Yesterday, we looked at how an address book may keep the same info, but stored differently that could have broader implications. Today, its synchronizing the data.

This will be a part history lesson, but you will see the impact come integration time.

In the old days, synchronizing your address book with someone involved letting them look at it and writing the details by hand. Then came the internet of the 90s and everyone’s favorite handheld: the Palm Pilot.

The Palm Pilot demonstrates this concept of an explicit sync. If you remember, you had a cradle that you would plug it into and push a button where the data on the Palm Pilot would sync up with your personal information manager on the computer. If you were one of the lucky ones, you had to dial into the office network or the internet where you would explicitly download/upload your changes. Eventually mobile phones came onto the scene, and had a similar synchronization model between their address book and your desktop environment.

The world changed with the release of Google Android. Here you sign in with your Gmail account, and the world of Google was open to you. Your email and contacts. Everything would magically stay in sync regardless of where you made your changes.

Fast-forward to today, and this is the world we live in and expect things to work. There is a lot of plumbing that happens under the covers to keep this transparently functional.

Scaling up a bit, what does this mean from an acquisition stand point?

Your options are the same as what was outlined above:

  1. Physical copy (think disks on a moving truck)
  2. One-shot data pull
  3. A data synchronization platform

The first option is the only one that doesn’t require special connectivity with the acquired company once the deal is closed since they just send you the physical media and it is up to you to unpack it and install.

The second option is similar to the first, but allows for multiple downloads. Perfect for when the data doesn’t change much, or is only being changed on one side.

The third option maybe required if you need up to the minute data synchronized over and/or need to make changes based on your business to sync back. This is also the most complex of the three options to implement given how many moving parts there are.

If you will be going with the bottom two approaches, they will require a special kind of agreement in place outlining the terms of the access, frequency, and how long the connection will be in place.

This is the Transition Services Agreement, and will be critical to establishing the foundation and rules of engagement for transitioning any applications or data.