Pre-Close Information Technology Merger Integration Plan

Covers all IT pre-close planning tasks. Accompanying reports — Risk Register, Milestones, Next 14 Days, and Executive Dashboard — reflect status as of T-60 (60 days before close). For Day 1 and the complete 100-day plans, see Day 1 IT M&A Plan and 100-Day IT Post-Merger Integration Plan.

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Pre-Close Information Technology Merger Integration Plan
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By Joe Aberger

The IT pre-close integration plan focuses on building the technical foundation required for the combined company to operate smoothly on Day 1 and beyond.

The work begins with the fundamentals: appointing the IT Workstream Lead, establishing governance, defining success metrics, and setting the operating rhythm for the team. From there, attention shifts to understanding the current environment — reviewing IT organization structure and capabilities, assessing network and infrastructure capacity, and inventorying hardware, data centers, hosting arrangements, applications, and technology assets.

The largest portion of the plan focuses on Systems & Technology. Key activities include application and SaaS rationalization, software delivery assessments, source code reviews, cloud strategy, security remediation, infrastructure readiness (network connectivity, data center considerations, and vulnerability management).

All this occurs while taking into consideration synergies. The team identifies potential savings from software licenses, infrastructure consolidation, vendor management, and resource optimization with each initiative assigned a clear owner.

The Risk Register highlights the risks, such as the loss of critical IT personnel, that could slow progress. Departures of key IT leaders, administrators, or technical experts could leave the combined company without critical insight into legacy systems and undocumented configurations. Managing these risks is what allows IT to deliver on its broader mission: keeping the business running while implementing the technology changes needed to support the combined company.

The measure of IT integration success is not how much technology gets changed. It is how easily the business moves forward while that change is happening.