News & Insights / Case Studies

Tilson Drives Branscome Merger Success through Strategic IT Integration

Overview

As companies navigate mergers and acquisitions, seamless integration of IT infrastructure, software systems, and data becomes paramount for success. The ability to effectively integrate these critical components not only minimizes disruptions to business operations but also fosters alignment and collaboration between diverse teams and systems. In today’s digital age, where data serves as a cornerstone of decision-making and competitive advantage, ensuring the seamless flow and accessibility of information across merged entities is essential for driving growth and maintaining a competitive edge in the market.

Branscome, a leading highway and general contracting firm in the Mid-Atlantic region, recently navigated a merger and sought the expertise of Tilson. Tilson’s in-house Network Operations Center (NOC) and Construction Technology Consulting team collaborated seamlessly to deliver an end-to-end solution. This internal partnership managed all facets of the project from inception to completion, ensuring a seamless transition for the client.

Challenge

As each company is unique and has its own data and software, the process of migrating data and consolidating software systems is loaded with potential pitfalls. In any merger or acquisition, the challenges can be grouped into three primary areas:

1. Standardization and Optimization: For any organization, standardization and optimization of data and software systems is important to best streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. Add in a second organization, and this process becomes too complex for many companies to manage on their own. When done correctly, however, the M&A process presents an opportunity to eliminate redundancies and leverage best practices from both companies.
2. Scalability and Flexibility: Upgrading hardware, adopting cloud technologies, and implementing virtualization may all be necessary to best merge infrastructure in a way that is scalable and flexible enough to accommodate future growth and changing business requirements. Multiple systems need to now be agile and adaptable as they intertwine, creating the need for new technology strategies.
3. Data Management and Security: Merging companies often face challenges related to data management and security. Consolidating data from disparate systems while ensuring data integrity, confidentiality, and compliance with regulations is crucial. Strengthening cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive information becomes a priority during M&A activities.

Solution

Tilson’s NOC, in collaboration with Tilson’s Construction Technology Consultants, provided Branscome an on-premise, turnkey Cloud IT infrastructure solution along with software and data migration services to successfully complete their merger.

“The team at Tilson were integral partners to the company in designing and implementing a comprehensive IT solution for both operations and office needs. They professionally handled an ERP conversion with an entire network transformation simultaneously…all while adhering to an extremely aggressive timeline,” Scott Daniel, Branscome CFO

The two Tilson service teams collaborated seamlessly to guide Branscome through every stage of the process, from initial planning and design to software implementation and data migration. Success can be summarized in seven key phases:

1. Assessment and Analysis: Before proposing an IT plan, Tilson first assessed the current IT infrastructure to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This included analyzing all existing systems, hardware, software, networks, and security measures to understand their capabilities and limitations.
2. Objective Definition: Tilson worked hand in hand with Branscome to clearly define the objectives and goals of the merger. By determining what the organization aimed to achieve through IT infrastructure and migrations improvements, we knew our goals and how to measure success through enhanced performance, increased security, reduced costs, and scalability.
3. Strategy Development: Based on the assessment and defined objectives, Tilson developed a comprehensive IT infrastructure strategy. This strategy outlined the approach for designing, implementing, and managing the infrastructure, including technology choices, resource allocation, and timeline.
4. Technology Selection: Tilson’s Construction Technology Consulting team is our longest-standing division with decades of experience, so they helped select the technologies and solutions that align with Branscome’s current and future needs. This is a thorough process that involves evaluating different hardware, software, networking, and cloud computing options to determine the best fit for the infrastructure environment.
5. Design Architecture: Tilson created a detailed IT architecture design that specifies how the IT infrastructure components will be configured and integrated to meet Branscome’s requirements. Special consideration was made for scalability, reliability, security, and compliance during the design phase.
6. Implementation Planning: In coordination with Branscome’s stakeholders, vendors, and existing IT teams, Tilson developed a comprehensive implementation plan that outlined the steps, resources, and timeline required to deploy the new IT infrastructure. Expectations were set and communicated fully to ensure a smooth execution of the plan.
7. Deployment and Testing: Leveraging assessments, comprehensive planning, design, and seamless collaboration, Tilson adeptly executed the deployment of new IT infrastructure components and the integration of software solutions. Following deployment, rigorous testing protocols were applied to validate functionality, performance, and security prior to transitioning to production environments.

Branscome entrusted Tilson to navigate a complex merger, entailing the integration of numerous IT systems and seamless data migration into a robust new IT infrastructure. Tilson delivered a turnkey service, overseeing the entire process from inception to completion with expertise and efficiency.

Contact us today to set up a free consultation and learn how Tilson’s experts can support your company in effectively navigating mergers or acquisitions.