Success through integration

It is worth noting that a purely economic approach to the strategic planning of acquisitions often leads to serious delays in the relevant projects later on.

It is often overlooked that IT landscapes can be difficult to merge. The type of transaction and the objectives are decisive criteria for the integration of IT systems.

Basically, three scenarios can be distinguished:

1. Complete takeover of a company: The acquisition should be integrated at all levels and adapted to the buyer's standards. If the acquisition is in a different business area, complete integration should be avoided and interfaces between the systems should be created.
2. Takeover of parts of the company: Parts of IT must first be carved out, transferred and integrated.
3. Merger of two units: Companies of a similar size often have comparable IT structures. A hybrid of the above scenarios should be used here.

ERP landscapes should already be part of the strategic planning process, especially for cross-border transactions. They form the backbone of companies and this is where the greatest risk lies.

Specific questions are:

• What should the future ERP landscape look like?
• Which data must be extracted and how in order to ensure the smooth running of operations in the event of a business transfer?

Answering these questions counteracts unforeseen costs.

Other points that influence IT integration are pragmatic issues such as different time zones, data volumes, language or cultural aspects. There are also legal requirements and data security.

One particular difficulty is the different stages of development of the companies involved in digitalization.

With similar ERP systems, data migration and integration are considerably easier; with different ERP solutions, the complexity increases significantly.

Conclusion

Early consideration of IT landscapes helps to avoid cost explosions. The IT requirements for company acquisitions are increasing and depend on the type of M&A transaction.

By addressing IT integration at an early stage, cost explosions can be avoided during implementation.