The worst mistake of all in post-merger technology integration — and how to prevent it
There’s never been a more exciting time to be a promising start-up in the source-to-pay technology space. Consolidation has been driving the market for several years, with enterprise players acquiring fast-growth upstarts to supplement their core products and investors adding complementary companies to their portfolios in rapid succession. In both of these scenarios, the consequence is that post-merger technology integration strategies need to be set, executed and monitored to achieve ultimate value realization.
Successful technology integration, however, takes a lot more than picking an innovative or leading solution and allowing the company that developed that solution to dictate the integration strategy. Moreover, the real effort for technology integration is preceded by a real effort to figure out the strategy that should be pursued — and, crucially, who should lead the effort. Ideally, that strategy and that person should be taking proactive steps to avoid the unpleasant surprises and potholes that can derail even the best planned projects.
Unfortunately, this is an effort that takes considerably more thought and analysis than the majority of companies give it. That’s why, in this Spend Matters PRO series, we’re outlining the most common potholes and hidden sinkholes that technology providers encounter in post-acquisition technology integration. Because without foreknowledge, acquisition dreams quickly morph into maintenance nightmares from which vendors may never wake up. And we want you to have a chance of getting it right.
Specifically, there’s one mistake that outshines all the rest — one that will produce recurring nightmares that haunt your customers for years. This final set of briefs examines what we call “the biggest no-no of them all: believing you should maintain two solutions that do essentially the same thing.”
For vendors getting up to speed on post-merger integration strategy, consider reviewing our earlier briefs, where we defined five specific stages of post-merger technology integration, as well as our follow-on brief about perhaps the most important upfront integration planning question (to maintain or note to maintain?).
