Once the deal closes, everything has been migrated, and the TSAs are set to expire, you have to cut the cables that bind the two temporary entities. Just like rolling out a new initative, everything has to go in sync and you go at once.

How do you know you got it right and didn’t miss anything?

This is where the end state should have been fleshed out whether after close, or while getting everything lined up prior to the official close date. Where the goals for the acquisition get fleshed out and become the reality that the integration project team works towards.

From the tech side, some of these are already accounted for in the production checklists that are used for on-boarding new technology/applications. Some of this is accounted for in the marketing checklists for kicking off a new branding campaign.

The one key thing to keep in mind is the interdisciplinary nature of not just the integration work, but the final cutover. There are a lot of pieces moving at the same time and all are marching towards a common event. The data for the customers being loaded up, email communications going out, and the final cutover for routing of all traffic to the new site.

Some of this can be accounted for in the test environments, but others can only be done once and live.

When creating your checklists, did you account for each unit that has a part to play in the cutover?

cab