Combining Two Companies’ Systems After a Merger or Acquisition

After a merger or acquisition there are three ways to combine systems: connect the two so they share data, move one company onto the other’s system, or replace both with a single new one. Which is right depends on how good each system is and how alike the two businesses are. Most companies connect first, to get combined reporting quickly, and consolidate afterwards.

Signs this is your problem

• Combined figures are produced by hand from two systems.
• Shared customers get two invoices, two statements and two points of contact.
• Staff are entering the same transaction in both systems.
• Nobody on your side understands the acquired company’s software.
• The deal assumed savings that depend on working as one company.

What you are dealing with on day one

• Two customer lists that overlap, with no shared numbering.
• Two product or service lists, two price structures.
• Two sets of processes for the same work.
• Two groups of people, each loyal to the system they know.
• An owner or board that wants one set of numbers by next quarter.

Your three options

Connect them. Both systems stay. Data flows between them or into a central reporting database, so management sees one combined picture. It is the fastest route and disturbs staff least. You still run two systems.

Move one onto the other. The stronger system becomes the standard. The other company’s data is migrated and its staff are retrained. This works when one system is clearly better and the businesses work alike.

Replace both. One new system is built around the combined company’s process. It is the largest project, and the right one when neither system suits the business you have now become.

The part people underestimate: the data

Whichever route you take, the two sets of data have to be matched. Is “ABC Supply Inc” in one system the same customer as “A.B.C. Supply” in the other? Which address is current? Whose part numbers survive? This matching is detailed work, and it is where combined reporting succeeds or fails. We do it with your people, record every decision, and build the rules into the migration so it can be run again and checked.

Custom systems on either side

If either company runs custom or older software, including systems whose developers are gone, we can assess it, connect it and, where needed, take it over. See taking over software with no documentation.

How Keene Systems handles it

1. We assess both systems. What each does well, what condition it is in and how its data is structured.
2. We recommend connect, migrate or replace. Often a staged mix: connect now, consolidate next.
3. We match and migrate the data. With your people deciding the conflicts.
4. We build the connection or the combined system. And keep both businesses running throughout.

The next step is a short, no-pressure conversation. Book a call with Lance Keene or use the form on this page.