Take it from Deloitte: The rate of mergers and acquisitions are on the rise.
The accounting giant recently polled 1,000 executives at corporations and private equity firms about their expectations for deals in the year ahead. A whopping 79% predicted an increase in the number of M&A deals they close in the following 12 months, and a majority said they expect a bump in the total annual dollar value of those deals.
Among the senior ranks of tech decision-makers, deals that create one corporate entity from two or more entail big decisions about technologies on which the new organization will standardize.
They also mark a critical moment for the technology brands that have supported the needs of IT buyers from the respective components of that new entity.
Among the forces driving M&A deals are efficiencies in infrastructure and operations along with a bigger market footprint. That means that the new organization is more than likely to standardize on some technologies at the expense of others.
How do you help your customer champion your solution … Especially if they’re the one being acquired?
As we’ve noted before, IT pros look for advice about purchases from OEMs and VARs they’ve worked with before. And if one team of technologists is in the dominant position when a corporate hookup happens, the other technologists (and their vendors) will have to work twice as hard to sell their solution as the one worth keeping.
Smart marketers can support IT buyers facing a major consolidation by helping them:
Marshal their resources for the move.
Accounting for all the moving parts of the existing IT operation is a prerequisite for a successful integration of data and infrastructure — and accomplishing this task promptly and cleanly may give your buyers a first-mover advantage within the transition team.
An IT checklist for M&A should include:
- Software licenses, carrier contracts and vendor agreements
- All regulatory policies covering the handling of data
- Documentation of network and data infrastructures
- Messaging and other communications platforms
As well as any other documentation that will let the IT team deliver a crisp accounting of what they use and the legal, technological and financial justifications for using it.
Seize the strategic high ground.
What are the strategic business goals behind the deal? Chances are, most of them involve IT.
Streamlining operations; reaching new demographics, verticals and geographies; and integrating supply chains — all require a close read of current technology solutions to identify the best way forward.
Fortune favors technology leaders who get ahead of these strategic concerns, and the brands that help them stay up to speed. Learn what you can about the strategic goals of your buyers’ M&A deals, and provide them with case studies and other insights that help to sell their approach to achieving them.
Think globally and act structurally.
To expand on the geographical goals of M&A strategies: While economic protectionism waxes and wanes in international trend, the meta-trend is toward globalized enterprises that need to support business in myriad locations around the world.
That means constructing a powerful, responsive data and communications infrastructure that also complies with regulations in many different countries.
This is a technology challenge of paramount importance in the 21st century — and IT buyers who can meet it are likeliest to prevail when multiple companies unite into one international entity.
Give your customers tools and insights to go big, and they’re likelier to endure in the new corporate environment — and consider your brand a key agent in their success.
