13 deep dives · 11 short answers · 7 chapters · newest October 27, 2026
The decisions
What a PE Deal Partner Decides in a PMI, and How to Judge It
The integration decisions that belong to the deal partner, and how to tell if they are being made.
The checklist
Post-Merger Integration Checklist for Revenue, Data and Customer Systems
The charter, the Day 1 controls and the systems work, as a checklist.
Who to hire
How to Hire and Judge a Post-Merger Integration Consultant When You’re Backing the Deal
What to ask an integration consultant before the work starts.
The first 100 days after close
Integration planning belongs in diligence. The questions that decide integration cost (which systems survive, which customers need a call on day one, which people the business cannot lose) are cheapest to answer before close, and a plan that starts on day one is worth weeks against one that starts in month two.
Terms used in this guide
Post-merger integration (PMI): the work of combining an acquired company with the buyer, planned before close and run in phases from Day 1.
Integration charter: the operating agreement for the integration: scope, decision rights, cadence, synergy targets and escalation.
Day 1: the first day of combined ownership, when control of cash, systems and customer contact changes hands.
Transition services agreement (TSA): the contract under which a seller keeps running systems and services for a carved-out business for a fixed period.
Cost and revenue synergies: savings from combining the two companies, and new revenue from selling across them; the second is slower and less certain.
Platform and add-on: the first company a sponsor buys in a sector, and the smaller companies it then acquires and folds in.
The phases most integrations run through
- Before close: an integration charter with scope, decision rights, governance cadence, synergy targets and the escalation path.
- Day 1: access to every critical system, the controls that keep cash, customers and payroll running, and a communication plan for staff and customers.
- Days 1 to 30: baselines for every synergy line and a register of what must not change yet.
- Days 30 to 100: the workstreams running against checkpoint gates, so the first board meeting reviews progress against the model.
Deep dives in this chapter
- Merger Integration Planning: The Decisions a PE Deal Partner OwnsMost integration plans I have reviewed fail before the first 100 days start. Not because the operating team is weak, and not because the synergy model…
- Carve-Out Separation: The Commercial and Systems Plan for Standing Up on Day 1A carve-out separation plan starts with an inventory of what the division uses versus what it owns: the CRM, ERP, billing, analytics, website and domains that…
Systems, data and customer integration
Most of the integration work that touches revenue sits in systems: one CRM, one martech stack and one web platform, with customer history and attribution carried across and the duplicate spend removed. The order matters, because a CRM migration done before the data is reconciled moves the problem instead of fixing it.
Deep dives in this chapter
- What IT Integration Decides in an M&A DealMost IT integration failures in mid-market deals are not technical failures. They are underwriting failures. The diligence team priced a thesis that assumed two companies could…
- Post-Merger Integration Checklist for Revenue, Data and Customer SystemsA post-merger integration checklist for the commercial side runs in this order: an integration charter with scope and decision rights, Day 1 controls, customer and pipeline…
Buy-and-build and add-ons
A platform that adds companies needs a repeatable way to absorb them: a screen that kills poor-fit targets before diligence money is spent, and an integration playbook that gets faster and cheaper with each add-on. Each acquired brand arrives with its own CRM, website, phone numbers and listings, and folding them in without losing search traffic and leads is most of the commercial work.
Deep dives in this chapter
- CRM Consolidation After an Add-On: The Revenue Decision Deal Partners Keep Getting WrongThe first casualty of a botched CRM consolidation is not the software. It is the forecast. When you fold an add-on's revenue system into the platform's,…
- Add-On Sourcing Screen: A Repeatable Filter for Bolt-On Targets That FitYou have a platform, a thesis, and a mandate to grow through add-ons. What you probably lack is a consistent filter. Most operating partners I work…
- Buy-and-Build Integration: A Commercial Operating Model for Add-On AcquisitionsYour platform just closed its third add-on in eighteen months. The deal team is already sourcing number four. Meanwhile, the finance director is reconciling three different…
Carve-outs
A carve-out has a clock: the transition services agreement. Revenue that looks standalone on the P&L often depends on systems, data and processes the parent still owns, so the separation plan has to inventory what the division uses against what it owns, build what must be standalone by Day 1, and contract the rest, including data extraction, before close.
Deep dives in this chapter
- Why carve-out consulting requires embedded capacity during transition windowsCarve-outs fail in the window between the separation blueprint and its execution, so carve-out consulting needs people who stay to do the work: migrate systems and…
Synergies and the integration case
Cost synergies can be checked against a contract or a headcount roster; revenue synergies need market evidence and arrive later. Tracking them separately, each with a baseline, an owner and a leading indicator, keeps the board report honest about which part of the case is proven.
Deep dives in this chapter
- Synergy Validation and Tracking: Proving the Numbers in the Model Are RealThree months after close, the CFO asks a simple question: "Which synergies have we actually captured?" The room goes quiet. The investment memo promised $4.2 million…
Integration consultants and who to hire
Integration work is bought in two shapes: a consultant who plans and coordinates, and an embedded team that also executes the systems work. Before hiring either, ask who owns each workstream after the engagement ends, how progress will be reported to the sponsor, and what happens to the plan when the integration hits the first add-on.
If you are scoping the integration of one add-on, send a short note with the target and the timeline.
Deep dives in this chapter
- How to Judge M&A Consulting Firms When You Are the One Underwriting the DealThe wrong M&A consulting firm does not just waste a fee. It anchors your investment committee to a diligence read that the business cannot support, and…
- How to Hire and Judge a Post-Merger Integration Consultant When You’re Backing the DealWhen to bring in a post-merger integration consultant, the four kinds of PMI help, what each costs, and the scorecard and questions to judge one.
- What M&A Integration Consulting Buys a PE Deal PartnerM&A integration consulting is worth its fee only when it moves the numbers the deal was underwritten on: cross-sell revenue, procurement savings, a consolidated technology stack…
Integration decisions
The decisions that shape an integration are few and early: what to integrate and what to leave alone, how fast, who decides, and how success will be measured. The deep dives below cover how a deal partner makes and checks them.
Deep dives in this chapter
- What a PE Deal Partner Decides in a PMI, and How to Judge ItBring a PMI expert in before the deal closes, while the data room can still show whether the synergy case holds, so the first 100 days…
4 short answers on this
- The Biggest M&A Risk Isn’t Customer Concentration. It’s Institutional Knowledge Walking Out the Door.
- Why M&A Became Private Equity’s Top Value Creation Lever-and Its Biggest Execution Challenge
- Late-May M&A Signals: What Stricter Private Equity Underwriting Means for the Mid-Market
- Why High-Quality Integrations Require More Than Financial Engineering
Common questions
What is post-merger integration?
The work of combining an acquired company with the buyer: people, customers, systems, finance and operations, planned before close and run in phases from Day 1.
When should integration planning start?
In diligence. The questions that decide integration cost are cheapest to answer before close, so the plan can start on day one.
What should a Day 1 plan cover?
Access to critical systems, the controls that keep cash, customers and payroll running, decision rights, and communication to staff and customers.
How do you track synergies?
Each synergy line gets a baseline, an owner and a leading indicator, with cost and revenue synergies reported separately because they are proven on different evidence.
What is a transition services agreement?
The contract under which a seller keeps running systems and services for a carved-out business for a fixed period after close, while it builds its own.
Every article in this guide
The first 100 days after close
Systems, data and customer integration
Buy-and-build and add-ons
Carve-outs
Synergies and the integration case
Integration consultants and who to hire
Integration decisions
4 short answers on this
- The Biggest M&A Risk Isn’t Customer Concentration. It’s Institutional Knowledge Walking Out the Door.
- Why M&A Became Private Equity’s Top Value Creation Lever-and Its Biggest Execution Challenge
- Late-May M&A Signals: What Stricter Private Equity Underwriting Means for the Mid-Market
- Why High-Quality Integrations Require More Than Financial Engineering
Related guides
Start a conversation
Bring the asset, the deal stage and the decision in front of you
A short note is the fastest way to a useful first call. Sponsors, operating partners and leadership teams of $30M to $500M companies.