In general, mergers and acquisitions are the result of expansion of a new range of services, or entering into new markets. However, during the recent economic recession, enterprises were forced to merge because there was a desperate need to boost revenue and cut costs. While companies usually benefit from these mergers, IT departments within these companies face formidable challenges while trying to integrate individual companies and making them a cohesive and consolidated entity.

1. Dealing With IT Compliance Challenges in Mergers &
Acquisitions
In general, mergers and acquisitions are the result of expansion of a new range of
services, or entering into new markets. However, during the recent economic recession,
enterprises were forced to merge because there was a desperate need to boost revenue
and cut costs. While companies usually benefit from these mergers, IT departments within
these companies face formidable challenges while trying to integrate individual companies
and making them a cohesive and consolidated entity.
Mergers and acquisitions may incapacitate the security of organizations in cases where
disgruntled employees and inconsistent policies add to the prevailing disorder. And one of
the biggest risks in mergers and acquisitions is the messaging system. For example, email
messages are an integral part of every business process, and negligence in using these
electronic messaging systems can cost the company a heavy price exposing it to high
security risks. Therefore it is extremely important to have a well-defined management
process for identifying and providing access to the right users.
While this in itself is an enormous challenge, IT departments also have to ensure that
security and compliance standards are maintained throughout the process of authorization
and control, auditing as well as reporting. Moreover, it is quite possible that the two
individual organizations may have varying business processes, goals, technology
platforms, and organizational culture. Hence, a transparent perspective with regard to
control of the IT environment can help avoid regulatory violations.
However, in order to address all security and compliance related issues, organizations
need to ensure the following:
• Employ solutions that foster communication between different systems and
applications and allow the integration of different frameworks
• Deploy an automated process to handle resources on a centralized platform in a
unified and comprehensive manner. This helps reduce the time and effort wasted
in repetitive tasks
• Use the best IT solution for handling processes and technology efficiently thereby
reducing all wasteful expenditure
• Execute solutions that take care of all governance, risk and compliance needs
and employ best practices for risk assessment and IT risk management
• Use a capable audit tracking system to monitor compliance levels and provide
reports for log analysis on demand.
• Maintain a regular auditing schedule to check for irregularities, and close security
gaps
A successful merger or acquisition would mean bringing together two business units into
one with solutions that integrate people, processes, technology and policies. And only an
efficient compliance solution can enable this. Moreover, compliance management

2. software offers great potential for effective maintenance of compliance with stringent
security regulations, while also empowering organizations with compelling security
metrics. It has distinctive features to foresee vulnerabilities and risks, and to keep
organizations completely secure. With its identity and access management capabilities,
compliance software can also ensure a thorough investigation of protocols.
Read More On:
· Audit Log
· Vendor Management