The way senior tech executives and business managers define success has changed.
Gary Curtis is a partner in Accenture’s Strategy practice and the global lead for the Strategic Effectiveness domain. Contact him at gary.a.curtis@accenture. Robert Laurens is managing partner, North American Utilities M&A, at Accenture. Contact him at Robert.L.Laurens@Accenture.com
Alignment of the business and the information technology (IT) functions within a company is critical to the effectiveness of any strategic initiative. This alignment is particularly crucial in the realm of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We estimate that IT enables 60 percent of post-merger transactions.
Three years ago, our research identified a number of best practices in IT integration, as they affected M&A execution.1 These practices included involving IT in early business discussions about the prospective deal, performing pre-deal IT due diligence, and driving IT integration from a vision of future capabilities. These best practices have not changed (see Figure 1).
What has changed, according to our new survey, is the way senior IT executives and senior business managers define success in a merger transaction. With so much at stake in any merger, the distinctions between these two important management constituencies are critical. They point to what might be called an “alignment gap” in M&A execution.
We define “alignment” between IT and business as agreement in four key areas: