In this interesting article published on the website Manufacturing Tomorrow, Rogel Elwell, Vice President Strategic Partners and Alliances at SNP, discusses the hot topic of Transition Service Agreements (TSA). Roger highlights all the important things companies should consider in a TSA prior to a company merger, acquisition or divestiture and shows how TSA hurdles can be turned into an opportunity for digital transformation.

“Transition Service Agreements (TSA) aren’t, by nature, easy. At their best, they’re complex, prescriptive contracts that can be tedious to draft and agree on during an already overwhelming merger, acquisition, or divestiture process. At their worst, TSAs can be vague and difficult to enforce, creating serious obstacles for both the buyer and seller.

And while TSAs can feel like just one more hurdle for buyers and sellers to clear along an M&A process, they are a critical component to closing a deal in which all parties are fully aligned on expectations. Signing a TSA before a merger, acquisition, or divestiture ensures that buyers and sellers fully understand their obligations – especially as they pertain to data management and migration, privacy, and security.

To create an accurate portrait of the underlying IT infrastructure to target in a data migration or carve-out, as well as the all-important matter of cost, it is essential to analyze the migration process from the perspective of specific platforms. This should include considerations like:

• Internally versus externally licensed systems
• Dedicated versus shared system environments
• Data sets that may not be well suited for isolation in the course of a migration.

It won’t take long in your TSA planning process to encounter the unavoidable reality that, as they say, data is king. Entering the TSA stage of an M&A without confidence in your data’s integrity adds otherwise avoidable stress and delays to an already complex undertaking.”