Mergers and Acquisitions: How is Your System Affected?
A merger is when two businesses combine together to create something bigger, and an acquisition is when one company acquires another in order to build itself up into something better. Making the decision to merge can be a momentous change for both companies involved. Additionally, business acquisition can also result in a major shift for both companies as well. These processes can feel complicated and can raise many questions. What happens to the systems of the companies involved? What happens to all of the saved data that these businesses have? Luckily, these questions have answers.
CRM Systems
CRM (customer relationship management) systems will be deeply affected by the decision to merge or perform an acquisition. This software is crucial for maintaining a successful company and, therefore, it is important to consider CRM systems when making big shifts such as mergers and acquisitions. When it comes to CRM systems in certain situations, the key is to keep both of the businesses’ CRM systems. These specific situations include when the CRM systems are serving different purposes in the case that the two companies involved are still playing separate roles, or when both CRM systems are updated to the same level, as this will make for a simple combination of the two. However, if one company is going to be fully fused into the other company, then getting rid of one of the company’s CRM systems is a safer bet. This is for cases in which the two companies are not going to handle their affairs separately. However, don’t always assume that the acquiring company has a better CRM system — sometimes it may be the other way around. One other option is to get rid of the CRM systems of both companies and to start fresh with a brand new system for customer relationship management. This is a great choice if merging the CRM systems seems too difficult because they are too different from one another or if getting rid of one of the systems is not a good option. Regardless, don’t eliminate the old data when the process of deciding on a CRM system and integrating it into the company is over.
ERP Systems
ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems are extremely important for all businesses. The obvious decision may seem to be to eliminate one of the ERP systems from one of the companies, but this may not always be the best decision. The first thing that needs to be done is to decide how the business is going to run now that mergers and/or acquisitions have been performed. This is crucial in order to ensure that business comes first. Next, determine the best ERP strategy for the future of this “new” business. After this is done, it is time to determine an ERP system that will work for this improved version of the company. Consider what this new version of the company needs, and work from there. Be sure to think about standard business processes, workflow, key performance indicators, and systems and tools that are necessary to achieve goals. Maybe the company will need a brand new ERP blueprint, and maybe it will be possible to merge the ERP systems from both companies and have them guided and combined properly by a more general, overarching system of software. Either way, all companies are different, and therefore, all companies will have diverse adjustments to ERP systems after a merger and/or acquisition. Just remember that saving the old data somewhere is important, no matter how great the new ERP system ends up being.
Budgeting Software
Budgeting software can easily be combined after a merger of acquisition, an entirely new system can be created, or an old system can be removed entirely. However, because this is the birth of, in a sense, a “new” company, brand new budgeting software is definitely something to consider. If this doesn’t seem right, though, there are other options, such as using one company’s old budgeting software and eliminating the other company’s, or even a combination of the two. Additionally, remember to save that old budgeting data somewhere — it will definitely be necessary to have available later on in the future of this “new” company.
Regardless of how companies handle merging and acquisitions, it is paramount to remember that all data is important and should be preserved, even if new systems are put in place or if old systems are entirely eliminated. Records are important, and any data can end up being crucial later on; even in the excitement of the unification of businesses, this should not be forgotten. No matter how a business decides to handle a merger or an acquisition, just always remember to save the old data somehow — it will come in handy later on.
Ami Sanghvi is an SEO & Outreach Intern at The Marketing Zen Group and writes content on behalf of the financial systems specialists at TGO Consulting. In her spare time, she can be found writing poetry, reading, or sketching. Tweet her @AmiJSanghvi or connect with her on LinkedIn.