Think of a vendor company as of a butler or a housekeeper. They spend years keeping the household running, know all the nooks and crannies in the house, the staff, and how to manage them. Same with vendors: they know the project like no one else. Their expertise can be pivotal for the acquisition’s success, and that’s why it is sensible to think twice before replacing the vendor with a new team.
In this article, we discuss the tasks that acquirers face at post-acquisition stage, how keeping vendors gives you a competitive edge, and share advice from our experience.
What is the post-acquisition life of the project?
After one company has bought another, a post-acquisition process begins. During this stage, the acquirer (you?) has a lot on their plate.
What are the main tasks of the post-acquisition stage?
- Assessing resources, processes, and products
- Integrating processes, resources, and projects
- Rebuilding the company’s structure
The vendor of the acquired company’s product can play a key role in accomplishing these tasks.
Why saving a vendor is a wise choice
- Establish processes quickly. An experienced vendor can give you a hand with that, as they know how to navigate the project waters.
- Save the knowledge. Over the time that the vendor spends working on a project, their team learns a lot about the product and uses the acquired information to make the best decisions possible.
- Keep pace. A new team will have to spend much time getting into the project details, while they could have been releasing new product versions instead.
- Integrate platforms successfully. If you’re lucky to have a team that has been working on a platform for quite a while and knows it to the detail, including its weak spots, it’s a win. By keeping such a vendor, you’ll be able to speed up the workflow and avoid the possible pitfalls.
- Keep cybersecurity intact. It’s imperative that your vendor takes the service or product security seriously. Moreover, your vendor should ensure multi-level protection during the development process and at all levels in their organization. If the vendor provides according to your standards, keep it and avoid a security gap which otherwise would have happened during a transition.
The result of the acquisition should be mainly success and increasing profits. From what we mention above, you can see that the acquired company is more likely to go through this difficult period quickly and easily if the vendor (a qualified, experienced and reliable one) is not rejected at this stage.
As a vendor, below, we share some additional advice with acquirers.