Strategic alignments through mergers and acquisitions can help drive your competitive advantage. However, when done hastily, the process of merging companies can also paralyze a business and generate significant unexpected costs that in turn minimize the speed-to-value proposition of the merger.
Without proper planning, a merger or acquisition can defocus the strategic advantages expected of the newly-formed business entity.
Proper merger and acquisition planning should start with a look at your data architecture and data management strategy. Both are critical dimensions of your IT architecture and key components of a successful merger or acquisition. A mature, holistic data management strategy is vital to a strong and solid foundation for your enterprise system architecture. Yet, even deeper lies a foundational component known as master data management (MDM). A well-governed MDM infrastructure and strategy is the bedrock of your IT and business strategy as it drives a single version of the truth better than any other means.
Before we look deeper into MDM, let’s understand what is meant by “a single version of the truth” and why it is significant to the business. Think about your own personal information, and how you like it to be handled when you do business with a company. For example, have you ever experienced the frustration of giving your personal information to one part of a business only to have to give it over and over again as you deal with other departments or even the same department at different times? Ideally, you want the company to get your personal information right the first time and share it automatically with all parts of the business. You should only have to share information once until something changes. In its simplest form, this is the concept of “a single version of the truth.”
