If the success rate of an M&A integration is already stacked against you (anywhere between 70 and 90 percent of all M&A fails), then the diligence of your org merge consolidation can help alleviate and improve your chance for success. The business side of integration is monumental, a large potential threat to the viability of the deal and ultimately the productivity of the newly expanded company. You have to both minimize disruption to day-to-day business processes during the transition while also setting up processes for success once fully integrated. It’s a relentless challenge.

To help your newly grown company navigate the business side of synthesizing processes during an org merge, I’d like to share four best practices: process harmonization, data cleansing, documentation of key info, and the transition plan.  

Process Harmonization 

An org merge project is the ideal time to stop and consider key questions: Are there process similarities and commonalities across your distinct business units. Is the operating model for each business unit different? What commonalities do they share? What are the variances? Are the variances significant enough that a single org may not be the best option? Should we keep the orgs different and develop a reporting org that combines data from both instances for analytics and reporting? 

If the answer to these questions supports a single org, business process harmonization can be a method to identify commonalities across business units and stitch varying sales and business processes together. For example, merged companies may have disparate and well-defined sales processes with…

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