Background

According to McKinsey & Company (2011), the number of mergers & acquisitions are anticipated to rise in the near future and although there are some success stories, the failure rate is high. It has been found that 50 to 60 percent of the initiatives intended to capture synergies within a merger or acquisition are strongly related to IT.

When two organizations with different processes and organizational structures merge, there are difficulties in aligning information flow in a cohesive way. Usually when the acquirer is considerably larger than the acquiree, the acquiree changes their IT-structure to fit the larger firms, often well-developed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to detect difficulties of an ERP implementation through a case study of an acquisition of a smaller local company by an international group. The approach is to use the emergent business strategy of the acquisition and apply it on the ERP integration process with regards to theories of management accounting change.

Method

This study is a qualitative study based on the ERP-integration of a case company pseudonymously called Sancorp. The study have been conducted with semi-structured interviews and observations with staff involved in the integration process, both from the acquired company Sancorp and the acquiring company pseudonymously called Globex. 

Conclusion

The thesis concludes that similarly to literature, the planning part of an ERP-integration is crucially important. It is also important to emphasize that the business strategy of a merger must be at focus when deciding upon the ERP-structure. Culture is a factor when it comes to successful mergers and acquisitions (M&As), both national culture and the corporate culture should not be neglected in the integration process. The case study was strongly related with institutional theories on management accounting change.