Approach
Stabilize, decide, then migrate — in that order
Most post-deal systems work fails because it starts with migration. We start with keeping the business running, then make the hard decisions with clean information, then move subscribers in waves. Thirty, sixty, ninety days.
Days 0–30: Stabilize
Goal: stop the bleeding. Nobody consolidates systems that are actively on fire.
- Freeze non-critical system changes across both stacks
- Stand up daily billing reconciliation with a staffed exception queue
- Map the money path per legacy system: order → provision → bill → collect
- Create a single incident and triage view across both companies' tickets
- Protect cash: dunning, payment application, and credit workflows keep running untouched
- Name an integration lead with the authority to say no — to vendors and to internal politics
Days 30–60: Choose the system of record
Goal: a vendor-neutral decision, per domain, written down. Not one vendor for everything — one system of record for billing, one for CRM, one for provisioning, one for dispatch. Decide each on its merits.
- Score each candidate system against fit criteria: billing accuracy under your rate structures, provisioning coverage, field workflow fit, data model, migration cost, exit cost
- Kill the compromise where every vendor "wins something" — that's how you keep four systems
- Write the decision memo: what was chosen, what was retired, why, and what it costs over five years
- Announce one system of record per domain, with an owner accountable for it
Days 60–90: Wave-migrate
Goal: move subscribers in controlled cohorts with a way back.
- Pilot with one market or node — low-complexity subscribers first
- Validate the six data domains before each wave: identity, service address, equipment, rate codes, balances and credits, contract terms
- Run the cutover checklist: parallel billing reconciliation, support briefed, comms ready
- Define rollback criteria in advance: billing error rate above tolerance, provisioning backlog beyond hours — then honor them
- Measure what matters: days sales outstanding, billing exceptions, truck rolls per install, support handle time
What we don't do
- Big-bang cutovers — moving every subscriber at once is a bet, not a plan
- Vendor-led "transformations" — we take no commissions and sell no software
- AI theater — no pilots until the CRM, billing, and plant records agree with each other