Rapid and efficient integration of acquisitions is crucial to realize promised synergies and generate more capital to be back in the buyer’s seat. For companies with a weak IT infrastructure, seamless integration may seem unattainable.

In one recent case, a Houston-based master limited partnership (MLP) company in the oil and gas industry had trouble integrating acquisitions, causing a bottleneck in its growth momentum. Growth through acquisition is an integral part of a MLP’s business strategy. The company’s network infrastructure, security design and deficient IT processes created obstacles, congesting the integration of acquired companies.

To solve this business technology issue, it was necessary to engineer a network infrastructure that could support additional geophysical and geological applications, and support terabytes of new seismic and well data.

Engineering this infrastructure required specialists to…

• Design processes to migrate 12 business units, with 300 computers in 6 remote locations, onto a single network
•Analyze the data and security requirements of each application to support the new acquisition
•Identify and examine user configurations, data ownership and location, and security issues
•Create a plan to preserve and reconcile any issues before merging the two networks

Once the plan for the technical merger was created and tested, coordination was required among the MLP’s vendors and IT resources to execute the migration of the acquisition’s hardware, software and data assets. A custom software application was written to automate the migration of user accounts, applications and data into the company’s technology environment. Automation streamlined the process, guaranteed consistency and reduced the chance for human error.

With improvements to the network infrastructure and strengthened IT processes, an MLP is able to seamlessly assimilate new acquisitions within projected timelines. Executives are then able to focus attention to business development rather than on IT frustrations.