Firms are under increasing pressure to integrate IT and back office quickly post M&A to avoid a string of problems down the road. Jonathan Priestley, general manager, and Eva Mrazikova, accountant and senior director at IRIS Accountancy, explain the priorities to consider
The consolidation wave reshaping UK accountancy is impossible to ignore. ICAEW research shows that within the mid-tier sector, nearly half of firms have completed acquisitions in the past year, while private equity-backed buyers continue to intensify competition for deals.
But many firms still underestimate one of the biggest risks in any deal: technology integration. Firms buy for the client base, revenue and growth potential. Yet their ability to unlock that value often depends on systems and processes that don’t always receive enough attention during the due diligence phase.
Client records, billing structures, workflows and reporting processes are rarely set up in the same way across two businesses. So when firms merge, those differences tend to quickly become deep-rooted operational problems that ripple through the business for months after the deal is done.
