The decision
Compare what the teams actually deliver.
Similar service names can conceal different coverage, staffing and reporting assumptions. Compare the work and effort behind them before expecting identical margins or replacing a team's methods.
Some differences protect specialist capability or important client arrangements. Establish their purpose before deciding what the group should standardise. Cross-selling also depends on workable scoping, technical support and client ownership.
Responsibilities
Define the questions and the integration remit.
Conversec examines agreed operational questions, explains the evidence and identifies dependencies or assumptions requiring a management decision. During integration, Simon can take responsibility for defined work with the practice and group leaders.
Investors and management provide the agreed access, identify the decisions they retain and assign internal owners. The remit specifies authority, time, dependencies and review points.
- Scoping, pricing and coverage assumptions.
- Management depth, reviewer capacity and founder dependency.
- Client ownership and delivery continuity.
- Specialist methods and QA that need experienced technical control.
- Responsibilities shared with the group and those retained in the practice.
Sequence
Keep existing engagements covered as the operation changes.
Confirm ownership of booked engagements and client relationships before transferring responsibilities. Account for integration work alongside the testing, supervision and QA already committed.
Agree where scheduling, account management and business reporting can be shared. Keep specialist decision routes clear, including how disagreements between the practice and group management will be resolved.
Reviewing progress
Check continuity, ownership and remaining dependencies.
Agree the starting position and review dates against the operational remit. Examine whether booked commitments are being met, responsibilities are understood and work still stops when particular people are unavailable.
Record what remains unresolved, revisit assumptions where the evidence changes and adjust the integration work. Management can then compare the operation with the commercial assumptions behind the acquisition.