What we solve ·How do I build something that later runs on its own?
Vanguard · Guide
How do you separate systems against a date that cannot move?
We closed the acquisition and systems have to be separated without breaking service.
Operational separation and integration against a date imposed by contract, led by someone who has already separated the technology of a divested bank.
Post merger integrationSend this page to whoever decides
This sounds like you if
- You have a separation date written into the purchase agreement.
- You inherited an integration plan with no technical owner.
- The transition services agreement is expiring and the inventory of what is left is not closed.
Use this today, without hiring anyone
The order of the waves, which is where the outcome gets decided before execution starts. What gets cut first is not the easiest or the most visible: it is what depends least on other things and blocks the most of what follows. Before day one, not during, three things have to be resolved.
- Who provides each shared service after closing. Payroll, email, network, help desk, backup. Each one with the name of the responsible organization and an exit date.
- Which contract breaks on change of control. Licenses, managed services, capacity leases. It is the most expensive surprise and it shows up by reading, not by executing.
- Who decides to roll back if the cutover goes wrong. One person, with authority over both organizations, and the rollback criterion written before the window.
With those three answers in writing, anyone can order their own waves. Without them, the best project plan is a wish list.
How we solve it
The method, not the promise.
- What is entangled with what, and what breaks if it is cut, gets mapped.
- The waves get ordered against the contractual date, treated as a hard constraint.
- The transition services agreement gets specified from the operational side, with an exit date per service.
- The cutover gets rehearsed before the cutover, with a rollback criterion written and signed.
- The separated operation gets stabilized and handed back to your team, with the firm's exit date written into the contract.
What you receive
- The separability diagnosis.
- The wave plan against the contractual date.
- The operational specification of the transition agreement.
- The log of the cutover rehearsals, with what failed.
- The evidence file for the regulator where it applies.
The proof that applies here
- The systems separation in one of the largest bank divestitures in Latin America: 100% of systems cut over on the legal day, zero failures and zero regulatory findings.
- A transition services agreement closed service by service, without a single cutover rollback.
- Eight years without findings with regulators.
Before you hire
The first thing reviewed is whether the calendar left is enough to separate without risk. If it is not, you are told before signing, along with the calendar that would be: a legal date that cannot be met costs you more than it costs anyone.
There is no precedent for this transaction inside your organization. That is why the internal plan gets built on assumptions. The problem has no precedent; the method does, and it has already been executed against a legal closing date that could not move.
Of the services the two parties share today, which one still has no named owner for the day after closing?
If the problem is a different one
The financial diligence is done. Nobody looked at whether the operation survives the day after.
Technology and operations due diligence
We know that if it goes down, it goes down. No one has wanted to write what happens next.
Operational readiness diagnostic
We were told to bring the budget down and every owner defends their application.
Technology spend rationalization