Mergers and Acquisitions: Orchestrating and Accelerating Data Ingestion, Standardization and Transformation

Samuel T. Benedict

Vice President – Strategic Accounts - AnalytiX

Data Services

May, 2013

WHITE PAPER

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Introduction / Background

The Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) process brings with it a broad range of complexity, from contracts and accounting, to organizational structure and employee protocols. More often than not, companies embroiled in M&A activities do not even consider the data integration aspect of the merger until they are well into the process, not realizing that this activity can extend timelines, limit visibility with regard to financials, supply chain, and other key components of the combined businesses. All too often, those managing the acquisitions are left to also deal with integration of the acquired company’s data, tools and integration practices – with little or no expertise in this area. There are few out-of-the-box answers for streamlining this process, and though there are many system integration companies available to help, this can add significant cost and time to the M&A cycle. AnalytiX Mapping Manager can be a key accelerator as part of a systematic approach to the M&A integration process. With a web-based centralized repository for scanning and importing source metadata automatically, users can quickly understand and assess the data they are acquiring, how it aligns with their current data sets and structures, and develop a plan for unification of the acquired data. The tool’s features and functionality offer a broad range of utility in this space, including standardization of code sets, business rules, mapping formats and patented version control.

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide insight into how AnalytiX Data Services can address many of the data related issues that come with combining disparate source data as is often the case in mergers and acquisitions. It will cover some of the best features and functionality offered by AnalytiX Data Services’ flagship product AnalytiX Mapping Manager, which have specific capabilities that are of high value in this scenario. Many companies handle this data ingestion process, whether during post-acquisition, or during the scoping phase, as a prototype that ultimately guides them into an overall integration strategy. These traditional means and measures can become very expensive when you consider the time to analyze the new source data, metadata, and work through the process to map it to the existing repository or repositories. Standardizing a multitude of source systems, managing an army of business analysts, data analysts, and development staff can become overwhelming for a data-centric certified project manager. One can only imagine the anxiety to be suffered by a project manager that is not well versed in the system development life-cycle, or has not a clue about what it means to integrate, standardize, and govern data. Specialties aside, tools can make all the difference in the world when it comes to taking on new pursuits. For example, even if one had never mowed a lawn in their lifetime, a well-crafted mower that is easy to start, and intuitive to use would put you miles ahead of the capabilities offered by a push-mower. In a vast majority of businesses, all of the intricacies of managing data integration begin with a manually created spreadsheet – which is similar to a push mower when compared to the

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features and functionality that a best-in-breed, if not one-of-a-kind mapping management solution can offer.

Problem Statement / Introduction

The pain points in mergers and acquisitions begin with basic decisions about how the organizations involved with align with one another. There are a variety of options including:

“Solely Financial” where the accounting aspects of the business become one, and the products and services remain distinct – in doing so, they are able to leverage peaks and valleys in their distinct businesses for an overall optimized outcome.

“Market Share-ing” companies with similar products or service offerings within separate markets align to capitalize on each other’s markets.

“Darwinian Double-up” survival of the fittest, and the realization that in order to survive, some companies must join forces and merge their technologies to meet new and changing demands of the market. The emerging company would theoretically become a different technology altogether, that is better equipped to survive through the combination of the core competencies of both.

“Total Consolidation” wherein the companies rebrand products and service offerings to become a single unified offering with similar look and feel – and complementary value offerings.

Each of these scenarios is unique, yet they all have a common thread – data. Even in the minimalist model where the aligning companies are strictly financially merged, their financial

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data must be merged to allow them to see their overall margins, and combined profit and loss statements across the combined structure. Operational aspects of the combined company cannot properly operate until operational data is integrated. As a result, the companies may end up with added cost of operations, duplicate systems with legacy systems driving the business while IT organizations struggle to reach the integration finish line.

The possibility of separate ETL platforms is significant, and converting ETL Jobs between ETL platforms is neither quick nor easy. A major challenge facing the integration industry today is that ETL Jobs built using a particular ETL tool cannot be easily ported or migrated to another ETL tool. Organizations in the midst of M&A, and embarking on an ETL conversion project will require an ETL expert for both tools (the legacy ETL tool and the tool of choice for the two companies) to analyze the legacy ETL tool jobs, document the “job mappings” using Microsoft Excel templates and finally bring in new ETL developers to create the ETL job for the target ETL tool.

The typical merger or acquisition data conversion project using a resource-driven approach looks something like this:

Bring in legacy ETL developers to analyze and document L\legacy ETL mappings.

Document the ETL jobs using MS Excel templates.

Identify opportunities for improvement.

Build phased conversion plan.

Bring in new ETL developers and begin “rewriting” the ETL jobs.

As you look at the steps involved, the complexity within each step, and the resources required in the execution of each of the steps, you can quickly see the expense in managing this in the traditional way.

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Introduction of Solution

AnalytiX Data Services is an international software and technology services company offering services in support of the software solution. AnalytiX specializes in the development of ‘agile tools’ for integration activities in the M&A space, which automate manual processes and enable organizations to accelerate completion and operate more efficiently while lowering costs of the M&A integration.

As a part of any merger or acquisition, data and data mappings play a critical role in defining the overall integration strategy, particularly in industries which are heavily regulated such as Financial Services and Health Care. AnalytiX Mapping Manager meets the industry’s auditing and compliance requirements by automating and managing the data mappings involved in data integration projects and complying with industry regulations such as SOX, Basel, Solvency II, Health Care PHI and SPI regulations across the organization. Automation equals a significant savings in both the discovery phase of the merger or acquisition, as well as the redefinition of existing repository structures to accommodate disparate systems, and finally the conversion or development phase – moving the data from where it was, and what it used to be, to where it needs to be and in a form that serves the new entity in a unified way.

Application of Solution

The AnalytiX Mapping Manager solution applies to nearly every integration project, in every business vertical imaginable. Though there are variances in a number of ways, data is data, and we work with all facets and forms. Our open framework allows companies with completely different tools and technologies to come together like no other – we can connect to all major entity relationship tools, as well as all major ETL tools in the market. Dealing with a mountain of spreadsheets? No worries, we can easily import flat files as well.

The process that companies looking to merge, or having recently joined via acquisition, go through to convert and move their data from one ETL tool to another is typically referred to as the ETL conversion process. AnalytiX Mapping Manager automates the analysis of ETL jobs, saving time and resource hours while creating a reusable ETL Conversion Template. This ultimately reduces the number of high-priced, specifically-skilled resources to analyze ETL jobs, as well as document them in order to then manually create “new” ETL jobs for the integration.

AnalytiX Mapping Manager, with its out-of-the-box code generation templates, and custom code templates eliminates much of the manual coding involved. The M&A team will gain better insight, control, and visibility over the conversion scope and status of the overall integration effort using Mapping Manager. The tool defines job design best practices for the “New or Jointly-agreed upon” ETL tool, and builds a reusable forward-engineering template to auto-generate ETL jobs directly from Mapping Manager.

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Using our embedded out-of-the-box technology, new and existing source systems can be scanned and reviewed for fit, and migration strategy and design. Upon acquisition, the tool will help to align new sources, map to existing repositories, and generate ETL to complete the migration.

Throughout the process, version-controlled mapping specifications preserve the original state of the converted job and compare changes, while the tool automatically analyzes impacts and views data lineage from imported jobs – complete transparency, offering assurance that everything happened as it should.

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Future Direction / Long-Term Focus

With economic constraints, global recession, and changing technology, the daunting task of managing data through the acquisition process will likely gain momentum than fade away. As companies partner for strength and prosperity, or redefinition of their offerings, finding ways to easily and quickly assess the data landscape will be more important than ever. AnalytiX Data Services is looking to the future with great anticipation as we add more robust features to meet the demand and enable the businesses of the future in their quest to remain viable. With an intuitive user interface, open framework that connects to all major tools in the market, and custom service offerings at a fraction of the cost of most vendors, we position our customers for success in the near term and self-reliance in the future.

Results / Conclusion

Oscar Wilde once said “Discontent is the first step in the progress of man or a nation”, at AnalytiX Data Services, we began out of discontent with cumbersome and time consuming processes associated with data management, and set out to make progress. Companies that manage the complex integration that comes from joining disparate data sources through the acquisition process using spreadsheets will continue to find discontent in their ability to make sound decisions early in the process, quickly assess the data landscape, and ultimately in their ability to deliver as planned. Continued pursuits with the same results; human error, lack of visibility, lack of control, lack of governance and consistency, and ultimately extended timelines and budgets will motivate them to progress. If you had the option to solve this problem forever, for less than you might pay in annual maintenance on your other integration tools, why wouldn’t you choose progress? Change your future, give your company the edge - choose AnalytiX Mapping Manager.

We’re here to help: www.analytixds.com or (800) 603-4790

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Appendices

Appendix A – Scenarios

Below is a graphical depiction of the efficiency gains experienced by an actual AnalytiX Data

Services client, in the same scenario experienced by many merger/acquisition efforts. Note the

significant reduction in work effort, and exponential cost reduction for the effort – this can be

scaled up or down, the gain remains.

Appendix B – Features Sample (those highlighted in Blue are key to performing M&A integration)

Manage and Reuse System Metadata

Import Existing Excel Mapping Specifications

View technical and business definitions from metadata browser

Role Based Security

Import/Export Mapping Specifications

Store and share project management

Reuse and share commonly used transformation logic

View Mapping Spec resource assignments and statuses

Store and share system documentation

Manage Project Resources and Users

Track the status of mapping specifications

Drag and Drop user interface

Store and manage mapping Specifications versions

Perform impact analysis of Tables, Columns and Transformations

Supports many to many relationships

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Advanced mapping specifications comparison capabilities

View data lineage across the enterprise

Print ,share and collaborate on Mapping Specifications

Manage Enterprise Transformations at a governance level

View change and version history

Automates Creation of ETL Jobs for major ETL tools (Informatica, DataStage, Etc.)

Automates import of ETL jobs as mapping specifications (Informatica, DataStage, others)

Print Reports: Mapping Spec, Project Report & System Analysis Report

Integration with Erwin

Supports Excel upload capabilities to store system metadata

Built in Metadata scanners for all major database vendors

Seamless install

No Prerequisite ETL Tool Version requirement

Define, maintain and upload data dictionary for systems

Advanced search and filtering capabilities

Central Repository for integration project documentation

Import System Metadata

Customizable integrated data grid

Preview data Capabilities from Metadata Browser

Certified to run on Linux based environments (Ubuntu and Red Hat)

Certified on internal repository Oracle DBMS and new versions of SQLServer

Enhanced change log tracking and other features

Appendix C – Authors

Samuel T. Benedict – AnalytiX Data Services, Vice President – Strategic Accounts

Michael Boggs – AnalytiX Data Services, Chief Technology Officer and Founder

Appendix D – AnalytiX Data Services Solution Collateral

AnalytiX Mapping Manager Solution Collateral 1. SlideShare Tool Overview: http://www.slideshare.net/AnalytixDataServices 2. YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpNxdxBJEOIb91c_EhewpzA?feature=vmdshb Content: Analytix Mapping Manager 3 minute Introduction Video..

3. Bloor Research Article Link: http://www.bloorresearch.com/analysis/11809/analytix-mapping-manager-missing-link-moving-data.html

4. Informatica Marketplace - Analytix Entry in the Marketplace Informatica’s marketplace is a forum for complementary software solutions to be featured and purchased on-line. AnalytiX Data Services won GRAND PRIZE for the overall marketplace among more than 600+ solutions and across 8 categories.

Link: https://community.informatica.com/solutions/1077?cid=ADS

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