Mergers and acquisitions leave IT out in the cold

IT is often ignored during mergers and acquisitions, with the integration of systems sometimes taking years to happen, research reveals.

Nearly four-fifths (79 per cent) of the CIOs questioned said any M&A activity ignores IT integration, according to a survey carried out by Bloor Research on behalf of software company Informatica involving 56 CIOs and IT chiefs

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Half of the respondents said their newly merged entity had no integration of its IT systems within three months and more than one-third did not expect integration to be complete within two years following an M&A deal - or could not say when the integration would be complete.

More than half (54 per cent) of the CIOs surveyed said poor documentation of systems, a lack of metadata, diverse and uncontrolled data sources and poor data quality were significant problems during a merger.

Despite the fact 50 per cent of the CIOs said they knew about a planned M&A months before it happened - three-eighths said a detailed plan for system integration wasn't put in place until months after a merger happened.

And 57 per cent of CIOs - all of which are members of the National Computing Centre - said they lost IT staff with key knowledge during an M&A, which subsequently hindered IT integration, according to the survey.