M&A activity is picking up again according to recent surveys. That is good news for...

M&A activity is picking up again according to recent surveys. That is good news for growth minded companies, yet the same data shows that over half of leaders still see post deal integration as the biggest hurdle. In my experience working with IT teams through acquisitions from a few dozen users up to large logistics roll ups, the friction almost always surfaces in Active Directory consolidation and Microsoft 365 tenant decisions. Shared calendars break, resource access gets messy, and apps tied to identity start failing right when the business expects everything to run smoothly. The organizations that move fastest after close are the ones that treat identity work as a phased program rather than a weekend project. They test coexistence early, protect access with SID history during the transition, and keep the help desk from drowning in tickets. 53 percent of CFOs point to integration challenges as the core issue holding back value.