Software licences and liabilities pose one of the
biggest IT challenges to chief information officers following a
merger, according to research from Computacenter.
Senior IT executives view the prospect of a merger as a
minefield of software compliance and legal issues, and the concern
comes at a time when mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are
reaching levels not seen since the dotcom boom.
The Computacenter research, based on responses from 100 CIOs,
found that over two-thirds (68%) of IT directors agreed that
M&As were a minefield of compliance and legal issues.
In addition, 47% said they would have software compliance
concerns following a merger or acquisition.
On a more positive note, 44% of the 100 CIOs recognised that the
audit, change and consolidation involved in the M&A cycle could
be an opportunity to improve existing IT systems and
procedures.
But over a fifth (22%) didn’t see any potential improvements
that could be realised post-merger.
When it came to savings, 45% of IT directors agreed that savings
from hardware were easier to achieve, with only 13% thinking
software savings were easier to realise.
Ovum analyst David Mitchell said, “If a company says it is
looking to make savings of X when an acquisition takes place, then
we estimate that between 30% and 50% of those savings will come
from IT.
“We put about 25%-40% of the IT savings down to software. In
simple terms, if they’re quoting £5m savings, there's at least £1m
to play for.”
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