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IT Day 1 has one mandate: employees on both sides of the transaction need to work together from the moment the deal closes, without disruption to their existing workflows and without waiting for full systems integration to happen. That means delivering collaboration, communication, and data access on Day 1 — while longer-term platform decisions and migrations continue in parallel.
Collaboration is the first priority. Microsoft Teams federation between the two organizations is the foundational Day 1 capability — every employee at both companies should be able to chat and call across the new combined organization from close. Shared Outlook calendaring and address book access follow, giving both organizations visibility into each other's schedules. Acquiree users get access to the Acquirer's intranet from Day 1, providing immediate connection to the combined company's information resources, FAQs, leadership content, and HR materials. An application audit identified 40 tools and applications across the combined organization, with duplicative contracts and replicative tools in areas like proposal management, RFP response, and social media identified as near-term consolidation opportunities.
Finance application access for HR and Finance teams is being actively scoped, with network design, authorization access design, and data compliance review all in progress. Help desk operations run business-as-usual on Day 1 — both companies maintain their existing systems and processes in the near term, with a virtual combined IT war room staffed by both helpdesks to handle escalations. Integration-related incidents route directly to the IMO. Email security is confirmed through joint assessment, with options mutually agreed and daily collaboration underway. Data sharing — specifically synchronizing customer and entity data from the acquiree into the acquirer's repositories — is in active design, with field mapping in progress, data compliance approved by legal, and security review underway. The IT Day 1 plan creates the connective tissue. Full platform integration follows.