Develop an M&A IT Playbook

Integrating technology plays a critical role in the success of any merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction. Though each deal will have its own unique challenges, approaching any transaction without guidelines or best practices increases the chances of its failure. This blueprint helps you build an IT playbook to navigate M&A transactions with a focus on technology.

A 2020 study by the Harvard Business Review found that between 70% and 90% of acquisitions fail, largely due to challenges with integration. Technology plays a critical role in M&A success. A robust and adaptable M&A IT playbook empowers CIOs and IT executives to drive organizational alignment while mitigating risks early in the transaction.

1. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Undoubtedly, every M&A transaction is different, but that doesn’t mean that agile reactivity is the path to success. Proactively creating a playbook can alleviate inherent IT uncertainties that have the potential to disrupt the deal and the organization and allow IT executives to focus on the deal specifics rather than scrambling to get things ready from scratch.

2. Be a first thought, not a last thought.

High confidentiality in the early stages of M&A transactions often delay IT’s involvement, making it near impossible to conduct the required due diligence. Defining clear streams of technology and a due diligence checklist ahead of time better establishes the scope of work required and positions IT for early involvement.

3. Learn from history or risk repeating it.

When people have gone through multiple M&A processes, they are considerably more likely to succeed in future transactions because they can learn from their experience. Without significant experience and learning from previous M&A transactions, documenting processes to develop a repeatable methodology through a playbook is the path to success.

Use our comprehensive blueprint to create an M&A IT playbook fit for your organization

Use this step-by-step guide to prepare your IT department in the acquiring organization for an upcoming M&A transaction.

This blueprint guides you through the process of analyzing your organization’s M&A strategy, defining IT’s approach, and preparing for due diligence, post-merger integration, and value realization assessment. By leveraging this step-by-step methodology, templates, and tools, you:

Ask the right questions to understand your organization’s strategy and how mergers and acquisitions will play a role in it.
Assess the impact of an M&A on IT strategy and your existing roadmap to establish how flexible it is or needs to be.
Build a flexible M&A playbook to best prepare your IT department for acquiring a new organization.
Communicate IT’s proactive role to ensure meaningful input and get IT a seat at the table early in any transaction.

Develop an M&A IT Playbook Research & Tools

1. Develop an M&A IT Playbook Storyboard – A step-by-step guide to help you deliver a fit-for-purpose M&A IT playbook.

In this research, we will help you to:

Assess how ready the technology function is for M&A due diligence and integration.
Understand what it takes to conduct due diligence and post-merger integration of the technology of two organizations.
Develop an M&A IT playbook by leveraging Info-Tech's tools and templates.

2. M&A IT Playbook Template – A customizable playbook template for your organization.

Use this playbook template to prepare the IT department in the acquiring organization for an upcoming M&A transaction. This playbook should be prepared well in advance of the target identification, preferably as soon as the organization shares its strategy or intention around M&A. After initial preparation, the playbook should be reviewed and customized for each transaction as a separate copy.

3. M&A IT Workbook – A tool used to complete activities within the storyboard.

This Excel workbook contains a set of tools and templates – including Brief Profiles, Assumptions, Risk Register, Risk Matrix, Synergy & Cost Estimation, and a TSA IT Elements Checklist – that will help you bridge the gaps, if any, found during M&A due diligence and integration planning.

4. Due Diligence Checklist and Rubric – A tool used to complete activities within the storyboard.

This Excel workbook is dedicated to helping CIOs and their M&A teams structure their due diligence questionnaires and checklist. It also has scoring rubrics to help assess overall confidence level on due diligence, the go-ahead to integration planning, and the go-ahead to integration execution.

5. M&A Glossary – A document that defines M&A-specific terms.

The glossary, which comprises terms and definitions related to mergers and acquisitions, will help your IT team elevate their understanding and familiarize themselves with the nuances of M&A both within and beyond what is covered in this storyboard.

6. M&A Culture Assessment – A high-level cultural assessment of the organizations involved in the M&A to inform the cultural integration plan.

Use this tool to identify and understand observed cultural differences between organizations involved in the M&A.

Identify the differences between the target and purchasing organizations with respect to key cultural drivers (e.g. type of leadership, decision making style, employee collaboration).
Identify whether the organizations align or misalign across the cultural drivers.

7. M&A Seller Package – A subset of the M&A IT playbook.

This standalone artifact is created for two M&A use cases: to share proactively with a buyer during a divestiture and to request key information from a merging entity’s CIO. It includes a due diligence checklist and M&A culture assessment. It is not used during playbook development, which is why it’s excluded from the blueprint activities.

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Manish led a very rigorous and thorough workshop on how to develop an M&A playbook. The materials and content presented were very valuable and will... Read More

Develop an M&A IT Playbook visualization

Structured for certainty, adaptable to nuance: the playbook proactively drives M&A success, from due diligence to integration.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

You Get:

Develop an M&A IT Playbook Storyboard
M&A IT Playbook Template
M&A IT Workbook
Due Diligence Checklist and Rubric
M&A Glossary
M&A Seller Package

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Guided Implementation 1: Analyze the organization's M&A strategy.

Call 1: Understand M&A’s role in the organization’s strategy and success criteria.
Call 2: Analyze value chains and business capabilities, and understand the options of the integration posture and tech end state.

Guided Implementation 2: Define IT's approach and governance.

Call 1: Create M&A governance, an M&A tech governance council, and the communication plan for tech integration.

Guided Implementation 3: Prepare for M&A IT due diligence.

Call 1: Create a due diligence checklist organized by tech stream.
Call 2: Create M&A tech risk management and assess go-ahead for PMI planning.
Call 3: Estimate the synergies and incremental integration cost.
Call 4: Create a transition service agreement (TSA).

Guided Implementation 4: Prepare for post-merger integration.

Call 1: Identify key initiatives for each tech stream.
Call 2: Create an M&A integration roadmap.

Guided Implementation 5: Assess M&A’s value realization.

Call 1: Assess go-ahead for integration execution.
Call 2: Create a post-integration technology review framework and template for documenting lessons learned.
Call 3: Complete your in-progress M&A IT playbook, seller’s package, and final review.