The diagram on the right illustrates the process by which the technology and IT landscape of the acquired organisation (on the left) is either replaced by, or is absorbed into, that of the acquiring organisation (on the right). At a very generalised level, the landscape is likely to consist of broadly similar components: networks / telephony, core infrastructure, applications and ‘service management’ activities. For each of those elements, there are essentially two options:
- The element of the acquired organisation will either be replaced by the corresponding element of the acquiring (keeping the landscape as simple as possible)
- The ownership and responsibility of the particular component from the acquired organisation is absorbed into the general responsibility of the acquiring organisation.
This latter approach will extend and complicate the overall landscape, and indeed increase the workload of the IT teams, but there may be reasons why this is the right choice. It does, however, mean that any compliance issues related to the retained elements of the acquired organisations IT landscape must be promptly addressed.