Information technology departments certainly face some of the largest challenges during mergers, divestitures, and acquisitions, but they can also realize some of the biggest benefits for their companies. Over one million merger and acquisition (M&A) deals have been completed globally over the past 35 years. Recently, many acquirers have placed increasing focus on revenue growth through convergence and software defined innovation, that’s why technology plays a huge role in M&A.
For the purposes of this blog, we will define the following terms:
- Mergers are generally said to occur when two organizations, join their assets and liabilities.
- Acquisitions occur when one company buys something else.
- Divestures are the selling of a business or a part of the business it can be for cash or shares. In theory, divestments should occur because the value of a business, or part of the business, is worth more to someone else than it is to the existing shareholder.
What Are the Technology Challenges of Mergers and Acquisitions?
Since every industry and business environment is different, the technology and tasks may vary based on requirements and situations. During a M&A of any sort, it’s crucial to integrate systems, databases, and applications fast, allowing the companies to run in synchronization without any sort of misaligned processes and procedures.
Technical tasks associated with most mergers and acquisitions
- Email and branding: In some cases, the acquiring company wants to use its existing brand on the acquired business or product lines. The acquired users need to use the mail domain address of the acquiring company.
- Identity: what will be the process that will use the acquired users to login into the business line applications.
- Applications: The access to the applications and files is key for every organization, that’s why decide where will be hosted the files is important for the continuity of the operations.
How VNEXT and Microsoft can help you?
Though migrating Office 365 data during a merger or acquisition can be tricky, VNEXT can help making the process smoother by guiding you to plan your migration, licensing, permissions, and any other requirements needed. Reach out VNEXT experts here to support you during the process.