Series: Building In-House M&A Competencies
by Jack Prouty, President M&A Leadership Council
This is a special appeal to those executives and middle managers involved in an M&A and who may not be conversant in the issues and nuances of IT within the overall context of the business integration. While our upcoming executive training The Art of M&A Business and IT Alignment is a valuable deep-dive for any IT professionals (CIOs, IT Project Managers, Business Analysts, and BSAs, etc.) involved in M&A, the topics covered would also be highly beneficial to Integration Program Directors, Integration Project Leaders or others with broad responsibilities across the life cycle of an M&A. Although it focuses on the role of IT in an M&A integration, the subject matter is not intensely technical: it’s about the business of IT during an M&A integration, IT enablement of the integration, and the business-IT partnership necessary to successfully deliver on the integration and synergy goals.
Here is my rationale for this “pitch” to you to join your IT partners in this valuable conference:
- Too many companies fail to understand the value, issues and risks of IT within the context of the overall business integration. They view IT as a cost center or a support center and, too often, the area of IT best left to the technical folks. A big mistake! IT is often one of the largest cost component of the overall integration costs; it is almost always required to complete other functional integration efforts; often it is the hardest and takes the longest of the required integration activities; and it is on the critical path in migrating to the steady state of the combined business.
- Years ago I taught a course through the American Management Association, IT for the Non-IT Executive. While I no longer specialize in IT, every M&A program in which I’m involved re-emphasizes this point: the basic training and education on the role and fundamentals of IT is even more important for the business owner, the Integration Director, and/or any other person with major responsibility in planning and implementing the overall integration effort.
Understanding the importance of this area, several years ago the M&A Leadership Council built into “The Art of M&A Integration” a section titled, Key Considerations In IT Integration. A year ago we launched this deep-dive conference, “The Art of Technology Integration” and this session has received excellent reviews from the IT professionals who have attended. I think it is important as well to expand the list of attendees to other M&A professionals who recognize their need to become more fluent in the role of IT for successful M&A execution. Additionally, the IT professionals at this conference would benefit from understanding the points-of-view, issues and concerns of their non-IT brethren in order to achieve a more effective partnership in the M&A integration effort.
This training program is offered only once per year, and limited seats are available. Register now to join us in Chicago May 15-16 for The Art of M&A Business and IT Alignment.
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