Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of IT specialists in systems integration during M&A processes including the issues faced during the process and provide suggestions based on experience from top management staff and IT specialists about improving the merger-IT integration process. Methods: In-depth interviews with open-ended questions were conducted on ten individuals belonging to the senior management of the companies under the study. The collected data were transcribed and analyzed and coded using qualitative thematic analysis to derive categories and themes. Results: The analysis resulted in 5 themes and 14 categories from a total of 39 codes. The analysis revealed the implications of "Underestimating the importance of IT" and analyzed the "Preferred IT integration approach" methods followed by the participants. The coded data also revealed the "Perception of management toward including IT and IT experts" and the “Issues faced in the M&A process due to the delay/non-involvement of IT experts". The results of the analysis conclude with the "Perceptions of managers toward the timing of IT integration" and suggestions from the participants based on their experiences. Conclusion: The five themes obtained from the qualitative thematic analysis from the interviews of ten participants suggest that IT and IT specialists were a necessary and core function of the M&A process. The analysis also recommends senior management responsible for the merger or acquisition engage IT, specialists, during the early stages of the process to enable better IT integration and follow a centralized approach towards merging the IT systems.

Company transactions are increasing in number and value and is a method used for external growth. The increase in mergers and acquisitions can mainly be seen during the last decades and is now a common strategy on both a national and international level. However, most transactions experience problems with fulfilling the perceived value and synergies. Furthermore, digitalisation has created a higher dependency of companies on various IT systems, and rapid technological advancement has made the processes and theories regarding IT integration outdated. Thus, there is limited research on the relationship between IT systems and company integration and integration performance. The study aims to explore IT systems integration in the context of company transactions as well as attempts to identify key factors that influence integration performance. To explore the field, an embedded multiple-case study was conducted with a company performing international company transactions. The empirical study can be divided into three parts. First, initial interviews to probe the subject and gather information to create a holistic view of the problem. Second, gathering qualitative and quantitative data on the cases and conducting in-depth interviews. Third, the main study and exploration of the cases and collected data. Additionally, a literature review was conducted to create the theoretical foundation for the analysis and to complement the primary data. The thesis found that an objective method to measure performance is needed since the general view of the integration is not necessarily representative of the actual performance. The factors that influence performance were identified as of both strategic and organisational nature, where strategy and processes are important early on to create a common view of the project. People change management and active involvement from both parties are essential during the integration. The thesis contributes to the research field by exploration of the gap between theories regarding mergers and IT integration as well as by suggesting a nuanced view of the current approach to strategic alignment. Furthermore, the study builds on the general theory of measurement of integration performance by suggesting a metric to measure the performance of IT integration projects.

Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Information Systems (IS) as an integrated technology has been introduced recently to facilitate the demanding operational and financial environment of the enterprises. The implementation process and the adoption of such systems is considered as a significant parameter influencing the success of operational performance and financial governance and could support the competitive advantage practices within the organisations. However, GRC literature is limited regarding the analysis of the implementation and adoption success. Therefore, there is a need for further research and contribution about these systems and more specifically their implementation process. Consequently, this investigation and analysis can provide an insight of this process by examining the aspects of the implementation, the lifecycle phases followed and the enterprise value drivers in each of these phases. Therefore, a framework was developed for structuring the analysis of this implementation including all these three elements as these were provided by the theoretic background. The empirical context of this research includes three field investigation studies based on the experience of key implementation stakeholder groups as participants. These investigation studies were analysed using thematic techniques following an interpretative qualitative analysis approach. It was proved that organisations have, directly or indirectly, followed specific lifecycle phases when they implement GRC systems as these are also described in the framework. Also they should consider specific aspects about the GRC systems and enterprise value drivers for the different lifecycle phases but also for a holistic approach of the implementation process. Hence new GRC implementation projects can use the phases and the analysis of these elements to facilitate and ease their decision-making and strategic planning before launching the implementation project. The analysis of the GRC implementation proved that a strict GRC environment can be established in the organisations through the successful implementation of a GRC technology. The implementation process of such technologies would require a preparation for the organisational environment in order the implementation project to succeed the GRC goals and the system to be integrated and optimised harmoniously within the enterprise environment. This study provides insight of how this implementation projects could be planned and developed and gives a directive blueprint for preparing organisations hosting such technological initiatives. The results of all field investigation phases, which can be considered as the contributions to theory and practice of this research, can have twofold implications: initially the development of a theoretical framework based on enterprise systems theories, and also an analysis of the GRC implementation process in specific. The framework is designed to structure the analysis of the GRC implementation aspects, the lifecycle phases and the enterprise value drivers of the GRC implementation process. This framework is used for visualising and structuring a specific analysis of the GRC adoption and success, and therefore this analysis can be used by practitioners and researchers to further evaluate and analyse this process. Furthermore, organisations can use this analysis for decision-making processes; as this analysis can provide a primary view for the implementation projects.

<p>Date June 12, 2008</p><p>Program IT Management</p><p>Authors Jessica Jarrell, 820506.</p><p>Västerås</p><p>Rais Iqbal, 791229.</p><p>Västerås</p><p>Supervisor Ole Liljefors</p><p>Title Business-to-Business IT Integration</p><p>Introduction</p><p>As business world has moved into digital era, new trends in business models have been emerged to do business. Digital infrastructure provided by internet enables enterprises to extend their boundaries for new customer and trading partners. Extending the enterprise without a solid IT infrastructure is incomplete, this is the reasons that enterprises are investing more and more in IT to build an IT integrated infrastructure where all its trading partners are linked together. On the other hand, technological world provides solutions and services to build IT integration for such extended enterprises. A wide variety of IT integration solutions and patterns available for enterprise to meet their integration goals, but this often brings unclear situation where companies have to think a lot before implementing IT integration patterns. A slight mistake in this scenario could shake the equilibrium between IT and business, to keep the equilibrium steady companies need to thoroughly examine their short-term and long-term goals and then different integration patterns can be employed to meet these goals.</p><p>Research Question</p><p>What approaches can be helpful for companies to accomplish successful business-to-business IT integration pattern for their short-term and long-term goals?</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe the concept of extended enterprises and, identify and describe the existing B2B IT integration approaches employed by extended enterprises.</p><p>Method</p><p>The research is of qualitative type and secondary data is used to conduct this research. Books and research papers has been used to construct theoretical framework. Electronic databases available at library of Mälardalen University such as Google scholar, Emerald and interlibrary network of Sweden (Libris) are used to search for secondary data.</p><p>Analysis Findings from the detailed literature study are analyzed to answer the research question. Integration patterns are analyzed described by the different authors of integrations patterns in three different ways. Firstly, integration patterns were analyzed in term of their advantages and disadvantages with technology and business, secondly, maturity of these integration patterns are analyzed and finally these integration patterns are analyzed for company’s short-term and long-term goals.</p><p>Conclusion Business process oriented and method-oriented approaches are good for long-term goals due to handling of business process management in both approaches and reusability aspects of method oriented approach. For short-term goals portal-oriented approach dominating in the integration community, application interface oriented approach is also good to meet the short-term goals. However, combinations of different approaches are found feasible.</p>

The integration of divergent cultures is crucial in maintaining the performance of a merged organization. Prior studies on IT culture in IS departments are mainly on corporate culture and lack of in-depth study. Recently, a practical survey shows that post-merger IT integration is always treated as a technology transformation perspective. To support business strategy, IT architecture, processes and skills should be effectively redesigned after the merger. However, conflicts may emerge within the merged departments due to different cultures and incompatible IT configurations. This dissertation proposed a novel analysis framework based on IT culture conflict perspective and strategic alignment model. We selected three financial holding companies in Taiwan as post-merger cases. They conducted IT integration projects while facing conflicts due to differences in IT culture related to organizational size, IT integration strategies, and characteristics with respect to government-owned versus private banks. Through multiple case study with data analysis based on grounded theory, we have identified three types of IT culture conflict that occurred in IT integration, examined their major effects on IT integration, and discussed how to resolve IT culture conflicts in post-merger IT integration. Propositions are derived to conclude the findings from these cases, which can be validated through empirical studies in future studies.

Supply chain management plays an important role in contemporary enterprises and its operations include materials procurement, manufacturing, logistics, sales and service. Good supply chain management relies on information technologies that facilitate the sharing of process and production-related information. Hence, information technology plays a key role in supply chain management. In order for information sharing to be effective, standardizationand integration are important. The purpose of this study is to examine how standardization and integration of information technologies in a supply chain may affect its performance. Four dimensions of information technology standardization and integration are defined: business process, data, technology infrastructure, and application system. We also include supply chain capability as a mediating variable. This study used questionnaire to collection date, and used SmartPLS and SPSS to analyze data. The results indicate that: (1) IT standardization has significant influences on supply chain capability, but IT integration does not; (2) supply chain capability has significant positive impacts on supply chain performance; and (3) IT standardization and IT integration do not have direct influences on supply chain performance.

“All marriages are happy. It’s the living together afterwards that causes all the trouble.” - Raymond Hull, Canadian Playwright. Although Mergers and Acquisitions are common, no merger is termed as successful until post merger integration is successful. During M&A, two companies that function uniquely are fused together, and the Information Technology group is expected to consolidate two different systems efficiently. This integration should be well-executed, and without any disruption to business or customers. Every merger is different, and can have innumerable reasons for failure, ranging from poor implementation strategies to cultural or attitudinal problems. One of the reasons, many Post-Merger Integration activities fail, is due to the Information Technology complexity and inadequacy to address the issues, it brings to the table. This thesis aims at studying the importance of post-merger Information Technology (IT) integration and developing an IT strategy for the integration. There are no scientific guidelines laid out for a post-merger IT integration and each company employs its own methods. Hence the author has researched and developed a post-merger IT integration framework that can give definitive approach and assist in seamless integration. This framework includes practices that can be followed for a smooth IT transition and checklist to ensure successful integration. Lastly the author presents two cases of M&A that illustrate the importance of IT integration, namely, Sallie Mae- USA Group and HP-Compaq. Sallie Mae & USA Group was a huge success due to its successful IT integration implementation while HP-Compaq merger was a disappointment for the lack of understanding the importance of IT integration. From these two cases, the author has also derived the usefulness of the proposed framework. Author has also presented another case of Oracle-Sun merger, which does an analysis of the IT integration carried out by the two companies. It would not be unwise to say, that IT plays an ever increasing pervasive role in today’s organizations, hence a successful merger demands successful IT integration. / text

Date June 12, 2008 Program IT Management Authors Jessica Jarrell, 820506. Västerås Rais Iqbal, 791229. Västerås Supervisor Ole Liljefors Title Business-to-Business IT Integration Introduction As business world has moved into digital era, new trends in business models have been emerged to do business. Digital infrastructure provided by internet enables enterprises to extend their boundaries for new customer and trading partners. Extending the enterprise without a solid IT infrastructure is incomplete, this is the reasons that enterprises are investing more and more in IT to build an IT integrated infrastructure where all its trading partners are linked together. On the other hand, technological world provides solutions and services to build IT integration for such extended enterprises. A wide variety of IT integration solutions and patterns available for enterprise to meet their integration goals, but this often brings unclear situation where companies have to think a lot before implementing IT integration patterns. A slight mistake in this scenario could shake the equilibrium between IT and business, to keep the equilibrium steady companies need to thoroughly examine their short-term and long-term goals and then different integration patterns can be employed to meet these goals. Research Question What approaches can be helpful for companies to accomplish successful business-to-business IT integration pattern for their short-term and long-term goals? Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to describe the concept of extended enterprises and, identify and describe the existing B2B IT integration approaches employed by extended enterprises. Method The research is of qualitative type and secondary data is used to conduct this research. Books and research papers has been used to construct theoretical framework. Electronic databases available at library of Mälardalen University such as Google scholar, Emerald and interlibrary network of Sweden (Libris) are used to search for secondary data. Analysis Findings from the detailed literature study are analyzed to answer the research question. Integration patterns are analyzed described by the different authors of integrations patterns in three different ways. Firstly, integration patterns were analyzed in term of their advantages and disadvantages with technology and business, secondly, maturity of these integration patterns are analyzed and finally these integration patterns are analyzed for company’s short-term and long-term goals. Conclusion Business process oriented and method-oriented approaches are good for long-term goals due to handling of business process management in both approaches and reusability aspects of method oriented approach. For short-term goals portal-oriented approach dominating in the integration community, application interface oriented approach is also good to meet the short-term goals. However, combinations of different approaches are found feasible.

Abstrakt SME-företag inom tillverkning kommer under 2000-talet möta oförutsägbara, högfrekventa marknadsförändringar på grund av global konkurrens. Den fjärde industriella revolutionen (samlingsterm för nya intelligenta digitala teknologier i tillverknings- och industriprocesser) gör att nya utmaningar måste mötas som inte bara fokuserar på förbättrade tillverkningsprocesser men också ställer krav på en digital transformation. Dessutom behöver den hållbara utveckling av samhället beaktas som alltmer blir en naturlig del i interna prestationsmätningar hos företag. En strategi för att hålla sig konkurrenskraftiga och möta ekologiska hållbarhetskrav är att tillverkningsföretag integrerar produktionsfilosofin Lean med sitt affärssystem. Vissa forskare hävdar att affärssystem i kombination med att arbeta enligt Lean kan komplettera varandra medan andra hävdar att de är direkt motsägelsefulla. Det finns tidigare forskning om Lean, dock finns oklarheter i forskning kring att integrera Lean med affärssystem vilket skapar ett behov av ny forskning inom området. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur affärssystem stödjer SME-företag inom tillverkning att arbeta enligt Lean samt vilka implikationer som kan uppstå med följande frågeställning; “Hur stödjer affärssystem SME-företag inom tillverkning att arbeta enligt Lean?”. Studien har utgått utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsansats med induktiv riktning. Som intervjumetod har semistrukturerade intervjuer används i syfte att skapa ökad förståelse för hur företag använder affärssystem för att arbeta Lean. Studiens slutsats indikerar fem olika områden där affärssystem kan verka stödjande i att arbeta enligt Lean. Dessa är IT-integration och realtidsinformation, lagerhantering och minskad överproduktion, processoptimering och synkronisering, Hållbarhet och dokumentation samt realtidsbeslut och optimerad logistik. Studien kan användas av tillverkningsföretag inom segmentet SME som vill öka sina insikter kring hur ett affärssystem kan stödja arbete enligt Lean. Nyckelord: Lean, affärssystem, IT-integration, realtidsinformation, pull-produktion, push-produktion, SME, processoptimering, hållbar utveckling, överproduktion. / Abstract In the 21st century, manufacturing SMEs will face unpredictable, high-frequency market changes due to global competition. The fourth industrial revolution (collective term for new intelligent digital technologies in manufacturing and industrial processes) means that new challenges must be met which not only focus on improved manufacturing proceses but also demand a digital transformation. In addition, the sustainable development of society needs to be considered, which is increasingly becoming a natural part of internal performance measurements at companies. One strategy to stay competitive and meet ecological sustainability requirements is for manufacturing companies to integrate the Lean production philosophy with their ERP-system. Some researchers argue that ERP-systems in combination with working Lean can complement each other, while others argue that they are directly contradictory. There is previous research on Lean, however, there are ambiguities in research about integrating Lean with ERP-systems, which creates a need for new research in the area.  The study aims to investigate how ERP-systems support SME companies in manufacturing to work according to Lean and what implications may arise with the following question: “How do ERP-systems support manufacturing SMEs to work according to Lean?”.  The study has been based on a qualitative research approach with inductive direction. As an interview method, semi-structured interviews have been used with the aim of creating a greater understanding of how companies use ERP-systems to work Lean. The study indicates five different areas where ERP-systems can be supportive in working according to Lean. These are IT-integration and real-time information, Inventory management and reduced overproduction, Process optimization and synchronization, Sustainability, environmental goals and documentations as well as real-time decisions and efficient logistics. The study can be used by manufacturing companies in the SME segment who want to increase their insights into how an ERP-system can support work according to Lean. Keywords: Lean, ERP-systems, IT integration, real-time information, pull production, push production, SME, process optimization, sustainable development, overproduction.

本研究主要探討金融機構合併的資訊架構整併策略.藉由國內大型金融機構的合併個案來了解主併公司所採用的合併策略,過程與影響。 經過文獻討論與個案分析，有八點發現: 1. 以資訊整併策略角度來看，個案中的資訊整併模式是整體接收(Take Over)。 2. 以歷史角度來看，此次金融合併案的成功因素之一來自於併購集團累積多次的成功的合併經驗與總部的大力支持。 3. 從組織架構來看，被併購集團擁有功能完整的資訊組織架構與嚴謹的專案執行規劃，是本此合併成功的第二要素。 4. 在專案時間掌握上來看，遇到重大問題與障礙時，專案經理需要能克服困難完成任務，減少專案時間耽誤造成企業損失。 5. 從人力資源的角度來看，專案經理需要能在有效地預算掌控下，當地尋找支援人力，減少專案開銷。 6. 專案過程的溝通協調方面，資訊部門需要能與程式使用者之間良好的溝通協調，資訊單位可即刻反映使用者需求，達到快速反饋的目的。 7. 由綜效結果的分析來觀察，由併購銀行公布99年年報中所揭露之財務報表、信用評等與社會評價皆呈現正向成長。內部人員對併購銀行資訊技術處服務滿意度有高達八成滿意度維持併購前資訊服務水準。 8. 法律、政治因素影響與合併後併購銀行IT策略方面來看，新的個人資料保護法的通過，造成整體合併綜效、與合併後資訊策略的改變。 關鍵字: 資訊技術,資訊整併策略,企業併購 / The objective of this study is to understand the strategy, process and impacts of information technology (IT) infrastructure integration in a mergers and acquisitions project in a financial institution. Based on literature review and an in-depth case study there are eight findings: 1. In view of the information integration strategy, the applied model of IT integration was a “Take Over” strategy. 2. From a historical perspective, one of the success factors of the merger was enterprise’s accumulated experience of mergers and strong support from headquarters. 3. From an organizational point of view, the acquiring group has both a full-featured information organizational structure and rigorous plan of project execution, which was one of the important elements of the success of this merger. 4. Regarding the project management, the major challenge of the project manager is to overcome problems and obstacles to complete the tasks on time and on budget. 5. From the perspective of human resources, the effective utilization of local support are the key to budget control. 6. From the communication and coordination aspects of the project, rapid feedback and good communication between staffs in the information sector and business users could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the project execution. 7. By analyzing the results of the merger, the credit ratings and social evaluation in the acquiring bank revealed a positive growth. Internal user survey of the post-merger has shown a satisfaction rate of 80% which remained the same comparing to the figure of pre-merger. 8. From a legal and political point of view, the new Personal Data Protection Law has become a major concern for overall information strategy making after the merger. Key Word: Information Technology Infrastructure, IT Integration Strategies, Mergers and Acquisitions