The 90-Day Post-Acquisition IT Integration Roadmap for PE Firms

The Value Leakage Crisis: Why "Slow and Steady" Kills Returns

You didn't buy a company; you bought a data set, a customer list, and a liability. In the current vintage, where holding periods have stubbornly settled near 6 years, the old playbook of "integrate slowly" is a death sentence for IRR. The math is brutal: traditional integration strategies yield failure rates between 66% and 75%.

The root cause isn't cultural mismatch; it's technical paralysis. While operating partners obsess over org charts, the IT estate is bleeding value. Research confirms that over 50% of total deal synergies are directly dependent on technology integration—yet most firms treat IT as a back-office utility rather than a value driver. If you miss the IT integration window, you miss the margin expansion.

The Hidden Cyber Tax

Beyond value destruction, there is existential risk. The moment a deal is announced, the target asset becomes a beacon for threat actors. Data shows a 400% increase in phishing attempts on acquired companies in the months following a deal announcement. If your 90-day plan doesn't prioritize immediate cyber-containment, you are effectively underwriting a breach that will wipe out your first year of EBITDA gains.

The 90-Day Sprint: A Methodology for Clean Assets

Stop planning for a "perfect" integration in Year 2. Execute a "functional" integration in Quarter 1. The goal is not IT utopia; it is a unified P&L and a secure perimeter.

Days 1-30: Stabilize and Secure (The "Kill Switch" Phase)

Your first move is defensive. Do not touch the ERP yet. Focus entirely on Identity and Access Management (IAM) and perimeter defense.

• Unified IAM: Force all users into a single identity provider (Okta/Azure AD) within 3 weeks. If you can't revoke access centrally, you don't own the company.
• Cyber Triage: Conduct a compromise assessment immediately. 53% of M&A professionals encounter major cybersecurity issues that threaten the deal post-close. Find them before they find you.

Days 31-60: Rationalize (The Cost-Out Phase)

Now, attack the redundant spend. This is where you capture the "low hanging fruit" to fund the rest of the roadmap.

• Contract Consolidation: Audit all SaaS and vendor contracts. Target a 15-20% cost reduction by merging licenses (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) and eliminating shadow IT.
• Infrastructure Triage: Identify the "Technical Debt Anchors"—legacy on-prem servers that prevent cloud agility. Mark them for decommission or lift-and-shift.

Days 61-90: Value Acceleration (The Data Phase)

By month three, the focus shifts to revenue visibility. You need a single source of truth for the Board deck.

• Data Unification: Do not attempt a full data warehouse build. Instead, use a lightweight bi-modal IT approach to pipe financial and sales data from the target's systems into the parent's BI dashboards. Speed to insight > architectural perfection.

The Clean Asset Mandate

Portfolio Paul, your exit narrative starts on Day 91. A "clean asset" in 2026 is defined by three metrics: unified data visibility, zero high-severity vulnerabilities, and a single operational cost structure. If you are still running parallel ERPs in Year 2, you are paying a "complexity tax" that will degrade your exit multiple.

Immediate Action Items

• Audit the Audit: If your due diligence didn't include a code-level cyber scan, do it today.
• Appoint an Integration Lead: Do not let the target's CTO run the integration. They are emotionally attached to the legacy systems. Insert a neutral interim leader focused on speed.
• Set the Synergy Floor: Mandate that IT cost synergies must cover the integration budget. If the integration isn't self-funding by Month 6, the plan is wrong.

Speed is the only currency that matters in the first quarter. Imperfect action beats perfect planning every time.