IT STANDARDIZATION AND INTEGRATION IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: A DECISION MODEL FOR THE SELECTION OF APPLICATION

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been an important topic in strategic management for years and have therefore been the subject of comprehensive research work as well. However, the post merger integration seems to be a key factor for the success of the whole deal. One objective of many transactions is the realization of synergy potentials, especially from the consolidation of the information technology (IT). Unfortunately only few research work on IT integration in M&A projects can be found. With this paper, we want to contribute to this topic by focusing on the integration of application systems in merged companies. First of all, we will give an overview of 4 general integration strategies suggested by the literature. Secondly, we will present a decision model for the selection of application systems, which is based on the well-known standardization problem. Afterwards a procedure is being introduced which shows how the decision model can be applied in the context of M&A projects. Keywords: M&A, standardization, integration, decision support. 104