The IT integration plan is built around a single organizing truth: the acquirer's systems and processes represent the baseline standard, and the acquired company needs to get there as efficiently as possible without disrupting the core ERP environment in the process. The plan covers 180 days with the heaviest lift in the first 90, and it serves three deal drivers — market expansion into new geographies, diversification into new markets, and cost synergies through elimination of redundant staff, buildings, and operational systems.
The current state assessment tells a clear story about the gap between the two organizations. The acquirer operates with standardized hardware, enterprise-grade infrastructure, integrated business processes, and formal IT governance across security, access control, network management, and helpdesk support. The acquired company runs largely on vendor-dependent, manually-operated systems with no formal IT governance, limited connectivity, high-risk access controls, disconnected telecommunications, and no server monitoring or failover capability. Business processes that are automated and ERP-integrated at the acquirer — month-end close, reconciliation, WIP reporting, project controls, contract billing — run manually or offline at the acquired company. The IT team is also newly hired with minimal institutional knowledge, which compounds the technical gaps with an organizational one.
The gap analysis divides the challenges into three tiers. Critical gaps are the ones that pose immediate risk to business continuity and must be addressed in the first 90 days — these include the IT culture and operating model, connectivity, access controls, email infrastructure, telecommunications, and the near-total absence of server capabilities and failover protection. Moderate gaps include the different ERP systems, standalone bidding and scheduling tools, the absence of formal compliance controls, and heavy reliance on vendors for system support. Opportunistic gaps represent longer-term improvement areas — BYOD policy, SLA formalization with business partners, vendor management strategy, and SharePoint governance — that can wait without posing immediate risk.
The short-term to-be state, covering the first 90 days, focuses on stabilizing the acquired company's environment and elevating it to function as a networked field office under the acquirer's IT model. Active Directory and email migration targets completion in the first four to six weeks. Network infrastructure and full site connectivity is fully built out by April. Server clusters are procured and installed to support upcoming application migrations. The bidding system migrates to the acquirer's standard platform. HR interfaces are enabled in the acquired company's ERP to support payroll and benefits processing. Security and access controls are standardized. The IT team is formally assigned within the acquirer's organization and begins operating under acquirer policies and procedures.
The long-term phase, covering days 90 through 180, moves from infrastructure stabilization to full system migration. The ERP integration is the centerpiece — analysis, design, build, training, testing, and cutover all sequenced against a hard deadline of October 1 to achieve SOX 404 compliance by year-end. Job controls, scheduling, and dispatcher systems follow a parallel track. HR data migration runs on its own sequence with dedicated data extraction and testing phases. The implementation budget totals approximately $1.2M, with network infrastructure carrying the largest share, followed by finance enablement, enterprise technology, HR enablement, and security and access. IT organization transition and operations enablement are the lowest-cost line items, reflecting work that can be done largely with internal resources rather than external services.