Integration Challenges

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
  • Author
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  • #62214
    Camilo Franco
    Participant

    Is there a particular functional area that seems to have more challenges than others in regards to integration? In my experience, the underlying change management layer is under serviced in most deals.

    #62278
    Necole Ezell
    Participant

    In my experience, the Accounting and Financial areas have the most challenges due to limitations around month-end, quarter-end and year-end processing activities. Additionally, SME’s are often limited in this area which has the potential to significantly impact BAU if not properly managed.

    #62354
    Lindsey LeClair
    Participant

    I think IT is an obvious one, due to technology debt and complexity.

    #63489
    Boon Hean Lee
    Participant

    To me, it’s always the people element. Handle with care!

    #63779
    A.L.
    Participant

    Relating to a simple acquisition of subsidiary:
    Though not necessarily the most challenges, financial reporting integration will be the most glaring initially as it would be tested immediately on monthly basis. There may be new reporting requirements and details in which the the acquired entity was not required to prepare under previous ownership.

    #67380
    Ryan Dawkins
    Participant

    Our operations SMEs are often squeezed between supporting the integration and continued support of ongoing business. Long-term planning is critical to understand when you will need those resources for integration activities – analysis, testing, etc. It’s incredibly important if you have any area that deals with seasonal spikes in their volume of routine business.

    #67636
    Ivan Stanojević
    Participant

    In my experience legal and compliance and finance.

    #67652
    Christian Muntean
    Participant

    I don’t know what the norm is – but for the companies I’m working with the primary issue is accounting. The accounting needs and systems of the acquiring company (some of which are informed by compliance) don’t best serve the management and performance needs of the majority of their subsidiaries.

    #68038
    Adrienne Heiskanen
    Participant

    At my software company, it’s the systems. They have taken upwards of 3 years. Moving from one instance of Salesforce to another with a different configuration can be surprisingly complex.

    #68047
    DDLAN
    Participant

    In software companies operations / systems / IT is hugely disrupted by M&A.

    I agree with @adrienne that even moving from one instance of SalesForce to another can be very complicated and cause serious pain for affected employees.

    I believe in merging / simplifying systems as quickly as practical (not possible). If a critical team needs to retain its own isnstance for 2/3Q’s, let that happen and make the progression to a unified system over a set period of time.

    The answer to this isn’t staying separate, its definately merging over time. But a careful evaluation should be taken as to ‘when’ to get this right.

    #68253
    Kate Powers
    Participant

    IT integrations are detailed and imperative to business continuity. I’ve experienced that legal / compliance is a particularly hard integration. Specifically, contract entanglements and managing contracts for both companies.

    #68256
    K_Sheehan
    Participant

    I agree that the change management layer is often under serviced. It is critical to keep your employees informed on what is happening and why, otherwise you risk valuable people resources leaving to go work for competitors.

    #68340
    Camille Louhichi
    Participant

    I think some functions are less seen or cared for than others such as HR and Culture.
    But one of the things I have seen is often mishandled is organisation, which leads to missing parts and delay. It is also miscommunication across the functions from company A and company B.

    #68447
    Josh Ooi
    Participant

    I have always found culture and people to be the biggest challenges. If that is aligned and people are sincere in making an integration successful, then any of the functional challenged like IT or Finance/Accounting can be resolved. More often than not it is differing attitudes, close-mindedness, poor communication and lack of motivation from the integration teams that lead to failure.

    #68469
    Thomas Vessella
    Participant

    IT Integration is a large component in a Merger, especially when your looking to have both companies work in one environment, such as utilizing the same outlook, single sign on, ERP, etc. Another component is people. Employee retention and employee experience is important to consider when dealing in M&A.

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