Post-merger IT integration: a comparison of two case studies

This paper contrasts the steps taken in integrating the IT functions of two very similar-sized large Australian financial institutions-namely Suncorp and Promina, following the takeover of Promina by Suncorp in March 2007-with the steps taken in integrating the IT functions of Sallie Mae and USA Group, as documented by Brown et al. (2003). The paper identifies eight similarities and four differences between the approaches taken, with the four differences being very important. The paper concludes that in merging IT functions, the advice of experts on organizational transformation is highly relevant, but that in addition, most key decisions about people, systems, technologies, and their locations, remain very complex and highly situationally dependent.