also called: IT integration, ERP consultant, data migration specialist
Systems integrators do the technical work of making two businesses run as one: which system survives, how data migrates, what breaks during the transition, and how order taking, invoicing and payroll keep working while it happens. The finance close is usually the first hard deadline and the first place a bad plan shows.
The decision that matters most is not technical. Migrating the acquired company onto your platform is cheaper and faster and often destroys something specific that made it good. Running both for a period costs more and buys time to find out which of its quirks were actually the business.
Scoped during diligence and engaged before closing. Technology diligence should have told you what this will cost, and if it did not, that was the wrong diligence scope.
Fixed fee per defined phase, or day rate for open-ended work. Prefer phases with defined outcomes, because open-ended integration work has no natural end.
Migrating everything onto the acquirer’s systems immediately because it is tidier, and discovering that the acquired company’s odd process was the reason its customers stayed.
Not the integration lead, who owns the whole plan. This is one workstream inside it, usually the most expensive.
The Institute accepts no payment from any advisor, takes no fee tied to any transaction, and does not place or refer professionals for compensation. This entry describes a role, not a recommendation of any firm.