The Importance of IT in M&一个交易

When we talk about mergers and acquisitions, we tend to focus on financials and physical assets. But what about the company’s technology assets—and all that valuable data? What do sellers and buyers need to consider within this critical area? 主人 乔·赫尔曼 dove into this important topic recently with guest Donald Raleigh, on The Transaction Abstract 播客.

Donald Raleigh is a self-described technologist. He is the President and Chief 技术 Officer at 进化系统 并且有一个 广泛的背景 in military intelligence, technology, and cybersecurity for public and private enterprises.

Looking Beyond Financials and Physical Assets 

Has the company you are considering buying or 销售 been properly protected in terms of IT structure and risks? Is everything in place to ensure a smooth, successful transition once a deal is closed? 很多创始人, especially in the middle market, do not have someone that runs the technology part of their business on a day-to-day basis.

随着时间的推移, 罗利说, founders make the best decisions they can about what technology, 笔记本电脑, and specific SaaS (software as a service) services to buy. 然而, the main focus as they are preparing to buy or sell a company should be on performing an IT audit. Leaders should document their physical assets, 他们的数据库, and examine the embedded systems they may take for granted.

例如, antivirus is typically something inbound into your system, so how do you protect the edge points when data is outbound? 

保护需求各不相同

There is tension in the IT world, 罗利指出, between opening things up as much as possible and locking them down so that your proprietary information does not get leaked. An organization’s risk tolerance is a key factor in determining whether on-premise or cloud-based systems are preferable.

If a company has proprietary documents and data and there has been a breach, 律师，以及其他在M上的人&A team will ask what was done to prevent that event. Was the data encrypted, and if so, to what level?

Vulnerabilities are Common

Passwords are a typical weak point. Single sign-on, or signing on via Facebook, or Google increases risk. If you have a master password and it gets compromised, all of your passwords are then compromised. We use our phones to access critical data, another point of potential risk. It is better to use two-factor authentication and passphrases that are not easy to guess. That applies to every employee because you are only as secure as your weakest link.

Important Factors for the M&一个过程

In the area of compliance and regulations, buyers should pay as much attention to the quality of the data and data services within the organization as they do to the quality of the bottom line. One simple example—has the company purchased licenses for Microsoft? Are they all up to date? It is also important to consider the software each company is using for accounting, 字(词)处理技术, 等. What is being done to make sure they are going to be compatible as you assimilate that organization?

Raleigh says IT people need to make sure they are keeping up with the latest threats and mitigating them before ever considering 销售 or buying another company. 你的数据在哪里?? In residence, in transport, in the cloud? And have you ever actually tried to restore backed-up data? If not, you are not protecting all of your end-point edge points.

Get Your CTO Involved Right Away

技术 and data security should not be after-thoughts, and a successful transaction will depend on close communication and collaboration throughout. So Raleigh advises getting your CTO onboard with the M&A team right from the start. 这种方式, they can work directly with their counterpart to ensure smooth integration that does not result in gaps or redundancies.