A post-merger IT integration is a significant endeavor. The parent company wants to get up and running as quickly as possible while enabling long-term growth. Interlink offers a six-phase process that is designed to facilitate a smooth transition and streamline business processes across the entire organization. Each phase works to ensure that IT is building the integration between the businesses, limiting impacting on existing cash flow, and is leveraging the cloud where it makes sense. Here are our six phases of IT integration:

We are a technology company that works with clients all over the Midwest, including Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan. Travel is a natural part of our business flow; therefore, we have adopted some proven applications and services that help us stay productive and less stressed while on the road and in the air.

Stay Productive Everywhere

Office 365 + Skype for Business Phone System

It’s no secret that we’re big advocates of Office 365, but we’re also Office 365 users, and it’s the main reason our team can stay productive when they’re outside of the office (whether it’s traveling, working from home, or accessing information from a client site). Having access to our emails, files and Office programs in the cloud allows us access to anything we need from any device, as long as it’s connected to the internet.

Interview with Matt Scherocman – Licensing Wrangler and President of Interlink Cloud Advisors

Slashing through the dense thicket of software licensing often requires the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, and an army of product experts. Understanding and sourcing your Microsoft licensing is like pouring over the Cheesecake Factory menu. But instead of deciding between hundreds of appetizers, lunch or dinner dishes, you must wade through pages of operating systems, applications, and security solutions.

“The entire licensing process has always been a problem for companies,” says Matt Scherocman, President of Interlink Cloud Advisors. “Thankfully Microsoft is doing something about it.”

That “something” is Microsoft’s new Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE) offering that may make licensing headaches a thing of the past. SPE is a secure, desktop licensing bundle that is sold by user. Before getting to this new, streamlined offering, however, Microsoft has taken us on a bit of winding branding and bundling journey.

A company’s IT systems play a critical role in their daily business operations. To prevent business disruptions and delayed revenue growth, organizations must have a plan in place to streamline the IT integration process post-merger. Without one, companies risk the following costly mistakes:

Assuming licensing assets will transfer.

It is common for the value of software licenses to be included in a valuation. However, software licenses don’t always

Mergers and acquisitions are filled with technology and organizational challenges - many which M&A teams may not have planned for. Whether it's people or software licensing, the M&A process is rarely predictable. Based on our experience of combining the infrastructures of hundreds of firms post-merger, we’ve outlined some key challenges that IT will face during M&A, and the solutions available through Microsoft Cloud solutions.

M&A Technology Challenge 1: Underestimating Change Management Needs

The most important component of the M&A process is the end-user. The end-users need to stay connected and productive, but the rapid changes brought about during M&A, often disrupt workflows and frustrate entire departments. M&A teams frequently underestimate how changes in technology can strain business units, leaving end-users feeling lost, and in a state of chaos.