Roll-Up IT Integration: Consolidating 5 Acquired Companies in 90 Days

Table of Contents

1. Why 90 Days Matters in Roll-Up Integration
2. The Five-Layer Consolidation Stack
3. Pre-Integration Assessment and Planning
4. Identity and Access Management Unification
5. Data Warehouse and Analytics Consolidation
6. ERP and Operational Systems Integration
7. Ticketing and Support Platform Unification
8. Security and Compliance Across the Footprint
9. Claude-Assisted Migration Cadence
10. Go-Live and Cutover Strategy
11. Post-Integration Stabilisation and Optimisation
12. Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

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Why 90 Days Matters in Roll-Up Integration

When a private equity firm closes on five bolt-on acquisitions, the clock starts ticking immediately. Every day of operational paralysis costs money—duplicated infrastructure spend, lost productivity, customer confusion, and team friction. Ninety days is the sweet spot: aggressive enough to capture quick wins and momentum, realistic enough to avoid catastrophic mistakes.

Most roll-ups fail not because the integration is technically hard, but because they lack a unified playbook. One acquired company runs on Salesforce, another on Pipedrive. One has a data lake in Snowflake, another in BigQuery. One uses Okta for identity, another uses Azure AD. Without a structured approach, you end up with a Frankenstein tech stack that costs 40% more to operate and takes twice as long to govern.

The 90-day window forces prioritisation. You cannot integrate everything simultaneously. You must ruthlessly sequence: stabilise first (keep the lights on), consolidate second (merge the core platforms), optimise third (squeeze out cost and performance). This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, with real timelines, decision frameworks, and the role of AI-assisted migration tooling.

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The Five-Layer Consolidation Stack

Successful roll-up IT integration follows a layered architecture. Think of it as building from the foundation up:

Layer 1: Identity and Access (Days 1–21)

Identity is the foundation. Without unified identity, you cannot consolidate anything else. Every user, vendor, and system needs a single source of truth for who they are and what they can access. In a five-company roll-up, you likely have five separate directory services, five sets of user provisioning workflows, and five different MFA strategies.

The goal in the first 21 days is to establish a single identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, or Entra ID) as the authoritative source. This does not mean migrating all users on day one—it means standing up the infrastructure, defining the schema, and beginning pilot migrations with non-critical teams.

Layer 2: Data Foundation (Days 8–35)

While identity is rolling out, you start building the data consolidation layer. This is where a unified data warehouse or lakehouse becomes critical. You need one place where finance, operations, and analytics teams can trust the data. In a roll-up, each acquired company has its own transactional databases, spreadsheets, and BI tools. Your job is to build a single source of truth.

Layer 3: Core Operations (Days 22–60)

Once identity is stabilised and data is flowing, you consolidate the operational platforms: ERP, CRM, and HCM. These systems touch every employee and customer interaction. Consolidation here delivers the biggest cost savings (eliminating duplicate licenses, reducing support overhead) and the fastest ROI.

Layer 4: Customer-Facing Systems (Days 45–75)

Ticketing, support, and communication platforms come next. These are less critical to the core business but directly affect customer experience. Consolidation here is usually faster because the data migration is simpler and the dependencies are fewer.

Layer 5: Security and Compliance (Days 1–90, continuous)

Security and compliance run in parallel with all other layers. You cannot treat this as a post-integration task. From day one, you are building audit readiness, establishing data governance, and ensuring that every system meets your security baseline. If you are pursuing SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance via Vanta, this becomes a gating factor for cutover decisions.

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Pre-Integration Assessment and Planning

You have 10 days before day one of the 90-day window. Use them ruthlessly.

The Technology Audit

Before you can consolidate, you need to know what you are consolidating. Conduct a rapid technology audit of all five acquired companies:

• Identity systems: Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, Ping Identity, custom LDAP
• Data platforms: Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Postgres, Oracle, SQL Server, data lakes, data warehouses
• ERP systems: NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics 365, Sage, Xero, bespoke systems
• CRM platforms: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, custom builds
• Ticketing and support: Jira, ServiceNow, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Linear
• Communication: Slack, Microsoft Teams, email systems
• Security and compliance: SSO, MFA, encryption, DLP, SIEM, audit logging

For each system, document:

• Current user count and active daily users
• Data volume (GB, number of records)
• Critical integrations and dependencies
• Licensing cost and contract terms
• Data quality and governance maturity
• Regulatory or compliance requirements

This audit typically takes 5–7 days with a small team of engineers and operators from the acquired companies. Do not skip it. A missing dependency or misunderstood data relationship will blow your timeline.

The Business Alignment Workshop

Bring together the CFO, COO, CTO, and heads of each acquired company. Spend a day answering these questions:

• What is the post-acquisition operating model? Are you merging all five companies into one, or keeping some as semi-autonomous business units?
• What are the non-negotiables? Which systems, processes, or data cannot be touched without breaking the business?
• What is the cost target? How much infrastructure spend do you want to eliminate in year one?
• What is the customer impact? Which consolidations might disrupt customer experience, and how do we mitigate that?
• What is the talent retention risk? Which teams are most likely to leave if integration is bungled, and what do they care about?

Document the answers and build your sequencing roadmap around them.

The Governance Structure

Establish a lightweight but clear governance model:

• Integration PMO: One person (or a very small team) owns the 90-day timeline. They are ruthless about scope, sequencing, and cutover decisions. They report directly to the CEO or PE sponsor.
• Technical steering committee: CTO, heads of engineering from each acquired company, and the fractional CTO or external partner (if you have one). They meet daily for 15 minutes during crunch weeks, weekly otherwise.
• Workstream leads: One lead per consolidation layer (identity, data, ERP, ticketing, security). They own execution, risk, and daily standup reporting.
• Change management: One person who owns communication, training, and adoption. They start on day one, not day 60.

This structure is lean by design. In a 90-day sprint, you cannot afford committee bloat.

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Identity and Access Management Unification

Identity is the fastest win and the highest-leverage decision you will make. It unlocks everything downstream.

Selecting Your Identity Provider

You likely have three options:

1. Okta: Industry-standard, supports complex integrations, strong MFA and conditional access, premium pricing (~$8–15 per user per month).
2. Azure AD / Entra ID: Excellent if your company is already Microsoft-heavy, integrates natively with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, lower cost if bundled with Microsoft licensing.
3. Google Workspace Identity: Lighter weight, lower cost (~$6–12 per user per month), good for small, cloud-native organisations.

For a five-company roll-up with diverse tech stacks, Okta is usually the safest choice. It integrates with almost every SaaS platform and legacy system. Azure AD is a close second if you are already committed to the Microsoft ecosystem.

The Migration Sequence

Do not migrate all users at once. Instead, use a phased approach:

Week 1–2: Pilot (100 users) Choose one small team from one acquired company. Migrate them to your new identity provider. Run them in parallel with their old system for 2 weeks. Iron out the bugs, document the process, and gather feedback.

Week 3–4: Early majority (1,000 users) Migrate the next cohort. This should include all of your own company and the most cloud-native acquired company. By the end of week 4, you should have 1,000+ users running on the new identity system with zero downtime.

Week 5–8: Tail (remaining users) Migrate the remaining users and legacy system users. This is slower because you are dealing with older systems that may not support modern identity protocols. Budget extra time here.

Deprovisioning and Cleanup

Once users are migrated, you have a window (typically 30–60 days) where the old identity system is still running in parallel. Use this window to:

• Verify that no critical integrations are still hitting the old system
• Decommission user accounts in the old system
• Document any orphaned service accounts or API keys
• Perform a final audit of access rights

Then, and only then, decommission the old identity provider. This is usually a week-long process, and you need to be ready to roll back if something breaks.

Conditional Access and Security Policies

While migrating users, establish baseline security policies:

• MFA requirement: All users must use MFA. No exceptions. Budget 2–3 days for rollout and support.
• Device compliance: If you are managing corporate devices, enforce OS patching and encryption requirements.
• Geo-fencing: Block logins from unexpected geographic locations, with a grace period for travelling employees.
• Anomalous activity: Flag and require re-authentication for unusual login patterns (new device, new location, unusual time).

These policies are not optional in a consolidated environment. You are now responsible for the security posture of five companies’ worth of data and systems.

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Data Warehouse and Analytics Consolidation

Data consolidation is where the magic happens. A unified data warehouse becomes the single source of truth for finance, operations, and analytics. It is also where you capture the biggest value from the roll-up: better visibility, faster decision-making, and the ability to identify cross-company synergies.

Selecting Your Data Platform

You have three main options:

1. Snowflake: Cloud-agnostic, excellent performance, strong governance tools, good for enterprises with complex data models. Cost: $2–4 per compute credit, plus storage (~$23–40 per TB per month).
2. BigQuery: Native to Google Cloud, excellent for analytics workloads, strong ML integration, lower cost for simple queries (~$6.25 per TB scanned). Cost is query-based, not compute-based.
3. Redshift: AWS-native, good for existing AWS customers, lower cost for predictable workloads, but requires more tuning and maintenance.

For a five-company roll-up, Snowflake is usually the safest choice. It is cloud-agnostic (you are not locked into AWS or GCP), it has strong governance and RBAC, and it scales effortlessly as you add more data sources.

The Data Integration Architecture

Your data warehouse needs to ingest data from multiple sources:

• Transactional databases: ERP, CRM, HCM systems (via CDC or nightly batch)
• SaaS platforms: Salesforce, Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics (via API or ETL tool)
• Data lakes: If acquired companies have existing data lakes, you need to consolidate those too
• Spreadsheets and manual exports: Sadly, many companies still rely on these. You need a process to ingest them or eliminate them.

Use an iPaaS tool (Fivetran, Stitch, or Talend) to automate data ingestion. Do not attempt manual ETL scripts—they break constantly and require constant babysitting.

The Data Model and Governance

Once data is flowing into your warehouse, you need a clear data model:

1. Raw layer: Untransformed data from source systems, as-is. This is your audit trail and source of truth.
2. Staging layer: Cleaned, deduplicated, and standardised data. This is where you reconcile differences between source systems (e.g., different customer ID formats across acquired companies).
3. Mart layer: Business-ready tables for analytics, finance, operations. This is what end users query.

Establish data governance from day one:

• Data dictionary: Document every field, its source, its transformation logic, and its owner.
• Quality rules: Define what “clean” data looks like. Automate quality checks on critical fields.
• Access controls: Who can access what data? Use Snowflake’s role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce this.
• Lineage tracking: Document how data flows from source systems to marts. Tools like dbt or Fivetran provide this automatically.

Analytics and BI Layer

Once your data warehouse is set up, you need a BI tool to query it:

• Looker: Excellent for embedded analytics and complex data models. Cost: $5,000–$50,000 per month depending on usage.
• Tableau: Industry-standard for enterprise analytics. Cost: $70–$140 per user per month.
• Mode Analytics: Good for SQL-savvy teams. Cost: $1,000–$5,000 per month.
• Metabase: Open-source, low-cost option for smaller teams.

For a five-company roll-up, you probably want a tool that supports both self-service analytics (so business users can explore data) and governed dashboards (so finance and operations have a single source of truth). Looker or Tableau are your best bets.

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ERP and Operational Systems Integration

ERP consolidation is the heaviest lift in the 90-day window. It touches finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and HR. But it is also where you capture the biggest cost savings.

Assessing Your ERP Options

Based on your audit, you likely have two or three ERP systems running across the five companies. Your options are:

1. Consolidate to one ERP: Requires the most effort (12–18 weeks) but delivers the most cost savings (30–50% reduction in ERP spend). Only feasible if you have time and budget.
2. Consolidate to two ERPs by business unit: Faster (8–12 weeks) but leaves some duplication. Good if the acquired companies have very different business models.
3. Keep all ERPs, but unify the data layer: Fastest (6–8 weeks) but requires strong data integration. Works if you can live with multiple systems of record.

For a 90-day timeline, option 3 is usually the right call. You unify the data layer (so finance has one source of truth for revenue, costs, and margins) without attempting a full ERP migration. You can tackle full ERP consolidation in months 4–12.

The Financial Consolidation Layer

Regardless of which ERPs you keep running, you need a unified financial consolidation layer:

1. Chart of accounts: Define a single, standardised chart of accounts that maps to all five companies’ existing charts. This is painstaking but non-negotiable.
2. Cost centre mapping: Define cost centres that span the roll-up (e.g., “Sales – EMEA”, “Engineering – Product”, “G&A – Finance”). Map each acquired company’s cost centres to these.
3. Elimination and intercompany accounting: As you consolidate, you will have intercompany transactions (e.g., one company billing another for services). Define the elimination rules upfront.
4. Consolidation software: Use a tool like Anaplan, Jedox, or Hyperion to automate the consolidation process. Do not attempt this in Excel—it will break.

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Unification

AP and AR are usually the fastest wins:

• Vendor consolidation: You probably have duplicate vendors across the five companies. Consolidate them, renegotiate terms, and eliminate duplicate payments. This alone can save 5–10% of procurement spend.
• Invoice processing: Centralise invoice processing in one system. Use OCR and automation to reduce manual data entry.
• Customer consolidation: If customers appear in multiple acquired companies’ systems, consolidate them into one customer record. This is critical for accurate revenue recognition and customer analytics.

Payroll and HR Systems

Payroll is sensitive because it directly affects employees. If you are consolidating HR and payroll systems:

• Run payroll in parallel for at least one cycle (usually 2 weeks) before cutting over. Do not attempt a hard cutover on day one.
• Validate tax and benefits in the new system before cutover. A single mistake (wrong tax withholding, missing benefits) can destroy morale.
• Communicate clearly with employees about any changes to their payslips, benefits, or HR processes.

If you are not consolidating payroll on day 90, that is fine—it can wait. But if you are, budget extra time and resources here.

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Ticketing and Support Platform Unification

Ticketing and support systems are usually the fastest consolidation because the data migration is straightforward and the dependencies are fewer.

Selecting Your Ticketing Platform

Your options depend on your business model:

1. Jira Service Management: Best for IT-heavy organisations or software companies. Strong integration with development tools. Cost: $20–$100 per user per month.
2. ServiceNow: Enterprise-grade, excellent for large organisations with complex workflows. Cost: $50–$200+ per user per month.
3. Zendesk: Purpose-built for customer support. Strong for small and mid-market companies. Cost: $15–$100 per user per month.
4. Linear: Modern, lightweight, excellent for engineering teams. Cost: $10 per user per month.

For a five-company roll-up with diverse support needs, Zendesk or Jira Service Management are usually the best choices. They can handle both IT ticketing and customer support in one system.

The Data Migration Process

Migrating ticketing data is straightforward but requires care:

1. Export historical tickets from all five systems (usually available as CSV or via API).
2. Map fields from old systems to new system (e.g., “priority” in system A might be “urgency” in system B).
3. Cleanse data: Remove duplicates, fix date formats, standardise user names.
4. Migrate in batches: Start with closed tickets (lower risk), then move to open tickets.
5. Run in parallel: Keep old systems running for 2–4 weeks while users adjust to the new system. Then archive old data.

Support Process Unification

Once data is migrated, unify your support processes:

• SLA definitions: Define response and resolution times for different ticket types. Make sure all five companies’ teams understand and agree.
• Routing and escalation: Define how tickets are routed to the right team. Use automation to reduce manual assignment.
• Knowledge base: Consolidate FAQs and documentation from all five companies into a single knowledge base. This reduces ticket volume immediately.
• Metrics and reporting: Define KPIs (ticket volume, resolution time, customer satisfaction) and set targets. Track daily.

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Security and Compliance Across the Footprint

Security and compliance are not post-integration activities—they run in parallel from day one. If you are pursuing SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance via Vanta, this becomes a gating factor for your consolidation timeline.

The Security Baseline

Establish a minimum security baseline that all five companies must meet by day 90:

1. Encryption at rest and in transit: All data must be encrypted. No exceptions.
2. MFA for all users: We covered this in the identity section, but it bears repeating. MFA is non-negotiable.
3. Vulnerability scanning: All systems must be scanned for vulnerabilities weekly. Critical vulnerabilities must be patched within 48 hours.
4. Access controls: Implement least-privilege access. Users should only have access to systems and data they need for their job.
5. Audit logging: All access to sensitive data must be logged and monitored. Logs must be retained for at least 90 days.
6. Incident response: Define an incident response process. Who do you call if there is a breach? What is the escalation path?

Vanta and Compliance Readiness

If you are pursuing SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance, Vanta is a game-changer. It automates the collection of evidence (access logs, vulnerability scans, configuration data) and maps it to compliance requirements. This is critical in a 90-day consolidation because you are building new infrastructure and you need to prove it is compliant from day one.

With Vanta, you can:

• Automate evidence collection: Vanta pulls data from your cloud providers, identity systems, and security tools. No manual spreadsheets.
• Gap analysis: Vanta shows you exactly what you are missing to pass SOC 2 or ISO 27001. Prioritise the gaps that matter most.
• Real-time monitoring: Vanta continuously monitors your infrastructure and alerts you if something goes out of compliance.

Budget 2–3 weeks to set up Vanta and run your first gap analysis. Then, as you consolidate systems, you can verify that each new system is compliant before it goes live.

Data Governance and Privacy

In a five-company consolidation, you need a unified data governance and privacy policy:

• Data classification: Classify all data as public, internal, confidential, or restricted. Define who can access each classification.
• Data retention: Define how long you keep different types of data. This is critical for compliance and cost management.
• Privacy policy: Ensure your privacy policy covers all five companies’ data collection practices. Update it if needed.
• GDPR / Privacy Act compliance: If you are operating in Australia or the EU, ensure you are compliant with privacy regulations. This includes consent management, data subject access requests, and data deletion.

Third-party Risk Management

As you consolidate, you inherit the third-party risks of all five companies. You need a process to assess and manage these risks:

1. Vendor inventory: List all third-party vendors and SaaS tools used by each company.
2. Risk assessment: Assess the risk of each vendor (data access, criticality, security posture).
3. Due diligence: For high-risk vendors, conduct due diligence (security questionnaire, SOC 2 audit, privacy review).
4. Vendor agreements: Ensure all vendor agreements include security and compliance requirements (data protection, breach notification, audit rights).

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Claude-Assisted Migration Cadence

This is where modern AI changes the game. Claude (or similar LLMs) can dramatically accelerate data migration, documentation, and process automation.

Using Claude for Data Mapping and Transformation

When you are consolidating systems, you need to map fields from old systems to new systems. This is tedious and error-prone. Claude can help:

Example: Mapping ERP chart of accounts

You have five different charts of accounts from five acquired companies. You need to map them all to a unified chart. Instead of doing this manually:

1. Export each company’s chart of accounts as CSV.
2. Write a prompt: “I have five charts of accounts from five companies. Please identify duplicate accounts, suggest a unified chart of accounts, and provide a mapping from each company’s chart to the unified chart.”
3. Claude analyses the data and produces a mapping document that you can review and refine.
4. Use the mapping to automate the data transformation in your ETL tool.

This takes Claude 5 minutes and would take a human 2–3 days.

Using Claude for Documentation and Runbooks

During a 90-day integration, you need to document everything:

• System integration guides: How does system A connect to system B?
• Runbooks: What do you do if something breaks? What is the escalation path?
• Training materials: How do users use the new consolidated system?

Instead of writing these from scratch:

1. Gather existing documentation from each acquired company.
2. Ask Claude: “I have documentation from five companies’ IT systems. Please consolidate this into a single integration guide, highlighting differences, dependencies, and risks.”
3. Claude produces a draft that you can review, refine, and publish.

Using Claude for Code Generation and API Integration

Many consolidation projects require custom code:

• Data migration scripts: Moving data from old systems to new systems.
• API integrations: Connecting systems that do not have native integrations.
• Automation scripts: Automating repetitive tasks (user provisioning, report generation).

Instead of writing code from scratch:

1. Describe the task: “I need to migrate customer data from Salesforce to HubSpot. Here is the schema of each system. Generate a Python script that reads from Salesforce API, transforms the data, and writes to HubSpot API.”
2. Claude generates working code that you can review, test, and refine.
3. Use the code in your migration process.

This is not a replacement for experienced engineers, but it can speed up development 2–3x.

Using Claude for Risk Assessment and Contingency Planning

Before you cut over to a new consolidated system, you need to assess risks and plan contingencies:

1. Ask Claude: “I am consolidating five companies’ ERP systems into one. Here are the current systems, the number of users, the data volume, and the critical processes. What are the top 20 risks of this consolidation? For each risk, suggest a mitigation strategy.”
2. Claude produces a risk register that you can use to prioritise your mitigation efforts.
3. Use the risk register to plan your cutover strategy and rollback procedures.

The Claude Workflow in Practice

Here is how this works in a real 90-day integration:

Week 1: Use Claude to analyse your technology audit and produce a consolidated system inventory, identifying duplicates, dependencies, and risks.

Week 2–3: Use Claude to map data fields across systems, generate ETL transformation logic, and produce system integration guides.

Week 4–6: Use Claude to generate data migration scripts, API integration code, and automation runbooks.

Week 7–8: Use Claude to produce risk assessments, contingency plans, and cutover procedures.

Week 9–12: Use Claude to generate training materials, support documentation, and post-cutover monitoring playbooks.

Throughout the process, Claude is not making the decisions—your team is. But Claude is accelerating the execution by 2–3x, freeing your team to focus on decision-making, testing, and risk management.

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Go-Live and Cutover Strategy

The final 2–3 weeks of the 90-day window are the most critical. This is where you cut over from old systems to new systems. A botched cutover can cost millions.

The Cutover Plan

Your cutover plan should answer these questions:

1. What is the cutover sequence? Which systems do you cut over first? Which last? Why?
2. What is the cutover window? Do you cut over over a weekend, a full week, or in phases over several weeks?
3. What is the rollback plan? If something goes wrong, how do you revert to the old system? How long does rollback take?
4. What is the communication plan? How do you inform users, customers, and stakeholders about the cutover?
5. What is the support plan? How many support staff do you have on standby? What is the escalation path?

The Phased Cutover Approach

For a five-company roll-up, a phased cutover is usually safer than a big bang:

Phase 1 (Days 75–80): Pilot cutover Cut over one small business unit or department to the new consolidated system. Run in parallel with the old system for 3–5 days. This is your dress rehearsal. If something goes wrong, you only affect a small group.

Phase 2 (Days 80–85): Early majority Cut over the next cohort (usually 50–60% of users). Again, run in parallel for 2–3 days. By this point, you have learned from phase 1 and can move faster.

Phase 3 (Days 85–90): Full cutover Cut over the remaining users. If phases 1 and 2 went smoothly, this should be straightforward.

Parallel Running and Reconciliation

During the parallel running period, you need to reconcile data between old and new systems:

1. Daily reconciliation: Compare key metrics (transaction counts, revenue, headcount) between old and new systems. Investigate discrepancies immediately.
2. User validation: Ask users to validate data in the new system. Is their customer list complete? Are their orders showing up correctly?
3. System monitoring: Monitor the new system for performance issues, errors, and unexpected behaviour.

If you find a critical issue during parallel running, you have time to fix it before the cutover is final. This is the whole point of parallel running.

The Cutover Decision Gate

Before you go live, establish a decision gate. Your integration PMO and technical steering committee must sign off on each cutover phase:

• Data quality: Is the data in the new system accurate and complete?
• Performance: Is the new system performing within acceptable limits?
• User readiness: Are users trained and comfortable with the new system?
• Support readiness: Is your support team ready to handle issues?
• Business continuity: Are you confident that critical business processes will not be disrupted?

If any of these is not met, do not cut over. Delay and fix the issue. It is better to miss your 90-day target than to have a production outage.

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Post-Integration Stabilisation and Optimisation

Day 90 is not the end—it is the beginning of the stabilisation phase.

The First 30 Days Post-Cutover

The first month after cutover is critical. You are in “steady state” mode:

1. Daily standups: Continue daily standups with the technical team. Focus on issues, performance, and user adoption.
2. Issue triage: Prioritise and resolve issues quickly. Most issues will be small (user training, data entry errors) but some may be critical (system outages, data loss).
3. User support: Your support team will be overwhelmed. Make sure they have enough resources and escalation paths.
4. Performance tuning: Monitor system performance and tune as needed. You may need to add capacity, optimise queries, or adjust configurations.

Weeks 5–12: Optimisation

Once the system is stable, you can start optimising:

1. Process optimisation: Now that users are comfortable with the new system, optimise the processes. Eliminate manual steps, automate workflows, improve handoffs.
2. Cost optimisation: Review your infrastructure spend. Are you still running duplicate systems that can be decommissioned? Can you right-size cloud instances?
3. Feature enablement: Are there features in the new system that you have not enabled yet? Phased rollout of new features.
4. Training and adoption: Conduct follow-up training for power users. Create champions who can help other users.

Months 4–12: Strategic Consolidation

Once you have stabilised the core systems, you can tackle the longer-term consolidation:

1. Full ERP consolidation: If you deferred this during the 90-day window, now is the time to tackle it.
2. Advanced analytics and BI: Build more sophisticated dashboards and analytics on top of your unified data warehouse.
3. Process automation: Use RPA or workflow automation to eliminate manual processes.
4. Vendor consolidation: Renegotiate contracts with consolidated vendors, eliminate redundant tools.

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Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Pitfall 1: Underestimating Data Quality Issues

The problem: You assume the data in each acquired company’s system is clean and accurate. It is not. Customer records have duplicates, addresses are wrong, product codes do not match across systems.

How to avoid it: Budget 20–30% of your data migration effort on data cleansing. Use data profiling tools to identify quality issues early. Engage business users to help validate and clean data.

Pitfall 2: Ignoring Dependencies and Integrations

The problem: You consolidate system A without realising it integrates with five other systems. When you cut over to the new system, the integrations break.

How to avoid it: During your pre-integration audit, map all dependencies and integrations. For each integration, verify that it will work with the new consolidated system. Test integrations thoroughly before cutover.

Pitfall 3: Cutting Over Too Many Systems at Once

The problem: You try to consolidate identity, ERP, CRM, and ticketing all in the same week. When something breaks, you have no idea which system caused it.

How to avoid it: Sequence your cutover carefully. Consolidate identity first, then data, then operational systems. Give yourself time to stabilise each layer before moving to the next.

Pitfall 4: Neglecting Change Management

The problem: You focus so hard on the technical side that you forget about the people side. Users are confused, frustrated, and resistant to the new system.

How to avoid it: Invest in change management from day one. Communicate clearly about why you are consolidating, what is changing, and what users need to do. Provide training and support. Celebrate wins.

Pitfall 5: Treating Security and Compliance as Afterthoughts

The problem: You focus on speed and miss critical security and compliance requirements. After cutover, you discover you are not SOC 2 compliant or you are vulnerable to data breaches.

How to avoid it: Treat security and compliance as a gating factor for cutover decisions. Use tools like Vanta to continuously monitor compliance. Involve your security and compliance teams from day one.

Pitfall 6: Losing Key People

The problem: The integration is chaotic and stressful. Key people from the acquired companies leave because they do not feel valued or do not see a future in the combined company.

How to avoid it: Communicate a clear vision for the combined company. Give key people meaningful roles in the integration. Recognise and reward good work. Invest in retention bonuses for critical roles.

Pitfall 7: Not Testing Thoroughly

The problem: You skip testing because you are running out of time. When you cut over, critical processes break.

How to avoid it: Budget at least 20% of your timeline for testing. Test in phases: unit testing (individual system components), integration testing (how systems work together), and user acceptance testing (do users agree the system works as expected).

Pitfall 8: Assuming Your Vendors Will Support You

The problem: You consolidate to a new ERP system, and your vendor’s support team is slow or unhelpful. You are stuck.

How to avoid it: Before you commit to a vendor, assess their support capabilities. Do they have local support in Australia? What is their response time for critical issues? Do they have experience with roll-ups and integrations? Get this in writing.

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Conclusion: From Chaos to Clarity in 90 Days

A five-company roll-up is complex. But with a clear playbook, ruthless sequencing, and the right tools (including AI-assisted migration), you can consolidate the core platforms in 90 days. Here is what success looks like:

• Day 1–21: Identity unified. All users on one identity provider. MFA enabled.
• Day 22–35: Data flowing into a unified data warehouse. Finance has one source of truth for revenue and costs.
• Day 36–60: ERP systems consolidated at the data layer. Duplicate licenses eliminated. Vendor consolidation underway.
• Day 61–75: Ticketing and support systems unified. Customer support processes standardised.
• Day 76–90: Go-live and cutover. All five companies running on consolidated platforms. Security baseline established. Vanta audit-ready.

This is not a theoretical exercise. Companies have done this. Thoughtworks, Slalom, and other systems integrators have executed similar roll-ups. But you do not need a consulting firm to do this—you can do it with a small, focused team, clear governance, and the right technology partners.

If you are a PE-backed roll-up and you need help executing this playbook, consider partnering with a venture studio or AI digital agency that has experience with rapid consolidation. PADISO’s platform engineering and security audit services are specifically designed for this use case: consolidating technology stacks quickly, securely, and sustainably.

The 90-day window is not arbitrary. It is the window where you have momentum, executive focus, and the ability to make hard decisions. Miss it, and the integration drags on for months, costs spiral, and your team burns out. Hit it, and you have a unified technology platform that is faster, cheaper, and more secure than the sum of its parts.

Start your audit this week. Define your governance structure. Assemble your team. And then execute with discipline and focus. Ninety days from now, you will thank yourself.