The situation
The organisation had gone through a step change in scale following the bolt-on of a new business unit. Growth by acquisition compresses years of change into months, and IT rarely gets a vote in the timing.
The existing IT support arrangements were unable to cope with the additional demand for service, and the infrastructure could not scale to meet the requirements of the larger business. What had been adequate for the organisation before the acquisition was now failing the organisation it had become.
Why independent advice mattered
In the aftermath of an acquisition, the loudest voices about IT’s future are usually the incumbent support provider, who wants to keep the account, and the acquired unit’s providers, who want to expand into it. Neither is a neutral source of advice about what the merged organisation actually needs.
Our independence let the organisation size its support arrangements and infrastructure against its real, post-acquisition requirements, with no provider’s commercial interest shaping the answer.
What we did
The engagement worked from the new reality of the merged organisation, not the arrangements it had inherited.
Assessed support arrangements against the new demand
We reviewed the existing IT support arrangements against the service demand of the enlarged organisation, establishing objectively where and why they were failing.
Reviewed infrastructure scalability
We assessed the infrastructure estate against the scale the business now operated at, identifying what could grow with the organisation and what could not.
Defined the merged organisation’s requirements
We established what the combined business actually requires from IT, rather than treating the acquired unit as an add-on to the old arrangements.
Built the scaling plan
We set out a practical plan for scaling support arrangements and infrastructure to the organisation’s new size, sequenced to relieve the worst pressure first.
The outcome
- An objective view of why the existing support arrangements could not cope with post-acquisition demand
- A clear assessment of which infrastructure could scale with the business and which could not
- A practical, sequenced plan for scaling IT to the organisation’s new size
Instead of enduring the failing arrangements or defaulting to whatever its providers proposed, the organisation had an independent, requirements-based path to an IT environment sized for the business it had become.
Has an acquisition outgrown your IT?
If service demand jumped overnight and your support arrangements and infrastructure did not, an independent review will show you exactly where the gaps are.
No pitch, no sales process. Just a senior view.
