[Georgios Diamantis Andreou]

What strategies have you found most effective for balancing integration speed with maintaining business-as-usual operations during a merger? How do you avoid overloading teams while keeping up the momentum of the PMI process?

[Jabari Bovell]

We have employed a head of integration whose focus is on ensuring that effective project plans and timelines are created. The functional teams are led by members of our operational teams but not the leaders of the teams. This has allowed us to balance the integration speed with business-as-usual. We found this has meant that our more senior resources (CFO, COO etc) are not overwhelmed with their business as usual activities as well as assisting the integration of deals.

[Cristina Girtu]

Hi Georgios,

having an Integration Manager and using a good Project Management tool helps a lot.
We also define an Integration Specialist for each Department.
Cristina

[Benjamin Ervin]

Having dedicated integration leads with solid project management skills that feed into the centralized integration office or project is needed. The speed is made possible by high quality dedicated leads and an organization that is backing and tracking.

[Shiyun]

We have a specialized team focused on integration and business transformation. Additionally, we’ve formed cross-functional teams, and managers typically provide strong support for the extra workload involved.

[Kristi Huntington]

We adopted a centralized Acquistion Transition Team which leverages cross-functional team of integration leads. We also partner closely with the business to ensure alignment on the business priorities and integrate around them allowing the important aspects of the business to remain front and center.

[Octavian Mihalcovici]

From what I’ve researched, balancing integration speed with BAU comes down to smart planning and having the right people in place. A few things that seem to work well:

-Dedicated Teams: Having a team focused just on integration avoids piling too much on people managing day-to-day operations.
-Cross-Functional Groups: Getting input from all departments makes sure integration and BAU are aligned.
-Prioritization: Tackle the most important areas like IT and finance first to ease the workload.
-Good Leadership and Communication: Clear goals and strong support from leaders help keep everyone on track and reduce confusion.

I like the idea of having integration specialists in each department to handle the heavy lifting for the process. Has anyone else tried this? Curious to hear how it worked out!

[Lexi Kakar]

We have an entire team dedicated to integration for each function. They may handle multiple integrations at the same time, but that allows them to get a feel for what works & what doesn’t. Integration work tends to become a lower priority when competing with BAU operations as integration takes longer for value realization.

[Jonathan]

Balancing integration speed with BAU operations during a merger is definitely not straightforward— i reckon it’s all about flexibility and adaptation. In my experience, clear prioritization is key: focusing first on stabilizing BAU while tackling integration in manageable phases avoids overwhelming teams. Governance also helps—dedicated workstream leads empowered to make decisions kept things moving without bottlenecks.

Regular communication also seems vital to align expectations and ensure transparency, and personally we supported teams with targeted training and temporary resource adjustments to handle the additional workload. The biggest lesson? Stay agile—plans often need adjustment, and overloading teams is a risk. Celebrating small wins kept morale high and momentum steady.

How do you manage these trade-offs in your integrations?

[Author]

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