Shape up before and after a merger or acquisition

Businesses facing a merger/acquisition situation naturally wish to be in as good a shape as possible before due diligence. For businesses for whom IT is central to success, until a technological due diligence is conducted, a buyer will assume that certain IT processes and controls are in place. If the buyer subsequently discovers that these basic IT processes and controls are missing or inadequate, the value of the target company may be eroded or the buyer may walk away.

Following a merger or acquisition, a key goal of the resulting business is to integrate the two entities, reducing costs by merging teams, consolidating systems and integrating processes. The success of a merger or acquisition depends on the degree to which this synergy is achieved.

We can help you on either side of a merger or acquisition. Before the merger/acquisition, we can help you maximise your value by comparing your current IT processes to best practices such as ITIL and COBIT. We focus specifically on the processes and controls that a potential investor or purchaser would expect to find. By identifying the gaps in your processes and controls, we are able to provide advice and assistance to ensure the right processes and controls are in place, documented and performed consistently. After the merger/acquisition, we are able to assist you in the development of your IT consolidation strategy, as well as provide advice and hands-on assistance with your IT business process reengineering efforts.

Depending on your budget, preferences and on the skills, experience and availability of your own staff, we are completely flexible when it comes to the way in which you engage us – we can be responsible for one, several or all of the following: analysis and planning; consulting, advice and mentoring; facilitation; project management; and hands-on assistance, e.g. process design.

Possible areas of scrutiny during a technological due diligence include:

• Performance of IT systems and IT infrastructure
• Intellectual Property
• Software & Hardware Asset Management
• Technical Change & Release Management
• Disaster Recovery / IT Service Continuity Plans
• Information Security
• Supplier Management (e.g. determining risks associated with supplier dependencies)
• Knowledge & Succession Management (e.g. determining risks associated with staff dependencies)
• Incident and Major Incident Management

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you overcome your challenges and achieve your goals, please feel free to contact us by clicking here www.silversix.com.au/contact