformation is needed to catch up.

When You Have to Move Fast, Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a framework for transformation. It includes time-tested concepts and templates to take you from whatever your current state is, to your desired target state. If a company has a mature EA practice, you might already know that the EA team will be able to provide all the information needed for M&A due diligence. Even if they don’t have an established practice, an experienced EA consultancy will accelerate information collection and analysis through the application of relevant EA practice elements.

The nature of the Enterprise Architecture discipline ensures that information aggregated for due diligence is formatted to flow directly into post merger technology integration planning. The target state of the organization is customized according to where the organization wants to be as a whole not just with the scope of integration, including external competitive factors. A refined level of detail for both the current state and target state is then used to develop robust roadmaps for multiple initiatives with distinct scope and clear dependencies.

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