/ Insights / View Recording: ABCs of M&A Technology Integration Insights View Recording: ABCs of M&A Technology Integration November 12, 2024Join Concurrency for a high-impact workshop on mastering the ABCs of M&A. Prepare your business with essential strategies and the latest technological tools to excel in today’s dynamic M&A environment. Our expert panel will guide you through each critical phase—from due diligence to post-merger integration—emphasizing how advanced technology can streamline processes and maximize value.This special session features Ed Kopp from Rockwell Automation, who will share his insights into the M&A process, providing real-world strategies that work.Key takeaways include:Accelerated Integration: Learn methods to fast-track your M&A integration, achieving swift value realization while preserving operational quality.Seamless Transition: Discover how to incorporate new systems smoothly without disrupting ongoing production, ensuring continuous business operations during transitions.Technology Modernization: Understand how to leverage cutting-edge tools and platforms to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.Operational Efficiencies: Gain insights into optimizing workflows and driving sustainable growth through innovative technology.This webinar is perfect for organizations preparing for future acquisitions and divestitures, or seeking to improve their current M&A strategies. Don’t miss this opportunity to craft a strategic playbook that enhances continuity, security, and long-term value. Transcription Collapsed Transcription Expanded Nathan Lasnoski Welcome everybody. 0:0:16.422 –> 0:0:17.902 Nathan Lasnoski My name is Nathalie. 0:0:17.902 –> 0:0:19.302 Nathan Lasnoski It’s very nice to meet you. 0:0:19.582 –> 0:0:35.222 Nathan Lasnoski Welcome to our session on learning to love mergers and acquisitions and how to succeed. We are gonna have really great time talking about the different aspects of M and A whether you’re spinning off the company, you’re acquiring a company or you’re acquiring a lot of companies you need. 0:0:35.222 –> 0:0:40.782 Nathan Lasnoski To create a playbook, we’re gonna be digging into how to do that well and sharing best practices from. 0:0:41.592 –> 0:0:43.592 Nathan Lasnoski Other organizations and how they’ve seen success. 0:0:44.592 –> 0:0:50.512 Nathan Lasnoski To introduce our team today that’s on the call. First, I’ll start with myself. My name’s Naples, nosky. 0:0:50.512 –> 0:1:9.592 Nathan Lasnoski I’m concurrency chief technology officer. I’ve been working with mergers and acquisitions for man probably 20 years now, ranging from many, many 10s of thousands of users moved in a merger or a spin off, or companies that are very small and they’re just bringing in 10/25/50. 0:1:9.592 –> 0:1:14.472 Nathan Lasnoski Users and it’s a kind of incremental innovate incremental adoption of of what they have in their. 0:1:14.752 –> 0:1:19.72 Nathan Lasnoski So lots of ranges of experiences looking forward to sharing those with you today. 0:1:19.672 –> 0:1:32.872 Nathan Lasnoski I’ve placed my QR code on the screen, so if you wanna connect to me on LinkedIn I would love to be in your circle of friends and learning from and sharing that knowledge with you as we come along. 0:1:33.202 –> 0:1:50.392 Nathan Lasnoski We’re pretty active in the the community around technology, so would love to have you be able to receive that content if you’re interested in other kind of line content, whether it’s mergers and acquisitions or what’s happening in Microsoft Ignite next week or artificial intelligence, make sure to follow. 0:1:50.402 –> 0:2:2.642 Nathan Lasnoski My newsletter that has a lot of weekly content on that type of topic, but then I’d love to introduce also Ed Kopp. Ed is from Rockwell Automation. Ed, why don’t you? 0:2:3.242 –> 0:2:3.922 Nathan Lasnoski Introduce yourself. 0:2:3.922 –> 0:2:9.522 Nathan Lasnoski Just talk a little bit about your background and what you do at Rockwell and give us a little bit of who you are. 0:2:10.862 –> 0:2:12.182 Edward Kopp Thanks for the intro, Nate. 0:2:12.182 –> 0:2:25.102 Edward Kopp My name is Ed Kopp. As Nate said, I am the technical lead for our end user experience at Rockwell Automation, specifically focusing on our collaboration space and what that means is that the tools that. 0:2:26.672 –> 0:2:34.712 Edward Kopp Our our team members at Rockwell use for communicating, collaborating, working together more effectively that falls into our teams space. 0:2:34.712 –> 0:2:41.392 Edward Kopp So that’s a lot of the Microsoft 365 tool set, leaving out things like dynamics, but kind of all the collaboration stuff. 0:2:42.592 –> 0:2:58.552 Edward Kopp Our phones or video conference equipment is are are the things that our team supports and as we’ll talk about going ahead here like Nate, I don’t have you know, quite the 20 years of M and a experience. But we found ourselves recently. 0:3:0.112 –> 0:3:11.272 Edward Kopp In in a situation where we had to go through this journey of doing these, repeat M and as and we can talk about what was our approach and how it changed. 0:3:11.932 –> 0:3:22.852 Edward Kopp And changed, you know, pretty dramatically beginning in 2021 and then kind of the the effort that we did with concurrency 2022 forward and really had a successful program. 0:3:24.392 –> 0:3:31.352 Edward Kopp Bringing a lot of of companies into the fold in a short period of time, so looking forward to talking about that with you. 0:3:32.902 –> 0:3:33.582 Nathan Lasnoski Awesome. Thank you, Ed. 0:3:33.582 –> 0:3:39.22 Nathan Lasnoski And then the last person to introduce on this this conversation today is Kurt Spitzner. 0:3:39.22 –> 0:3:50.622 Nathan Lasnoski I don’t have his his intro QR code up there, but Kurt is a delivery director for concurrency that spends most of his time helping companies with succeeding at these kinds of efforts. I don’t. 0:3:50.752 –> 0:3:52.912 Nathan Lasnoski You wanna just give a little bit of your background? 0:3:52.912 –> 0:3:57.632 Nathan Lasnoski What are the kinds of things that you spend time doing when we’re going through mergers and acquisitions projects? 0:3:58.92 –> 0:3:58.892 Kurt Spitzner Yeah, for sure. 0:3:58.892 –> 0:4:0.772 Kurt Spitzner Thanks for for having me, Nathan. 0:4:0.772 –> 0:4:2.292 Kurt Spitzner It’s a it’s a great topic. 0:4:2.452 –> 0:4:3.692 Kurt Spitzner I’m curt spitzner. 0:4:4.52 –> 0:4:21.792 Kurt Spitzner Been involved in M and a projects and delivering them to customers like like AD here at concurrency for the past seven years and have about 20 years of experience managing different teams and B2B and IT operations in a variety of different industries. Our our role is. 0:4:21.792 –> 0:4:27.692 Kurt Spitzner Ultimately, to partner with customers like Ed to get the job done, whether that is bringing two companies together. 0:4:28.322 –> 0:4:40.962 Kurt Spitzner We’re carving out a company and ultimately making sure it’s as seamless of a exercise and keeping people working and doing their job through these sometimes challenging technology transitions. Is the name of the game. 0:4:42.422 –> 0:4:44.942 Nathan Lasnoski Awesome. Thanks, Kurt. OK. 0:4:44.982 –> 0:4:47.862 Nathan Lasnoski So what are we gonna do in the next hour? 0:4:48.222 –> 0:4:51.302 Nathan Lasnoski First, we’re gonna frame up mergers and acquisitions. 0:4:51.302 –> 0:4:54.662 Nathan Lasnoski Many of you probably already have some background of what this means. 0:4:54.662 –> 0:4:57.62 Nathan Lasnoski Maybe some of you have never been through one before. 0:4:57.62 –> 0:5:1.502 Nathan Lasnoski You’re not sure what to expect, or you have one coming up and you’re not sure what to do with it. 0:5:1.742 –> 0:5:4.22 Nathan Lasnoski We wanna frame up what these look like. 0:5:4.22 –> 0:5:10.142 Nathan Lasnoski What are the characteristics of different modes of going through an M and A and what do you need to think about as you’re you’re getting started with it? 0:5:10.942 –> 0:5:13.942 Nathan Lasnoski 2nd is we will talk about operating principles and tools. 0:5:14.982 –> 0:5:20.262 Nathan Lasnoski Best practices that we’ve seen around navigating the M and a process. 0:5:21.822 –> 0:5:25.222 Nathan Lasnoski What principles should you have in place that help define success? 0:5:25.462 –> 0:5:36.902 Nathan Lasnoski And especially we’re gonna spend some time on the kinds of projects that Rockwell went through that Ed was beating and the ways that he organized those teams to be successful in what you can learn from it. 0:5:36.942 –> 0:5:43.22 Nathan Lasnoski And then finally, we’re gonna talk a little bit about how you get organized in your organization to be able to. 0:5:44.322 –> 0:5:51.762 Nathan Lasnoski Drive actual progress and whether you’re spinning off a company or you’re you’re acquiring a whole bunch of companies. You’re doing a major merger. 0:5:51.762 –> 0:5:56.882 Nathan Lasnoski We want you to be able to get organized and see success now throughout this. 0:5:56.962 –> 0:6:10.322 Nathan Lasnoski I would love for you all to use liberal use of the chat, so with us having the opportunity to have Ed on this call, this is a huge blessing for us to be able to have him be able to be on the meeting, be able to answer quest. 0:6:10.482 –> 0:6:12.642 Nathan Lasnoski I don’t want this just to be us speaking to you. 0:6:13.382 –> 0:6:16.142 Nathan Lasnoski We love for you to be able to ask your questions that you have to Ed. 0:6:16.912 –> 0:6:22.552 Nathan Lasnoski And if it’s content that we’re already answering in this cool, if it’s something that he can answer off the cuff. 0:6:22.552 –> 0:6:36.742 Nathan Lasnoski Or we can answer off the cuff. We would love for you to ask those questions. So you leave this session with the the knowledge that you’re hoping to leave with, so please take advantage of that. We will be monitoring and responding to those chats as we go along. 0:6:38.302 –> 0:6:38.462 Nathan Lasnoski OK. 0:6:38.542 –> 0:6:47.902 Nathan Lasnoski So let’s start with a little bit of Rockwell Automation story and I’d love for you to walk through like holy cow. Like, that is a lot of acquisitions. 0:6:48.22 –> 0:6:51.782 Nathan Lasnoski Just talk through a little bit about a, like, reintroduce Rockwell to everyone. 0:6:52.392 –> 0:7:4.792 Nathan Lasnoski I’m sure most companies are in the manufacturing space, especially have had some background on a Rockwell, but especially with you going through a whole series of acquisitions, I mean you look a lot differently even now than you did 2-3 years ago. 0:7:5.152 –> 0:7:12.992 Nathan Lasnoski Reintroduce them and then talk through a little bit about the nature of maybe not every one of these companies, but kind of talk through the nature of the acquisition stories. 0:7:13.952 –> 0:7:31.592 Edward Kopp Yeah, I talk about the overall theme to to what you see here. And you’re right, there’s a long list and I’ll I’ll start by saying, you know, historically well, Rockwell is kind of a serial acquirer of companies. And historically we have taken a laissez faire approach to our. 0:7:31.592 –> 0:7:39.712 Edward Kopp Merchant acquisitions and what I mean by that, not in a in a derogatory sense, but essentially we require companies and we acquire them for a specific reason. 0:7:39.712 –> 0:7:43.272 Edward Kopp They, you know, add something to our portfolio, et cetera and. 0:7:43.832 –> 0:8:0.432 Edward Kopp They they have a purpose to, you know, meet a financial target to, to Rockwell to, you know, add or augment to our business. And they have, they have targets to meet as part of the M and A and the laissez faire part was we did not want back. 0:8:0.432 –> 0:8:4.192 Edward Kopp Office operations to interrupt, interfere, etcetera with. 0:8:5.752 –> 0:8:15.632 Edward Kopp That acquisitions objective of you know adding value to Rockwall Automation which you know often is you know of a very aggressive. 0:8:16.222 –> 0:8:29.702 Edward Kopp Target and that changed with the acquisition of Plex in 2021, where Plex was Rockwell’s largest acquisition to date and it was the first time I’ve been with Rockwell for 12 years. 0:8:29.982 –> 0:8:42.942 Edward Kopp It’s the first time that I can recall where a an acquisition had leadership teams from the from the acquired company take executive leadership positions within Rockwell and that really changed the game for us because. 0:8:43.752 –> 0:8:46.832 Edward Kopp We had now executive vice presidents. 0:8:47.322 –> 0:8:49.722 Edward Kopp Within Rockwell, that would say. 0:8:51.272 –> 0:8:52.792 Edward Kopp Why do I have to you know? 0:8:54.472 –> 0:8:57.72 Edward Kopp E-mail systems, calendars. You know SharePoint et cetera. 0:8:57.432 –> 0:8:58.592 Edward Kopp This is driving me nuts. 0:8:58.632 –> 0:9:12.632 Edward Kopp You know, we’ve got a, a, A leader from Plex who is communicating with part of their team in the Plex environment. And their Rockwall team in the Rockwell Environment. And they’re not talking and and they said, why can’t we? 0:9:14.312 –> 0:9:19.792 Edward Kopp Announce the acquisition and then just move forward quickly. And so that was passed along to our CIO who came to us and said. 0:9:20.332 –> 0:9:26.52 Edward Kopp And why do we, you know, not have a playbook. And so we talked about it and we said, well, we can. 0:9:26.52 –> 0:9:26.852 Edward Kopp We went through the history. 0:9:26.852 –> 0:9:27.812 Edward Kopp Why don’t we do that? 0:9:29.352 –> 0:9:31.112 Edward Kopp Instead, it’s just. It’s a different mindset. 0:9:31.352 –> 0:9:35.952 Edward Kopp And so that started our journey of, hey, we need to have a playbook. 0:9:36.432 –> 0:9:49.272 Edward Kopp And so when we announced these acquisitions, we need to put them on a track that says we’re going to get you from your current state into the Rockwall environment. But being mindful of, we don’t want to be disruptive. 0:9:50.482 –> 0:10:4.402 Edward Kopp We need to get you functioning in the Rockwall environment and not disrupt all the value creation that you’re expected to produce for the organization. So in so doing that, you know we Rockwell, you know works with. 0:10:6.312 –> 0:10:17.272 Edward Kopp Major consulting companies you know during the M and a process, you know, they consult on all aspects of the of the acquisition and you know and and these companies have a major framework. 0:10:18.152 –> 0:10:19.512 Edward Kopp But what? We asked. 0:10:19.512 –> 0:10:25.832 Edward Kopp For what we found with concurrency is we wanna something really much more prescriptive about, you know, we wanna. 0:10:26.352 –> 0:10:31.192 Edward Kopp Repetitive playbook that we could take through these various companies. 0:10:31.192 –> 0:10:35.72 Edward Kopp So you see plaques and fix and cubic and Swinton, et cetera. You know up the line. 0:10:35.72 –> 0:10:52.592 Edward Kopp So you know, we talked with you know, Nate and the concurrency team about what we were trying to do and it was very important for us early on to say we need a process that we can lay out for the for the acquired target team, you know bring. 0:10:52.592 –> 0:10:55.592 Edward Kopp Them into the fold. Explain to them how we are going to do the. 0:10:56.592 –> 0:10:59.72 Edward Kopp Here’s how we’re gonna do the assessment. 0:10:59.72 –> 0:11:3.232 Edward Kopp Here’s how we’re going to evaluate the content project out. 0:11:4.72 –> 0:11:9.152 Edward Kopp What the effort is going to entail, here’s how we’re going to step through. 0:11:10.912 –> 0:11:26.992 Edward Kopp Test migration, pre migration, migration waves and do the the organizational change management. Put that all together as a package and lead with that to give the the acquired company some confidence that yes, there there is a process. 0:11:27.652 –> 0:11:32.932 Edward Kopp And if they put their their faith and their stock into it, you know, we’ll have a successful journey. 0:11:33.12 –> 0:11:43.132 Edward Kopp So that’s the the goal that we set out at the outset. We had a really great team in partnership with with the folks at concurrency. 0:11:44.92 –> 0:11:45.692 Edward Kopp And really had. 0:11:47.252 –> 0:12:2.852 Edward Kopp This string of successes and learnings along the way, but it’s all about, you know, getting a good plan in place and sort of getting behind the the overall approach and and believing in, you know, these deals overall objectives and framework that we’ll talk about. 0:12:3.52 –> 0:12:13.172 Edward Kopp So that’s my my overall summary to kind of the pivot that we did in creating this repeatable process that that we use, you know to this day for, for. 0:12:13.742 –> 0:12:15.302 Edward Kopp Bringing acquired companies into the fold. 0:12:17.22 –> 0:12:18.462 Nathan Lasnoski What a great summary, Ed. 0:12:20.172 –> 0:12:33.292 Nathan Lasnoski How much did the like time pressure bake into this? You know, like has each of those companies got acquired and maybe even the first couple and there was like almost like an internal deadline to get people collaborating? 0:12:33.332 –> 0:12:34.292 Nathan Lasnoski How much did that? 0:12:34.292 –> 0:12:38.492 Nathan Lasnoski Sort of add exasperation to the desire to get this repeatable for you. 0:12:39.402 –> 0:12:40.402 Edward Kopp Yeah. So. 0:12:42.52 –> 0:12:47.492 Edward Kopp The the pressure was kind of twofold and the the mitigation I’ll talk about in a moment. 0:12:47.492 –> 0:12:55.412 Edward Kopp So what was interesting about this is that there is this question that will that will come up this question or this belief. 0:12:55.412 –> 0:13:8.852 Edward Kopp So your executive leadership may have experience from other organizations and they’ll say you should be able to do this in 90 days or you should be able to do this in whatever, and especially if you haven’t gone through this, or if that has not been your practice you. 0:13:8.852 –> 0:13:10.612 Edward Kopp Know and you know that you’re. 0:13:11.152 –> 0:13:12.712 Edward Kopp Leadership has some experience. 0:13:12.752 –> 0:13:16.952 Edward Kopp You know you don’t know anything about their playbook that they used before or what their approach was. 0:13:17.472 –> 0:13:19.872 Edward Kopp And they’re just expecting. Well, I did it before. 0:13:19.872 –> 0:13:21.72 Edward Kopp You should be able to do the same. 0:13:21.112 –> 0:13:23.392 Edward Kopp You don’t know if you’re comparing apples to oranges. 0:13:23.512 –> 0:13:35.232 Edward Kopp That part, you know, is a little bit of a stressor and you know a little bit anxiety producing as I talked about, you know, at the outset we, you know work with these. 0:13:36.532 –> 0:13:41.172 Edward Kopp Major consultancies, you know, the consult on all aspects of the MNA and what was interesting. 0:13:41.172 –> 0:13:45.612 Edward Kopp You know I won’t name names, but you know there’s, you know, programs and we’ll talk about. OK, for this. 0:13:45.612 –> 0:13:47.452 Edward Kopp You know, we want to engage in this. 0:13:48.102 –> 0:13:59.222 Edward Kopp You know, eight week discovery in this, you know this long process et cetera, which was really sort of counter to what the leadership team was asking, which was OK. 0:13:59.502 –> 0:14:2.942 Edward Kopp But I wanna know now you know what is, you know the time frame. 0:14:4.492 –> 0:14:9.892 Edward Kopp And how we approach that, Nate with your team is to lay out, OK. 0:14:9.892 –> 0:14:20.852 Edward Kopp What does like a sample migration look like? We envision for ourselves. What are the things that we know we have to touch base on. So you know we know that we have to do. 0:14:21.942 –> 0:14:22.742 Edward Kopp A mail migration. 0:14:22.742 –> 0:14:24.182 Edward Kopp We know we have to do mail forwarding. 0:14:24.182 –> 0:14:43.492 Edward Kopp We know we have to address calendars, shared content. We know we have to go through organizational change management. And so we created this plan and then you know took the organization through that. The first ones, you know there it was a bit of building our own confidence and. 0:14:43.822 –> 0:14:45.742 Edward Kopp Here’s where having a partner that has. 0:14:46.652 –> 0:14:51.212 Edward Kopp Some experience, but also kind of the the willingness to talk kind of hands on. 0:14:51.962 –> 0:14:54.722 Edward Kopp Details which I will stress is really, really important. 0:14:55.562 –> 0:15:4.962 Edward Kopp You know, sometimes, you know, talking with and again, I don’t mean to pick on these larger consultancies, but sometimes talking with organizations will still they’ll talk in generalities. 0:15:4.962 –> 0:15:8.282 Edward Kopp Hey I want this, you know, big, long discovery et cetera, which I don’t. 0:15:8.282 –> 0:15:11.2 Edward Kopp Don’t dismiss their they are very important. 0:15:11.42 –> 0:15:14.802 Edward Kopp But you ultimately you want to get invested in. 0:15:14.842 –> 0:15:16.282 Edward Kopp Do I understand the plan? 0:15:16.282 –> 0:15:19.842 Edward Kopp Do I understand the details and the mechanics because? 0:15:20.692 –> 0:15:21.732 Edward Kopp Invariably. 0:15:22.392 –> 0:15:25.192 Edward Kopp You know you you have to have confident in your own capabilities. 0:15:25.232 –> 0:15:27.192 Edward Kopp You know we we understand. 0:15:27.192 –> 0:15:31.792 Edward Kopp You know how to do mailbox moves, et cetera, even if we haven’t done it, you know at this scale. 0:15:31.912 –> 0:15:44.632 Edward Kopp But we understand the concept and process and does the plan make sense in a way that I can explain it to others and you know that I can, you know, explain a plan and commit to a plan to our leadership team. 0:15:44.632 –> 0:15:48.152 Edward Kopp So kind of a long winded answer to you know, the stressors were. 0:15:50.332 –> 0:15:51.412 Edward Kopp You know high. 0:15:53.172 –> 0:15:55.332 Edward Kopp And for us, the way to address that was to say, OK. 0:15:55.332 –> 0:15:56.812 Edward Kopp Here’s the approach that we are going to take. 0:15:57.742 –> 0:15:59.942 Edward Kopp And invariably, you know don’t. 0:16:1.492 –> 0:16:3.52 Edward Kopp Discount or rule out is to say OK. 0:16:3.52 –> 0:16:18.332 Edward Kopp You can do this in 90 days, but let’s talk about the change management that is required to go through that. And that’s important because just doing the technical change without, you know, having a plan for, here’s how we’re going to touch the people, bring them you know on. 0:16:18.332 –> 0:16:21.252 Edward Kopp Board make sure that they have a good user experience. 0:16:21.412 –> 0:16:23.412 Edward Kopp Communicate with them throughout. 0:16:23.412 –> 0:16:26.372 Edward Kopp Set up hyper care for them during the. 0:16:27.212 –> 0:16:27.772 Edward Kopp The migration is. 0:16:28.302 –> 0:16:37.382 Edward Kopp Critically important, because if I just move the mailboxes and say call my service desk if something happens, that leads to a very, very frustrating experience. 0:16:37.382 –> 0:16:38.342 Edward Kopp We didn’t do that. 0:16:38.342 –> 0:16:46.22 Edward Kopp But you can imagine if you just sort of, you know, leave somebody to, hey, I can’t get my e-mail and I got a ticket in, they’re going to call me back in a day. 0:16:46.22 –> 0:16:47.662 Edward Kopp You know that will never fly. 0:16:47.662 –> 0:16:53.22 Edward Kopp So the way to address that is to really lead with, OK. 0:16:53.812 –> 0:16:54.612 Edward Kopp Here’s our plan. 0:16:56.212 –> 0:16:56.412 Edward Kopp Here’s. 0:16:58.172 –> 0:17:0.212 Edward Kopp What a, you know, a standard migration should look like. 0:17:0.212 –> 0:17:2.732 Edward Kopp Here’s the steps, and here’s what we have to do to get started. 0:17:3.832 –> 0:17:8.632 Edward Kopp And so and you can start these things in parallel, here’s what we need to do on the change management front. 0:17:8.632 –> 0:17:11.752 Edward Kopp Here’s what we have to do on the you know, the technical planning front. 0:17:11.872 –> 0:17:12.552 Edward Kopp I have to get in. 0:17:12.552 –> 0:17:17.992 Edward Kopp I have to assess the environment and you can be doing all of these things and showing that you’re working your plan. 0:17:19.772 –> 0:17:22.332 Edward Kopp You’re you’re getting the data that you need and. 0:17:24.12 –> 0:17:25.132 Edward Kopp You’re planning for the migration. 0:17:25.292 –> 0:17:33.252 Edward Kopp You’re hitting the milestones that that you talked about in the plan that that buys you credibility in order to, you know continue. 0:17:34.332 –> 0:17:35.92 Edward Kopp Ultimately what? 0:17:35.92 –> 0:17:42.452 Edward Kopp The organization wants is, hey, I’ve I’m going to get to the place that I need and I have confidence in the team that’s running this. 0:17:44.782 –> 0:17:49.542 Nathan Lasnoski All said and thanks for starting. Go into some of the things that powered success. 0:17:50.142 –> 0:18:3.742 Nathan Lasnoski Anything you already touched on a couple of these understanding of the timeline setting expectations maybe get on a couple of these other other aspects of what made your migration successful? 0:18:3.742 –> 0:18:6.662 Nathan Lasnoski What are the kinds of things that you had to be thinking about in advance? 0:18:7.532 –> 0:18:11.252 Edward Kopp Yeah. So and and thanks. I I did do a little bit of a preview of this. 0:18:11.332 –> 0:18:28.692 Edward Kopp So let’s just, you know, talk about the the main themes here, the clear understanding of the end game, you know, is really important because that’s your communication to your executive leadership and it’s important, you know, I said at the beginning, making sure that that you understand, you know. 0:18:28.692 –> 0:18:36.132 Edward Kopp And are you sort of deeply entrenched in the plan and and you have, you know, command all over all the mechanics which have multiple threads to it? 0:18:36.132 –> 0:18:37.492 Edward Kopp So this the the technical. 0:18:37.652 –> 0:18:42.212 Edward Kopp Logical thread the change management thread, the communications, etc. 0:18:44.52 –> 0:18:55.572 Edward Kopp And the overall goal, it’s important to, you know, to have that at the outset also to to, you know, be aware and to be able to communicate. You know, this is what’s staying the same. 0:18:55.572 –> 0:19:8.132 Edward Kopp This is what is changing and especially where you have things you know that that where there is a change or where you’re going to have to do something differently, you know whether that’s a, a temporary change or a pivot. 0:19:9.52 –> 0:19:24.612 Edward Kopp It’s important to communicate those at the outset, and that’s where, you know, having your your contacts in the acquisition company that are working on your behalf as champions and that can that can share that message are super important. 0:19:26.652 –> 0:19:30.252 Edward Kopp To be able to say, hey, this is going to be different, but this is how it’s going to work for you. 0:19:31.932 –> 0:19:38.172 Edward Kopp What you don’t want to have is, you know, folks who say, you know, I you didn’t communicate that to me. 0:19:38.172 –> 0:19:39.412 Edward Kopp I didn’t understand that. 0:19:39.412 –> 0:19:41.212 Edward Kopp Et cetera. You know, let’s. 0:19:41.902 –> 0:19:47.662 Edward Kopp Where we’ve got instances where we’re gonna need you to take an action, we’re gonna need you to do something different. 0:19:47.822 –> 0:19:54.582 Edward Kopp Let’s talk about that and and and give them a a communication. You know, give them a work plan. 0:19:54.582 –> 0:19:56.302 Edward Kopp Here’s how you’re going to get through that. 0:19:57.22 –> 0:19:58.222 Edward Kopp We have anticipated. 0:19:58.222 –> 0:19:58.662 Edward Kopp You know what? 0:19:58.662 –> 0:20:5.502 Edward Kopp Your hurdles are going to be, and we’ve got a plan to get you through that. So that is taking that. 0:20:5.502 –> 0:20:8.462 Edward Kopp Here’s my what I want out of the integration which is. 0:20:9.252 –> 0:20:13.852 Edward Kopp Minimal disruption. Bringing them into the fold, allowing them to continue to work and create the value. 0:20:15.62 –> 0:20:16.982 Edward Kopp And have them be part of the organization. 0:20:18.532 –> 0:20:31.252 Edward Kopp And then you know, understanding what that means from from a a change management perspective in terms of the the middle pieces like understanding the tooling and then creating the the timeline. 0:20:33.12 –> 0:20:43.892 Edward Kopp Of you know, here’s just a plug for, you know, we we had a lot of success with our concurrency team. I will say I get a lot of value out of having technical experts. You know who really understand. 0:20:44.492 –> 0:20:56.92 Edward Kopp You know the mechanics because you’ll be in in the depths of this and you know your team has a good understanding of, you know, what’s happening in my M365 environment. But you know, maybe you don’t have so much experience on, you know, what does it? 0:20:56.92 –> 0:21:8.612 Edward Kopp Take to assess a Google environment which we’ve got a couple of those or you know what do I do with the, you know, the discovery and the migration planning and having the ability to take you know in our case you know our. 0:21:9.532 –> 0:21:14.892 Edward Kopp You know our SharePoint engineer and you know our exchange engineers and partner with our. 0:21:15.382 –> 0:21:16.422 Edward Kopp Our consulting team. 0:21:16.422 –> 0:21:19.302 Edward Kopp You know the good folks at concurrency and say OK. 0:21:19.302 –> 0:21:23.742 Edward Kopp Here’s how we’re going to to create that plan and step through. 0:21:25.292 –> 0:21:26.732 Edward Kopp The details of that work plan. 0:21:28.452 –> 0:21:30.332 Edward Kopp That is, is really important. 0:21:30.332 –> 0:21:34.452 Edward Kopp Do take the time to understand what are the capabilities of the tools. 0:21:36.172 –> 0:21:44.852 Edward Kopp Over the course of time we have used, we have used a number of different tools and so you know the one that we use most recently. 0:21:45.892 –> 0:21:46.692 Edward Kopp Is quest. 0:21:46.782 –> 0:21:47.902 Edward Kopp Very, very good tool. 0:21:48.502 –> 0:22:3.542 Edward Kopp You know Sharegate is out there, bit tighten and they’re all capable and it’s just it’s important to understand to take the time to understand a bit about you know how the tool works. 0:22:5.52 –> 0:22:5.372 Edward Kopp Just to. 0:22:7.52 –> 0:22:13.412 Edward Kopp To know your your expectations and limitations, and so those can be baked into your work plan. 0:22:13.412 –> 0:22:19.252 Edward Kopp And again, it’s we had a lot of success because we had, you know, knowledgeable experts. 0:22:21.32 –> 0:22:24.632 Edward Kopp That concurrency provided you know that could take us through. 0:22:24.632 –> 0:22:25.992 Edward Kopp Here’s how. 0:22:25.992 –> 0:22:32.952 Edward Kopp Here’s how those two worked, and that is ultimately what we baked into our playbook so that we could create this repeatable process. 0:22:35.152 –> 0:22:47.552 Nathan Lasnoski Yeah, I felt like from project one to like Project 6, there is a much clearer understanding of the relationship to the tooling and the roles. 0:22:47.552 –> 0:22:49.992 Nathan Lasnoski Like who is doing what and the skills. 0:22:51.572 –> 0:22:54.12 Nathan Lasnoski On your team to perform more actions. 0:22:54.172 –> 0:23:1.172 Nathan Lasnoski I thought that that that was like a really great, like just seeing it. OK, first project, they’re learning second project. They’re learning more. 0:23:1.212 –> 0:23:3.372 Nathan Lasnoski 3rd project, they’re starting to do it themselves. 0:23:3.372 –> 0:23:6.612 Nathan Lasnoski They know the tooling and so on, and I thought that was really. 0:23:7.522 –> 0:23:19.522 Nathan Lasnoski A really great sort of expression of this taking hold like it’s one thing to write it down. It’s another thing to have a team start to participate and learn and do and then gain confidence in it. 0:23:20.592 –> 0:23:31.512 Edward Kopp Yeah, certainly going back to our our, the the start of this where we as serial acquires in a needed to to build up some of this capability. 0:23:31.992 –> 0:23:38.232 Edward Kopp It was very nice to to partnership partner with the concurrency team and as Nathan said, you know we. 0:23:40.92 –> 0:23:43.852 Edward Kopp In in talking with a team, you know, we recognize that. 0:23:43.852 –> 0:23:50.692 Edward Kopp You know, there’s a great deal of expertise here and you know, we talked about at the outset that we wanted to build this, you know, capability. 0:23:52.452 –> 0:23:53.332 Edward Kopp So that we could. 0:23:54.852 –> 0:23:56.132 Edward Kopp Create this reviewable process. 0:23:57.852 –> 0:23:59.732 Edward Kopp You, as you do more of these, you do. 0:24:0.412 –> 0:24:1.212 Edward Kopp You know you. 0:24:1.212 –> 0:24:2.892 Edward Kopp You have this learning curve effect. 0:24:2.892 –> 0:24:3.732 Edward Kopp You do get more. 0:24:5.612 –> 0:24:22.412 Edward Kopp Effective at this just organization overall, so your your Coms team you know already has prebuilt content et cetera that that you can reuse and even if you’re not serial acquirers, you know that type of you know having that that playbook and those tools. 0:24:23.712 –> 0:24:27.72 Edward Kopp You know, gives you the opportunity to to leverage that content. 0:24:28.612 –> 0:24:35.252 Edward Kopp And as I said, it’s it was important for us to to really, you know, understand. 0:24:36.932 –> 0:24:44.532 Edward Kopp Those toolings those those tools so that we could, you know, learn and and do more. 0:24:46.292 –> 0:24:51.372 Edward Kopp And and that was a really, really good partnership that we had with with concurrency through this journey. 0:24:55.72 –> 0:24:55.912 Nathan Lasnoski Some thanks, Ed. 0:24:57.452 –> 0:25:14.12 Nathan Lasnoski So I thought we maybe transition into talking about what are the types of mergers and acquisitions that a company needs to be familiar with. And Kurt, maybe you’re probably the best person to talk about just given there’s a broad sense of these, maybe just walk us through what. 0:25:14.12 –> 0:25:22.972 Nathan Lasnoski Are the predominant mergers and acquisitions that a company will potentially go through and what are some of the things that they may be thinking about as they? 0:25:23.812 –> 0:25:25.972 Nathan Lasnoski Hit each of these different types of M and a scenarios. 0:25:26.992 –> 0:25:36.472 Kurt Spitzner Absolutely. And again thanks, Ed for the, you know the story of how this is played out at Rockwell, because I think it helps make it real. 0:25:38.12 –> 0:25:57.892 Kurt Spitzner And there’s obviously in that mode a Rockwell, a large organization bringing organizations into the larger Rockwell organization has been, you know, our pattern there. But you’re at concurrency. One of the things that Ed spoke about is our willingness to engage at the technical depth. 0:25:58.132 –> 0:25:59.812 Kurt Spitzner But then also to apply that technology. 0:26:0.702 –> 0:26:19.862 Kurt Spitzner To the type of M and a that the organization is going into, and we’ve had a great opportunity already last few years, especially to really get comfortable and get good at solving what is fundamentally a business problem with an often overlooked technology underpinning in these four speak to. 0:26:19.862 –> 0:26:25.382 Kurt Spitzner The I guess the the common scenarios there are some others and we’ve seen some some variations of others. 0:26:25.382 –> 0:26:26.782 Kurt Spitzner But the the 1st is. 0:26:27.572 –> 0:26:27.612 Kurt Spitzner A. 0:26:27.612 –> 0:26:31.212 Kurt Spitzner Divestiture a spin Co where you have one organization that becomes too. 0:26:31.892 –> 0:26:35.572 Kurt Spitzner Distinct things in those scenarios. 0:26:37.132 –> 0:26:54.772 Kurt Spitzner You’re really dealing with two new organizations that want to do things their own way, and in doing that it can look a lot like our work and we do this as well, establishing kind of a Greenfield IT environment and organization from from the ground up, the one bull. 0:26:55.132 –> 0:27:0.812 Kurt Spitzner That I would call out specifically here when you encounter these really understanding data. 0:27:1.852 –> 0:27:22.12 Kurt Spitzner Which organization is going to leave the event with which pieces of data and is there anything that in certain cases there might be something that both organizations gets but evaluating that data estate becomes really, really critical in working through it? The end users, the server infrastructure, the network? 0:27:22.12 –> 0:27:31.412 Kurt Spitzner Itself, you do need to look at that, but the data ends up being really the trickiest part of the equation, and where you need to spend some time looking at it and looking at some of the tools. 0:27:31.662 –> 0:27:32.742 Kurt Spitzner That that play out. 0:27:34.292 –> 0:27:37.932 Kurt Spitzner The 2nd and this is a similar. 0:27:40.172 –> 0:28:1.972 Kurt Spitzner Scenario to the divestiture, but in a carve out you really have, you know, part of the organizations just going to take the technology with it and and it’s in scenarios where that organization might be operating as a distinct business unit unto itself. And it’s it’s bringing that port. 0:28:2.132 –> 0:28:2.412 Kurt Spitzner Out. 0:28:2.912 –> 0:28:16.492 Kurt Spitzner The trick there again is if there’s commingling of data that can come into play. The other thing that we call out here, and this is just maybe one of the tips and I think Ed has done a good job of this at Rockwell. Some of our other custom. 0:28:16.552 –> 0:28:32.192 Kurt Spitzner Have as well carve outs are a great opportunity for some house cleaning, if you will in it from an it standpoint of the projects that you just haven’t had a chance to, you know it would be nice for instance to maybe take a look at our. 0:28:33.162 –> 0:28:40.42 Kurt Spitzner SharePoint Environment is one that commonly comes up with and do some some culling of some data that nobody needs anymore. 0:28:40.242 –> 0:28:43.602 Kurt Spitzner Carve outs are a great opportunity to do that. 0:28:43.602 –> 0:28:49.682 Kurt Spitzner Migrate only the data you need in those scenarios and use it as a bit of a house cleaning. 0:28:49.682 –> 0:28:51.762 Kurt Spitzner Maybe it’s some taking a look at some policy. 0:28:51.762 –> 0:28:58.642 Kurt Spitzner Maybe it’s a look at, you know, just a business process or an application that is redundant that. 0:28:59.452 –> 0:29:3.852 Kurt Spitzner You can consolidate at that point, but carve outs really is a a great opportunity. 0:29:4.302 –> 0:29:6.742 Kurt Spitzner For optimization, and sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. 0:29:6.742 –> 0:29:9.582 Kurt Spitzner Sometimes it’s just like, let’s just move this piece and get out. 0:29:10.62 –> 0:29:17.902 Kurt Spitzner But it can be a great opportunity for quick and easy optimization. Just because you have a smaller problem to solve in those scenarios. 0:29:19.452 –> 0:29:23.852 Kurt Spitzner Full company acquisition, you know in this type of of scenario. 0:29:25.532 –> 0:29:41.812 Kurt Spitzner Similar to the the merger of equals over on the other side, but that full company acquisition is you’re just buying everything and it is coming into your organization and you need it to, you know to really acclimat to what your way of doing things. 0:29:43.22 –> 0:29:57.222 Kurt Spitzner A lot of what Ed and the Rockwell team have done would fall under this category of you’re. You’re bringing it in and it’s really you’re trying to get things to operate as close to the the original organization as possible. 0:29:58.932 –> 0:30:10.132 Kurt Spitzner The the second bullet here. You know the current challenges remain, but you want to make sure that you’re not really disrupting things at all. 0:30:10.132 –> 0:30:13.532 Kurt Spitzner That becomes the challenge, and that’s where some of the planning that Ed spoke to. 0:30:14.192 –> 0:30:28.992 Kurt Spitzner Is really, really critical. And then the final one, the merger of equals, these are fairly rare these days where you really have two companies coming together and you really need to to put put things together in a way that makes sense. 0:30:28.992 –> 0:30:44.152 Kurt Spitzner This is where there’s going to be a lot of compromise, probably the highest level of of planning to figure out what decisions you’re going to make that house cleaning that I talked about earlier. It’s almost required in these in these types of situations, but there’s going. 0:30:44.332 –> 0:31:0.772 Kurt Spitzner It’s some debate over which way of doing things is the best, and that’s where when we find ourselves in these positions, we can end up being an arbitrator, somebody who can make a somewhat agnostic decision for the best of the whole in the best of bringing our techn. 0:31:1.332 –> 0:31:4.12 Kurt Spitzner And organizational expertise to the forefront. 0:31:4.12 –> 0:31:11.92 Kurt Spitzner We can help you know, work through and and bring together a solution, but planning in that merger of equals. 0:31:11.892 –> 0:31:20.452 Kurt Spitzner Usually is accounted for in in the the deal to invest a significant amount of time in planning. But man, our experience is that when this happens. 0:31:20.862 –> 0:31:21.662 Kurt Spitzner You have to do it. 0:31:21.662 –> 0:31:31.582 Kurt Spitzner You have to really make those decisions clear and depending on what you’re doing, you’re putting to bed really to it organizations and creating a new one. 0:31:32.102 –> 0:31:45.22 Kurt Spitzner That is a scenario where where the planning becomes really, really valuable because at the outset of it, you’re ending up with a larger organization. You’re purchasing power, your opportunity for cost savings and efficiency. 0:31:45.892 –> 0:31:50.452 Kurt Spitzner Is is probably the biggest in all of these scenarios, so that that merger of equals. 0:31:50.542 –> 0:31:52.142 Kurt Spitzner Well, it’s gonna take a little longer. 0:31:52.222 –> 0:32:5.542 Kurt Spitzner Plan it the right way, but you’re gonna have some opportunity for some great outcomes on the back end to really consolidate infrastructure obviously and make it easier for your teams, both end user and inside diet shop to to run it. 0:32:7.482 –> 0:32:8.282 Nathan Lasnoski Paul said. Kurt. Said Kurt. 0:32:10.742 –> 0:32:11.102 Nathan Lasnoski OK. 0:32:11.422 –> 0:32:22.142 Nathan Lasnoski So let’s let’s take a second to walk through the M and a life cycle. I think this is important for everyone, understand, just sort of where you are in the process. 0:32:22.902 –> 0:32:33.702 Nathan Lasnoski So starting from the left, what is going to happen is an organization is going to be doing some pre assessment work like let’s. It’s not even at you haven’t even bought it yet, right? 0:32:33.702 –> 0:32:37.462 Nathan Lasnoski You’re in this process of this. Let’s assume you’re acquiring a company. 0:32:38.252 –> 0:32:39.812 Nathan Lasnoski You are going through this pre assessment. 0:32:39.812 –> 0:32:44.492 Nathan Lasnoski There’s maybe some conversations happening between the organization’s but doing so in a very. 0:32:45.512 –> 0:33:0.72 Nathan Lasnoski Regulated or understood way because of privacy, because of the aspects of if they’re both publicly traded and some of the things you have to think about there there’s some pre assessment work there’s some initial like hey we’re looking at this kind of company. 0:33:0.72 –> 0:33:2.512 Nathan Lasnoski What are some things we might need to be thinking about? 0:33:2.672 –> 0:33:11.712 Nathan Lasnoski This can be we’re having an M and a organization and very large businesses or having some of your playbook assets that you say? 0:33:12.692 –> 0:33:17.132 Nathan Lasnoski If you’re going to be thinking about doing immersion acquisitions, here’s the things I want you to think about. 0:33:17.752 –> 0:33:29.832 Nathan Lasnoski As you’re going through that process, because if there’s anything that we’ve experienced is that it doesn’t get a lot of time as the deal is being processed or signed like there’s, there’s maybe one or two connects. 0:33:29.832 –> 0:33:30.792 Nathan Lasnoski They’re very limited. 0:33:30.792 –> 0:33:42.592 Nathan Lasnoski There’s a lot of regulation on what you can and can’t do in certain types of industries, and the goal here is to make sure you have just a few of those things that you arm your organization with, like a playbook. 0:33:43.372 –> 0:33:46.132 Nathan Lasnoski So they are prepared when they start having those conversation. 0:33:47.202 –> 0:33:58.482 Nathan Lasnoski Once you get into formal talks, there will be a stage where you do some due diligence and you may bring in a company that does a security analysis and maybe another spot for your playbook to be used. 0:33:58.482 –> 0:34:3.562 Nathan Lasnoski It’s also an area where there’s sort of organizations that do some of that independent assessment. 0:34:3.562 –> 0:34:14.962 Nathan Lasnoski We have some firms that we like that we work with that do that independent assessment activity that we partner with pretty often that are very complimentary to us that do the due diligence activity which then you get to close. 0:34:14.962 –> 0:34:16.842 Nathan Lasnoski That’s when the deals close deals. 0:34:17.352 –> 0:34:20.792 Nathan Lasnoski To the street, that’s usually when it gets involved, frankly. 0:34:20.792 –> 0:34:24.112 Nathan Lasnoski Like oftentimes it doesn’t really get involved. 0:34:24.112 –> 0:34:38.832 Nathan Lasnoski It may start to know something is happening, but a lot of times they don’t really get involved until close, and that’s when the transaction has happened and everyone wants to move fast and often times they want to move more assertively and more quickly than the technology transition is. 0:34:38.832 –> 0:34:43.112 Nathan Lasnoski Capable of doing or the especially the org change management is capable of doing so. 0:34:43.112 –> 0:34:47.272 Nathan Lasnoski That’s a that is that stage where it immediately gets involved and. 0:34:47.522 –> 0:35:4.402 Nathan Lasnoski Where it makes a lot of sense to to think about very strategically, a lot of things Ed talked about is setting very clear expectations now of what the post close activity looks like and how you’re going about architecting that transition, whether it was a sale and you SP. 0:35:4.402 –> 0:35:8.642 Nathan Lasnoski Off the company, or if we’re sticking with our merger conversation and you know what? 0:35:8.642 –> 0:35:15.482 Nathan Lasnoski The end game is you’ve already defined it, you’re prepared, and you need to set up a timeline for those activities to occur. 0:35:16.652 –> 0:35:17.452 Nathan Lasnoski After that. 0:35:18.752 –> 0:35:20.152 Nathan Lasnoski Whole integration has happened. 0:35:20.152 –> 0:35:21.792 Nathan Lasnoski Or then hell, spin has happened. 0:35:21.792 –> 0:35:33.712 Nathan Lasnoski There’s oftentimes this like cumulative exhale, like we’re done. If you’ve never been through an MA before, you don’t realize how much work this is. 0:35:33.752 –> 0:35:42.912 Nathan Lasnoski Like how much this is oftentimes the biggest project in it organization has ever gone through from an infrastructure standpoint and how there’s this like. 0:35:43.772 –> 0:35:46.52 Nathan Lasnoski Collective sigh of relief that you’ve completed. 0:35:46.252 –> 0:35:50.532 Nathan Lasnoski But then there’s this need to move into value creation, and this whole other thing we’re not. 0:35:50.532 –> 0:35:54.692 Nathan Lasnoski We’re not really even talking a lot about in this call or this webinar. 0:35:55.352 –> 0:36:12.392 Nathan Lasnoski But this whole other piece of now, like how do I force multiply these organizational capabilities that I’ve brought into my business where I spun off into a business and created into something that’s more powerful now, Ed, I would love to talk about how you’ve tackled some of these. 0:36:12.392 –> 0:36:14.352 Nathan Lasnoski Life cycle elements at Rockwell. 0:36:14.432 –> 0:36:23.672 Nathan Lasnoski I know you’re a little unique because you do have some capabilities on the pre assessment due diligence side. So like tell, tell us a little bit about like how does your part of the organization fit? 0:36:23.672 –> 0:36:24.672 Nathan Lasnoski How does Rockwell’s whole? 0:36:25.172 –> 0:36:26.652 Nathan Lasnoski Think about this life cycle. 0:36:27.712 –> 0:36:28.392 Edward Kopp Yeah, sure. 0:36:28.632 –> 0:36:38.712 Edward Kopp So I will say at the outset, during the M and a process, Rockwell does have an M and a team and the M and a team is responsible for all that upfront due diligence. 0:36:40.252 –> 0:36:56.772 Edward Kopp Their evaluating companies determining, you know, what are, you know, potential adds to the portfolio and then you know taking those companies through through the due diligence process and that is all contained within that team outside of that team, there is not much communication. 0:36:56.772 –> 0:37:2.412 Edward Kopp So Nathan is you pointed out, we don’t get much of A preview usually it is. 0:37:4.872 –> 0:37:12.192 Edward Kopp Very late, like the deal is almost signed or about to be signed, you know, and then you know, we get some introduction to here’s what is going on. 0:37:12.192 –> 0:37:18.632 Edward Kopp So. So it’s important going back to the beginning, it’s important to have that playbook like, OK, when the deal is signed. 0:37:19.32 –> 0:37:22.712 Edward Kopp Here’s what we’re going to do, and I go back to the beginning. 0:37:22.712 –> 0:37:28.272 Edward Kopp You know, if I can think about, you know, things you want to take away from this, you know, you’ll have the executives that say, you know, we want to have this deal. 0:37:29.12 –> 0:37:36.12 Edward Kopp From the time that deal is announced, we want to be, you know, integrated within 90 days. And if you haven’t gone through one of these before, you’re scratching your head like, OK. 0:37:36.92 –> 0:37:37.172 Edward Kopp How are we going to do that? 0:37:37.732 –> 0:37:39.532 Edward Kopp I will say at the outset that is possible. 0:37:39.852 –> 0:37:47.892 Edward Kopp And so. But there’s a lot of of coordination that has to happen, and there’s a lot of streams, you know, that have to fire up all at once. 0:37:47.892 –> 0:37:56.732 Edward Kopp And these are things that you know you’re going to, you know, want to, you know, have contemplated ahead of time. And that all is ultimately what gets into your playbook. 0:37:57.92 –> 0:38:0.12 Edward Kopp You cannot do these things in in serial. 0:38:0.12 –> 0:38:6.892 Edward Kopp You can’t do them one after the other. If you want to achieve these timeframes, so you have to have you know your your technical leads in place. 0:38:6.892 –> 0:38:8.532 Edward Kopp You know you have to have your change management. 0:38:9.292 –> 0:38:9.772 Edward Kopp In place you have to have your. 0:38:11.152 –> 0:38:23.912 Edward Kopp Your change management lead in place your communications lead in place. If you have an internal communications team, they have to be, you know, on board from the beginning and that’s where you’ve defined these tracks and you’re going through, OK. 0:38:23.912 –> 0:38:25.112 Edward Kopp Here’s what we have to do. 0:38:26.652 –> 0:38:34.972 Edward Kopp And what’s interesting, what we learned then is the organization will also give us feedback on what is their appetite for moving quickly. 0:38:34.972 –> 0:38:40.172 Edward Kopp So once you have that playbook in place and you know you can identify, OK. 0:38:40.762 –> 0:38:57.362 Edward Kopp Here’s what we need to do to hit those milestones, you know, and we had a couple that we did in just over 90 days and some took longer. But having that playbook in place and saying, OK, here’s, you know, to do the the communications. For example, here’s our. 0:38:57.722 –> 0:39:3.922 Edward Kopp Our comms calendar and here’s, you know, our messaging. So internal comms, this is you know what our. 0:39:5.492 –> 0:39:12.652 Edward Kopp You know, our initial library is we want you to adapt this to the culture of the acquiring company, you know. 0:39:13.512 –> 0:39:17.112 Edward Kopp The you know the language, or if there’s some translations involves, here’s what you have to do. 0:39:17.152 –> 0:39:31.672 Edward Kopp And by the way, in order to meet our timeline, you have to be done here and the organization will tell you, hey, I can’t do that or hey, I need more time and we need to make these adjustments. And that’s a collective we discussion. That’s not an you. 0:39:32.112 –> 0:39:33.592 Edward Kopp Know it can’t deliver. 0:39:33.672 –> 0:39:36.312 Edward Kopp It’s. Hey, if you want to meet, you know this timeline. 0:39:36.312 –> 0:39:37.32 Edward Kopp It can be done. 0:39:38.172 –> 0:39:43.372 Edward Kopp And we have to go on all of these tracks going back to that beginning, having that playbook in place. 0:39:45.92 –> 0:40:3.92 Edward Kopp Understanding what is required for each of those threads is really, really important so that you can be confident in your assessment of, you know, what does it take to to deliver and then also again going back to the beginning, having that end goal in mind, you always want. 0:40:3.92 –> 0:40:5.732 Edward Kopp To be, you know, an advocate for that end goal. 0:40:5.732 –> 0:40:9.492 Edward Kopp So even if you’re talking with your leadership team, you know, yes, we need to be here. 0:40:10.892 –> 0:40:12.652 Edward Kopp We use the language all the time. 0:40:12.732 –> 0:40:13.652 Edward Kopp You know, we will. 0:40:13.652 –> 0:40:14.332 Edward Kopp Not, you know. 0:40:14.992 –> 0:40:16.232 Edward Kopp This is going to be a rush. 0:40:16.432 –> 0:40:21.392 Edward Kopp You know, at times it’s gonna be it’s going to feel like you’re being pushed into the deep end of the pool. 0:40:21.512 –> 0:40:23.672 Edward Kopp We promise we will not let anybody drown. 0:40:23.672 –> 0:40:24.272 Edward Kopp We are. 0:40:24.952 –> 0:40:33.352 Edward Kopp We are committed to making sure everybody gets safely to the other end of the pool and you know we’re going to shepherd you along the way. At the same time, we’re going to push. 0:40:33.352 –> 0:40:39.832 Edward Kopp So that’s, that’s the experience that we had at Rockwell kind of your your life cycle here? 0:40:40.812 –> 0:40:42.212 Edward Kopp You know, we get started. 0:40:42.212 –> 0:40:45.172 Edward Kopp You know, right before you know the close. 0:40:46.252 –> 0:40:58.772 Edward Kopp You know the close is announced and that framework at the outset, you know, make sure you have a good understanding of you know your communications, your change management, your your technical plan. 0:40:58.772 –> 0:41:0.692 Edward Kopp You know how you’re going to do the testing? 0:41:1.252 –> 0:41:11.612 Edward Kopp What you you believe your capacity is, you know, one of the things that is a little bit different form for organizations is how many accounts you move in a wave. 0:41:12.412 –> 0:41:14.252 Edward Kopp You know, and very large M and a. 0:41:14.252 –> 0:41:23.732 Edward Kopp So you know the talked about moving thousands of users over a weekend it’setra or, you know, moving hundreds or whatever. There’s a, there’s a technical limit. 0:41:24.302 –> 0:41:26.982 Edward Kopp You know, but there’s also an organizational change limit. 0:41:28.532 –> 0:41:34.12 Edward Kopp We air on the side. If we want the the migrations to be, we want them to occur as quickly as possible. 0:41:34.132 –> 0:41:45.252 Edward Kopp So you know, we do not want to stretch, you know, migrations out over a couple of months, you know, at the same time, you know, we don’t want to be so, you know, compressed that you know. 0:41:47.572 –> 0:41:54.532 Edward Kopp The the migration cycles that are running, they’re straining to, you know, finish in the allotted window and you know content is not ready. 0:41:54.622 –> 0:41:57.382 Edward Kopp Ready when you know when folks show up. 0:41:57.462 –> 0:42:14.582 Edward Kopp So that has to be part of your of your calculation in terms of what the organization can endure. But for sure you want to err on the side of shorter rather than longer, because in that transition period you have folks in the old environment and on the new. 0:42:15.62 –> 0:42:18.22 Edward Kopp And there’s just there’s some strain involved in that. 0:42:18.22 –> 0:42:20.62 Edward Kopp So you know, be as assertive as you can. 0:42:21.702 –> 0:42:28.982 Edward Kopp In terms of what fits into your window and then plan for you know, how do we support people during this you know transition while we’re doing the. 0:42:29.782 –> 0:42:33.22 Edward Kopp The migration if it if it’s spanning a couple of weekends. 0:42:35.662 –> 0:42:49.822 Edward Kopp The other thing I’ll I’ll note here just this is just an interesting side trivia and we discovered this with with team concurrencies. We’re going along. We had gone into this thinking, hey, we want to do weekend conversions. And by the way, we didn’t do those, we did Convers. 0:42:50.822 –> 0:42:56.302 Edward Kopp You know, really the you know, we pre staged everything and then the conversions were Thursday night. 0:42:58.462 –> 0:43:6.902 Edward Kopp And every organization’s culture’s different. So I won’t say that that’s like the magical day, but I’ll just say, you know, give yourself the opportunity to think outside the box a little bit. 0:43:8.22 –> 0:43:20.462 Edward Kopp For us, going on Thursday was really a blessing and it was a very, you know, clever idea because of, you know, we would have our OK, you know, we gave them. 0:43:20.462 –> 0:43:21.542 Edward Kopp Here’s your day one guide. 0:43:21.542 –> 0:43:26.302 Edward Kopp Here’s what we want you to do when you come into the office on Friday. Go through these steps. 0:43:26.622 –> 0:43:32.422 Edward Kopp We’ve got a 9:00 AM call for, you know, folks that have you know, questions, you know, concerns, support, etcetera. 0:43:33.222 –> 0:43:37.782 Edward Kopp And it it gave people the opportunity to sort of, OK, I’m going to block this time out on Friday. 0:43:38.532 –> 0:43:46.612 Edward Kopp I’ll get through that and I can start the next week, you know, really in good shape. So they could take sort of as much as they they could plan for. 0:43:46.652 –> 0:43:53.132 Edward Kopp I need to do this and I need to get get through it on Friday and then starting the next week. I’m working in the new environment. 0:43:53.132 –> 0:43:55.652 Edward Kopp That worked out really, really well for us and. 0:43:57.222 –> 0:44:8.102 Edward Kopp It it turned out to be a really good change management exercise because people weren’t starting the week like under the gun and then frustrated and then feeling like their week was a wreck starting on Tuesday. 0:44:8.882 –> 0:44:10.82 Edward Kopp They’re already behind, et cetera. 0:44:10.82 –> 0:44:14.522 Edward Kopp So just one, you know, interesting point as you’re thinking about your own culture. 0:44:15.82 –> 0:44:22.522 Edward Kopp That was a real eye opener for us and turned out to be a a migration plan, a change management game changer. 0:44:23.782 –> 0:44:24.542 Nathan Lasnoski That’s a huge point. 0:44:24.542 –> 0:44:36.782 Nathan Lasnoski Is just even selecting the right time for your culture. I want to move on to this idea around operating principles, and there’s going to be a little content in this deck that we’re going to get to today and that’s totally fine. 0:44:36.782 –> 0:44:49.182 Nathan Lasnoski We’ll send out the some of the detail later for you all to be able to take advantage of, but I especially want to spend some time on operating principles because I think this is really, really important for organizations up front. 0:44:49.972 –> 0:44:57.212 Nathan Lasnoski And I’ll, I’ll just kind of start with like, what does this mean? It means to like know what good is and what what are you really trying to achieve here? 0:44:58.52 –> 0:45:6.532 Nathan Lasnoski And when we think about operating principles in terms of doing this repeatedly, but even doing it the first time, what makes a successful? 0:45:8.92 –> 0:45:20.492 Nathan Lasnoski Merger or spin off activity? And how do we make sure that these things become true and and this is kind of what we think about and I love to have Ed chime in on this in a second too is the first is you’re trying to reduce the time. 0:45:20.492 –> 0:45:24.212 Nathan Lasnoski To value so many organizations, they don’t. 0:45:24.212 –> 0:45:29.892 Nathan Lasnoski They they’ve done this acquisition, they or they’ve they’ve they have this spin and there’s atsa so. 0:45:30.422 –> 0:45:41.822 Nathan Lasnoski With it, but even more than the TSA, it’s how can I get these organizations working together as part of one organization faster and more organized than the alternative? 0:45:41.822 –> 0:45:54.582 Nathan Lasnoski How do I reduce the time between when I press go and when it’s truly starting to operate as an organization that’s trying to find those efficiencies to try to find those integration opportunities that. 0:45:55.452 –> 0:45:58.52 Nathan Lasnoski Made the reason for the integration or the divesture in the first place? 0:45:58.412 –> 0:46:3.492 Nathan Lasnoski So you have a goal of how do I reduce that time to value? And that means. 0:46:4.112 –> 0:46:23.332 Nathan Lasnoski Doing it potentially with more assertive timelines, which places other things to the back burner, but then just as what Ed was talking about, one of your other goals is to not interrupt production, and that doesn’t mean you’re not going to have an outage or an interruption in a. 0:46:23.332 –> 0:46:23.952 Nathan Lasnoski In a sense. 0:46:24.192 –> 0:46:29.232 Nathan Lasnoski But it’s to structure the OCM plan surrounding that migration away, which. 0:46:30.12 –> 0:46:31.852 Nathan Lasnoski Mitigates any kind of real impact. 0:46:32.52 –> 0:46:35.932 Nathan Lasnoski Sometimes we say that like mergers and acquisitions need to go quietly. Well. 0:46:36.462 –> 0:46:49.422 Nathan Lasnoski If no one knows it’s happening, or they barely know it’s happening, you’re going OK. If it’s the front page news and the organization isn’t able to do its core mission because of your work, you are in real trouble. 0:46:49.422 –> 0:46:51.622 Nathan Lasnoski So these projects have to go quietly. 0:46:51.622 –> 0:47:1.302 Nathan Lasnoski Well, they need to be a situation where your your organization’s able to navigate it very successfully, but do so in a way which keeps these organizations functioning, making money, serving customers. 0:47:2.132 –> 0:47:10.852 Nathan Lasnoski You then have this opportunity to mitigate security risks through the merger or the acquisition or acquisition or the spin off. 0:47:11.542 –> 0:47:23.382 Nathan Lasnoski And where that comes into play, a lot is oftentimes when you acquire a company, they are considered a a sort of risk area, right? That you don’t know what they’ve been doing. You don’t know what the security tools are. 0:47:23.382 –> 0:47:28.262 Nathan Lasnoski Maybe they were run by oftentimes smaller organizations don’t have all the same controls in place. 0:47:28.262 –> 0:47:32.462 Nathan Lasnoski That maybe a large organization does and it’s just an unknown environments. 0:47:32.462 –> 0:47:36.342 Nathan Lasnoski It’s an opportunity for you to apply security to the asset. 0:47:37.132 –> 0:47:38.732 Nathan Lasnoski And also apply modern security techniques. 0:47:38.932 –> 0:47:40.412 Nathan Lasnoski It’s also an opportunity to modernize. 0:47:40.412 –> 0:47:43.52 Nathan Lasnoski We find a lot of organizations as they’re going through this process. 0:47:43.692 –> 0:47:46.212 Nathan Lasnoski They’re going to modern desktop, they’re going to autopilot. 0:47:46.212 –> 0:47:57.772 Nathan Lasnoski They’re going to moving to the cloud for their data centers. So it’s an opportunity to take what was a legacy environment, not move half the basement over, Chuck the things. 0:47:57.772 –> 0:47:58.572 Nathan Lasnoski You don’t need. 0:47:58.692 –> 0:48:8.812 Nathan Lasnoski That’s this gaining efficiencies piece and modernize the environment along the way. In the context where it doesn’t slow down the migration process. And then finally, there’s this opportunity to build value. 0:48:9.572 –> 0:48:13.252 Nathan Lasnoski You know, once the M and A has been has gotten through this essential prerequisite through the process. 0:48:13.892 –> 0:48:18.172 Nathan Lasnoski Enter. There’s any of these that kind of stick out to you from things that you really thought about? 0:48:19.272 –> 0:48:37.512 Edward Kopp Yeah, I think your your summary is really great and is also calling out kind of the underpinnings. I like the the mitigate security risks during an M and a that is definitely something that you’re watching out for because you know you have two different organizations and you know. 0:48:37.512 –> 0:48:44.392 Edward Kopp In our case, we had, you know, companies that don’t necessarily follow the Rockwall policy. And so that is. 0:48:45.182 –> 0:48:46.102 Edward Kopp Is critically important. 0:48:46.182 –> 0:48:48.222 Edward Kopp You know, modernizing the environment is. 0:48:49.402 –> 0:48:53.242 Edward Kopp You know, is really important as well and that can take on a lot of different flavors. 0:48:53.482 –> 0:49:8.982 Edward Kopp We had some where we were doing a lot of equipment refresh, others where we were not. And so you know that is there’s a lot of of discussion I we have seen it go both ways within our environment. So I will say that’s not A1 size F. 0:49:8.982 –> 0:49:17.122 Edward Kopp All it is easier in some sense if you can do the the technology refresh that does add an extra step. 0:49:17.902 –> 0:49:20.182 Edward Kopp But if I can say I’m deploying Rockwell equipment. 0:49:21.162 –> 0:49:23.962 Edward Kopp Takes out a lot of variables, such as something to keep in mind. 0:49:24.122 –> 0:49:38.282 Edward Kopp So again, kind of there’s not like one singular path, but each of these, you know, there’s some some wins and puts and takes and wins and losses along the way, so. 0:49:40.822 –> 0:49:54.582 Edward Kopp I would say definitely things that are for careful consideration. If you wanna advocate for things you know, definitely you know, no one is ever going to, you know, advocate for for, you know, not having good security principles so. 0:49:55.142 –> 0:50:7.262 Edward Kopp Be mindful of that and make sure that’s you know part of your plan and then you know, make sure that regarding that modernizing equipment that is part of the the overall plan. 0:50:7.262 –> 0:50:11.782 Edward Kopp I see a question in the chat about, you know, what are the the the metrics. 0:50:11.782 –> 0:50:12.182 Edward Kopp I won’t. 0:50:12.382 –> 0:50:19.262 Edward Kopp You know, we can go into that more completely, but I would say that is one of your metrics is you know what is you know the. 0:50:20.302 –> 0:50:23.862 Edward Kopp The integration and the alignment with the. 0:50:25.402 –> 0:50:30.922 Edward Kopp In our case, though, you know our our Rockwell standard infrastructure, you know what is our progress to that. 0:50:33.452 –> 0:50:36.572 Nathan Lasnoski Something said OK, so. 0:50:37.942 –> 0:50:41.222 Nathan Lasnoski I’m gonna hyper move through a couple slides here. 0:50:41.222 –> 0:50:53.332 Nathan Lasnoski I want you just to see what’s in the deck and then you can get it access to this as a follow up activity. And then I wanna spend a little time on like couple couple things I want you to be aware of and getting started for this so. 0:50:53.382 –> 0:50:54.422 Nathan Lasnoski Getting organized. 0:50:55.972 –> 0:51:7.652 Nathan Lasnoski Realize that when your organization thinks about integration, especially from the executive level, a lot of times they’re thinking about this collaboration and community, especially collaboration. 0:51:7.652 –> 0:51:9.12 Nathan Lasnoski Can I e-mail the person? 0:51:9.12 –> 0:51:10.412 Nathan Lasnoski Can I share a file with them? 0:51:11.232 –> 0:51:12.632 Nathan Lasnoski Maybe they’re thinking about them. 0:51:12.632 –> 0:51:26.472 Nathan Lasnoski They’re using the same kind of desktop experience that we are, but much broader than that. Story is the identity, the security story that Ed just talked about, the data center and network story, the applications and data that need to be integrated. 0:51:26.592 –> 0:51:30.272 Nathan Lasnoski Oftentimes that’s all happening in a concurrent fashion. 0:51:30.272 –> 0:51:37.872 Nathan Lasnoski All these things are moving alongside each other, and there’s a lot to consider inside of each of those lanes, so don’t. 0:51:38.612 –> 0:51:40.732 Nathan Lasnoski You oftentimes what we find is that companies come to us saying. 0:51:41.422 –> 0:51:42.982 Nathan Lasnoski Oh, we, we we gotta get this done. 0:51:42.982 –> 0:51:44.222 Nathan Lasnoski We have three month timeline. 0:51:44.222 –> 0:51:46.422 Nathan Lasnoski We have to get e-mail integrated and that’s fine. 0:51:46.422 –> 0:51:54.902 Nathan Lasnoski Like maybe that’s the first thing that happens. But oftentimes we then see, wow, this is a much bigger integration story than we really expected it to be. 0:51:54.902 –> 0:52:4.222 Nathan Lasnoski There’s a lot more we have to be thinking about here to do this right than what we perhaps expected, and that’s where you have to be able to set set those expectations with your organization. 0:52:4.842 –> 0:52:6.682 Nathan Lasnoski Of what are the cost controls? 0:52:6.682 –> 0:52:8.762 Nathan Lasnoski What are the things we need to be budgeting for? 0:52:8.762 –> 0:52:9.962 Nathan Lasnoski What is the timeline? 0:52:10.362 –> 0:52:12.122 Nathan Lasnoski So they have awareness of what? 0:52:12.122 –> 0:52:27.382 Nathan Lasnoski The end game is that you’re working for because sometimes what we’re seeing now and this happened a lot, you know, throughout the like 2020 two, 23 condom time frame was there’s some organizations that did acquisition, they integrated the collaboration communication and they didn’t do any. 0:52:27.562 –> 0:52:31.682 Nathan Lasnoski Else, and they’re sort of or maybe even they left collaboration on it’s own still. 0:52:32.462 –> 0:52:40.582 Nathan Lasnoski And there’s a lot of clean up, so you might be one of those organizations sort of still stuck in that state. You have a bunch of acquisitions, but they never got integrated and you’re like, ah. 0:52:41.622 –> 0:52:57.582 Nathan Lasnoski Like we never really got all the way through, so that would be one of my big things to think about is make sure you follow through on the swing. Don’t leave the environments just out there unless you’re an organization that is more like not only your serial A/C. 0:52:57.582 –> 0:53:0.942 Nathan Lasnoski But these organizations are built to be able to be spun off later. 0:53:1.222 –> 0:53:4.622 Nathan Lasnoski There’s some situations where you may never actually integrate them. 0:53:4.622 –> 0:53:8.302 Nathan Lasnoski They’re just kind of a holding company and that really represents a different kind of. 0:53:9.62 –> 0:53:10.222 Nathan Lasnoski Technical integration story so. 0:53:10.712 –> 0:53:12.312 Nathan Lasnoski Think about these. What can go into these? 0:53:12.432 –> 0:53:15.72 Nathan Lasnoski More detailed, but it’s important to know that these these lanes exist. 0:53:17.302 –> 0:53:19.582 Nathan Lasnoski Also, Ed spoke a little bit about tooling. 0:53:19.982 –> 0:53:37.22 Nathan Lasnoski You’re gonna need tooling with this, with the rare exception of when you’re when you’re doing sort of tenant integration and you’re not really merging, you’re gonna need some tooling like quest or bit tighten or sharegate to be able to move different parts of the environment as well as. 0:53:37.22 –> 0:53:43.62 Nathan Lasnoski With the like an Azure migration, if you’re moving out of an existing data center and that happens a lot with acquisitions. 0:53:44.42 –> 0:53:57.2 Nathan Lasnoski One of the things we found is that getting your tooling approved can can sometimes be a easy experience. If you were the acquirer and you’re acquiring an entire company that isn’t being like spun off of someone else. 0:53:57.282 –> 0:54:10.122 Nathan Lasnoski Or it can be a really difficult because of the context of the originating company, and maybe it’s a carve out where you’re just taking a portion of a company and in that case their security organization becomes a really. 0:54:10.902 –> 0:54:13.622 Nathan Lasnoski Big constraints. You have to start thinking about all those pieces. 0:54:15.52 –> 0:54:24.292 Nathan Lasnoski So we have some content about tooling. We have some content about using our migration automator, which is something we’ve put a lot of effort in over the last couple years. 0:54:24.292 –> 0:54:26.212 Nathan Lasnoski So you can take some time on that. 0:54:26.572 –> 0:54:28.412 Nathan Lasnoski An example of a migration wave. 0:54:28.412 –> 0:54:35.892 Nathan Lasnoski This was really, I think, a useful tool to help people understand what does a migration wave look like. 0:54:35.972 –> 0:54:37.612 Nathan Lasnoski How soon do we communicate with them? 0:54:37.612 –> 0:54:40.212 Nathan Lasnoski Well, the answer is there’s a lot of pre work to do it well. 0:54:41.22 –> 0:54:44.662 Nathan Lasnoski You call it like at -90 or t -, 14 where you really. 0:54:45.182 –> 0:54:56.622 Nathan Lasnoski Building in this process of making sure you have structure and not only structure from the context of communicating your process, but also mitigating where an organization might be trying to take advantage. 0:54:56.622 –> 0:55:5.782 Nathan Lasnoski You this is one of the most likely times for organizations to be compromised, largely because your users know there’s change going on and they’re more likely to click on things that they shouldn’t. 0:55:5.942 –> 0:55:9.662 Nathan Lasnoski So it’s an opportunity for you to really be clear about what is. 0:55:10.462 –> 0:55:15.102 Nathan Lasnoski Communication coming from you and what’s communication that that isn’t coming from you. And then you do ignore. 0:55:16.472 –> 0:55:18.712 Nathan Lasnoski Talk a little bit about application migration readiness. 0:55:18.752 –> 0:55:26.352 Nathan Lasnoski We’ll leave that in here for you example timeline. The idea about building a migration T-shirt sizing process. 0:55:26.592 –> 0:55:34.512 Nathan Lasnoski That’s kind of what Rockwell has done. A little bit of here and then a couple of final thoughts that I want to just hit on before we close and move to our next steps. 0:55:34.512 –> 0:55:39.512 Nathan Lasnoski So first is that Google migrations kind of come with a little bit larger OCM change. 0:55:39.552 –> 0:55:41.112 Nathan Lasnoski I mean, this is kind of obvious, right? 0:55:41.112 –> 0:55:43.832 Nathan Lasnoski But like, they’re not moving from Office 365 to Office 365. 0:55:44.582 –> 0:55:45.142 Nathan Lasnoski It slows it down. 0:55:45.672 –> 0:55:46.872 Nathan Lasnoski There’s migration blockers. 0:55:46.872 –> 0:56:1.192 Nathan Lasnoski Sometimes Google rate limits you, so there’s a bunch of things you need to just be thinking about there just to keep understand that that’s going to be a little harder than saying Office 365 migration. The second thing here is that if you are not if 2. 0:56:1.192 –> 0:56:8.712 Nathan Lasnoski Companies are intending to keep their e-mail domains and them working as one organization is not the priority. 0:56:8.712 –> 0:56:10.432 Nathan Lasnoski There are some options to. 0:56:11.222 –> 0:56:16.862 Nathan Lasnoski Keep companies actually separate from each other and have them collaborate through external collaboration links. 0:56:17.702 –> 0:56:20.142 Nathan Lasnoski Temporarily. There’s pros and cons to this. 0:56:20.142 –> 0:56:24.102 Nathan Lasnoski You really don’t gain the efficiencies of an overall organization working together. 0:56:24.102 –> 0:56:27.942 Nathan Lasnoski It’s very common among organizations that wanna be able to spin someone off later. 0:56:28.102 –> 0:56:32.222 Nathan Lasnoski Not very good for organizations that are trying to form one company culture. 0:56:33.782 –> 0:56:43.702 Nathan Lasnoski And the last thing here is that spin off scenarios are the biggest opportunity to do things more efficiently because you’re literally creating something from the ground up like you’re building the entire IT environment from scratch. 0:56:43.702 –> 0:56:48.822 Nathan Lasnoski It is a significant activity, but it’s also one of the best places to really. 0:56:49.632 –> 0:56:59.392 Nathan Lasnoski Gain some ground on what could be done better in the environment. So how to get organized? We talked about most of these already have a clear environment plan. 0:56:59.432 –> 0:57:4.752 Nathan Lasnoski Frame the integration. Build a playbook so you know what the channel’s going to look like. 0:57:5.272 –> 0:57:8.112 Nathan Lasnoski Don’t underestimate the cost or timeline. 0:57:8.112 –> 0:57:13.832 Nathan Lasnoski This is something we see people do all the time. They go into this process of doing an M and A they. 0:57:14.622 –> 0:57:16.862 Nathan Lasnoski Underestimate how much work it is. 0:57:16.862 –> 0:57:18.702 Nathan Lasnoski Underestimate how much time it’s going to take. 0:57:20.52 –> 0:57:23.892 Nathan Lasnoski And they then don’t convey those same expectations to the leadership. 0:57:23.892 –> 0:57:29.292 Nathan Lasnoski So they end up having to reframe those later rather than setting them, setting effective expectations upfront. 0:57:30.862 –> 0:57:38.142 Nathan Lasnoski And then finally set clear expectations and expect pushback. Like when you say when they say 30 days you might say 90 days. 0:57:38.142 –> 0:57:40.462 Nathan Lasnoski And they’re like, like I want 30 days. 0:57:40.502 –> 0:57:50.702 Nathan Lasnoski You have to be able to navigate that, but navigate it in a way that has some facts and and can effectively educate your your organization. Ed. I’ll give you sort of the last word on. 0:57:51.882 –> 0:57:54.842 Nathan Lasnoski Anything else that you would suggest people have as they get organized? 0:57:54.842 –> 0:58:4.242 Nathan Lasnoski We got about two minutes here so just wanted give you that opportunity to give, give anything that you think would be like a last nugget of wisdom from, from your experience. 0:58:5.702 –> 0:58:9.862 Edward Kopp Yeah. So first, thanks for the opportunity and thanks for a long share. 0:58:10.302 –> 0:58:15.142 Edward Kopp I’m very passionate about this topic. Given the number that we went through. 0:58:16.702 –> 0:58:27.982 Edward Kopp What I would say to everyone is by all means, you know, this is a roll up your shirt sleeves exercise and we we’ve, you know talked about you know understanding the playbook and the plans et cetera. 0:58:27.982 –> 0:58:35.622 Edward Kopp You will get asked. You know what is the the timeline I mentioned earlier that you know in my previous. 0:58:36.202 –> 0:58:40.522 Edward Kopp You know, experience some VP may tell you, you know, this worked faster, et cetera. 0:58:41.682 –> 0:58:45.402 Edward Kopp The way to address that is you have to be, you know, confident in your own plan. 0:58:45.402 –> 0:58:46.762 Edward Kopp You know what what Nathan talked about? 0:58:46.762 –> 0:59:2.822 Edward Kopp Not understanding the cost or timeline, when you understand the different work streams that that are involved and you know the tasks and the milestones that you have to meet and when you can convey those, you are in a much better state to advise the organization, you know, hey. 0:59:2.822 –> 0:59:6.122 Edward Kopp I’m. I’m not sure you know what you did at XYZ company. 0:59:6.442 –> 0:59:19.522 Edward Kopp Here’s what we need to go through so you know we need to hit the following milestones for, you know, communication for change management. We’re going to spend this much time doing the assessment in order to, you know, get to the technical planning etcetera. 0:59:20.242 –> 0:59:30.682 Edward Kopp The more you are immersed and invested in your plan, the more credibility you have and the more confidence that your leadership team has in you that you know. 0:59:30.682 –> 0:59:35.282 Edward Kopp Yeah, I I believe you know these folks, they know what’s going on, they have anticipated. 0:59:35.322 –> 0:59:36.2 Edward Kopp That’s a big thing. 0:59:36.562 –> 0:59:42.842 Edward Kopp Hitting, you know what are the the questions and concerns everybody wants this to go? Well, you know, Nathan’s point about, you know, being successful. 0:59:44.382 –> 0:59:46.862 Edward Kopp Quietly successful is really, really important. 0:59:46.862 –> 0:59:56.342 Edward Kopp So you know, being able to have confidence in your plan and and ability to execute the plan, you know that you know matters immensely. 0:59:56.782 –> 0:59:58.62 Edward Kopp I’ll leave will leave it there. 0:59:59.762 –> 1:0:5.122 Nathan Lasnoski And thank you so much, Ed. As everyone’s leaving today, please fill out the survey. 1:0:5.122 –> 1:0:19.962 Nathan Lasnoski We would love to have some conversations to you about either an M and a evaluation or helping you through playbook and especially we’d love to know what are things that you learned you would like to learn more about around emerges and acquisitions. 1:0:19.962 –> 1:0:24.922 Nathan Lasnoski One of our intents here is to create a community that is learning from each other around M and a. 1:0:25.702 –> 1:0:29.22 Nathan Lasnoski Concurrency really tries to invest in creating communities of knowledge. 1:0:29.602 –> 1:0:33.42 Nathan Lasnoski Across the industry and this is a great opportunity for us to be sharing that. 1:0:33.42 –> 1:0:40.242 Nathan Lasnoski So please not only indicate if there’s something we can do to help you, but also indicate what information you learn. 1:0:40.242 –> 1:0:43.722 Nathan Lasnoski Learn more about so. That way we can produce more content on it. 1:0:43.722 –> 1:0:45.402 Nathan Lasnoski So we hope you all have a wonderful day. 1:0:45.402 –> 1:0:53.882 Nathan Lasnoski Thank you so much for joining us and a huge thanks to Ed for participating in the the session today. You are you just provided so much knowledge to everyone. 1:0:53.882 –> 1:0:54.762 Nathan Lasnoski I really appreciate it. 1:0:55.332 –> 1:0:55.652 Edward Kopp Thank you.