M&A Information Technology Best Practices

Chapter 11

Data Implications of Mergers and Acquisitions

Sascha Elsing

Criticality of Data Management in M&A Transactions

Speed is of the essence in merger and divestiture programs, and data integration or separation is often complicated and time-consuming enough to fall on the critical path. Additionally, data quality problems can have highly detrimental impacts on business operations and can put the success of the entire transaction at risk. Customer data integration offers one important way of achieving benefits out of a merger if done broadly and in a timely manner. This chapter contains some key governance and organizational considerations critical for data management, as well as recommendations on data confidentiality, privacy, security, risk, and archiving. It also provides a step-by-step road map for data integration and separation projects, as well as a summary of customer data considerations.

Data Governance and Organizational Considerations

Given the value data has to most organizations and how easily it can become corrupted and lost in a transaction, it is critical to put resources in charge of protecting this asset. At a minimum, there should be clear ownership of each data domain by two types of business resources:

1. A data steward, who has a deep understanding of the data, including its business meaning, quality, suppliers, consumers, and applicable business rules.

2. An executive owner, who helps ensure the recommendations developed by the data steward receive ...