Practical information and fictional examples for scoping, not claims of client work, measured results, independent assurance or certification.
Define the transaction information boundary
A merger, acquisition or divestiture can bring multiple customer definitions, shared credentials, opaque exports, legacy retention practices and contracts that limit data transfer. A governance diagnostic begins with permitted information requests, the parties’ authority and the decisions the integration team needs. We do not perform legal or financial due diligence or represent ourselves as the transaction adviser.
Catalogue critical information and dependent processes
Identify a small set of business-critical domains: customer, billing, vendor, employee, property or product records as relevant. For each, record where the asset is held, its decision owner, agreed meaning, sensitivity and known data movement. Mark unverified inventories as provisional. Clarify who can authorise access before requesting extracts from either party.
Surface contradictions that block integration
One business may define a customer by account while the other counts individuals. Systems may share a field name with different meaning. A finance report may rely on undocumented manual corrections. Record these issues and the business decisions affected rather than treating them as a single numerical data-quality score. Prioritise the ones necessary for the next integration milestone.
Plan a controlled first transfer
Define minimum fields, restricted users, approved transformations, test cases and evidence of acceptance before moving records. Consider retention and deletion duties with privacy and legal specialists; do not assume the transaction automatically permits every transfer. Document unresolved dependencies and a hold/review gate for changes with significant downstream consequences. The result is an integration work plan, not assurance that the transaction is compliant.
What buyers usually ask
Do you conduct financial due diligence?
No; this scope concerns information ownership, definitions and operational handover.
Can you clean all acquired data?
Only scoped datasets and acceptance criteria can be committed to; discovery may reveal further work.
Can we upload transaction documents now?
No, not through the public intake. Sensitive exchange needs approved arrangements.
Start with one decision, not a platform purchase.
We can discuss a scoped engagement using the context above. Do not send confidential information through an initial inquiry.